Amy Jo Philip
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Another review! It seems to be my collection’s weekend for reviews, especially ones with a HappenStance connection: Matt Merritt has just posted a wonderfully thoughtful, warm and generous appreciation of The Ambulance Box (the first link above). I’m indebted to him. Matt and I will be reading with Rob A Mackenzie and James W Wood…
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The good news is that Salt’s “Just One Book” campaign is beginning to make a difference. It has even been picked up by the Bookseller, but Chris and Jen are far from out of the woods yet and we need to keep it up. I intend to make a few suggestions for your one book…
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The previous two posts collide in Helena Nelson’s generous review ofThe Ambulance Box and Rob A Mackenzie’s The Opposite of Cabbage over on the HappenStance blog. It’s my first blog review! (Although I’ve already gained a five-star Amazon customer review!) There are also reviews in the pipline or promised from Matt Merritt, Tony Williams and…
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Huge congratulations to Helena Nelson on HappenStance press being shortlisted for the publisher’s award in the inaugural Michael Marks pamphlet awards. It’s much deserved, as Nell has done a huge amount to boost the publishing careers of numerous poets and the world of poetry chapbooks in the UK, not only through her own quality productions…
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Everyone has been hit in some way by the downturn, with the arts suffering a predictable squeeze as Government and business belts tighten all over the place. According to Jane Holland, the UK has lost or is going to lose several poetry presses. It’s a dire time for poetry — indeed, for literature in general…
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Next week, I’ll be returning to the Golden Hour with The Ambulance Box. I can’t help but be flattered by what Ryan Van Winkle has put on the poster: Click on the pic to see the details. It looks like a really good night. Hope to see some of you there. The next gig after…
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Sales of poetry books are down screamed the BBC news website on Wednesday last week, before exhorting us all: but one way to reinvigorate this traditional art form could be to make it functional and going on to suggest that we could re-engage the public with the art of poetry by turning the instructions on…
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StAnza seems so long ago now that it’s almost hardly worth reporting any more on it, but there are a couple of things don’t want to slide into the dim and distant without comment. First and foremost of those is Roddy Lumsden’s reading. I’ve known Roddy since I was a student, since before he published…
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Despite holidaying in Eyemouth, on Thursday last week, I joined most of the other contributors* (inlcuding one of the translators) at the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh to launch 5PX2: Five Italian Poets and Five Scottish Poets. The evening was slightly chaotic but enormous fun. A good-sized audience, too, for a Thursday in holiday time…
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This weekend’s* Saturday poem in The Scotsman was the title poem from The Ambulance Box**. Great publicity for the collection! I’d heard several weeks ago that it was happening and knew the date but it only occurred to me in the middle of the week that it would be the Holy Saturday poem. An appropriate…
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My first event on the Saturday at StAnza was Bill Manhire’s masterclass: a one-off workshop with six writers selected from among a batch of submissions plus an audience. I was in the audience, not having submitted anything. Manhire was warm and engaging while still being quite thorough. As he pointed out, there was no time…
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Summertime (officially), and the temperature’s freezing. That’s Scotland’s wind chill for you. Otherwise, it’s a glorious morning; a fitting follow-up to a good night at the Black Bitch, with Herbie Hancock‘s Maiden Voyage playing in the background. I lost count, but I think there were close to 30 people there. It was mostly Linlithgow folk,…
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Tomorrow night, I’m on home turf to launch The Ambulance Box in Linlithgow’s Black Bitch Inn*. I’m expecting a smaller crowd than at the SPL, but looking forward to it just as much. The event kicks off at 8 pm. There’s a bar and I’ll be reading two 15-minute sets, though I’ve yet to decide…
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An oddity of this year’s StAnza is that one of the most defining events for me was something I wasn’t at. I refer, of course, to the poetry breakfast on the Friday, on the topic “Where are all the Scottish poets under 40?” I was dying to hear about it and asked one or two…
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St Andrews was bathed in glorious sunshine this weekend past for StAnza, even if there was a bit of a chill to the wind. It certainly brought to mind Alastair Reid’s “Scotland”, famously burnt by the man himself two years ago. Reid was there in spirit, as you can hear in the podcast exerpt of…
Amy Jo Philip 