American writing
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Isn’t technology astounding? Wednesday night’s inaugural Transatlantic Poetry on Air reading was a wonderful combination of the hi-tech and the intimate. It felt as if I was reading to Michelle Bitting and Robert Peake alone, and yet I was reading to people from both sides of the Atlantic and possibly even from all over the
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Don’t forget to join me, Michelle Bitting and host Robert Peake for the first ever Transatlantic Poetry on Air reading this evening at 8 pm UK time. The event page is here. There will also be prizes for those who tweet using the hashtag #TApoetry during the live broadcast.
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Thanks to Robert Peake, I’m in the Huff again. That is, his interview with me and Rob A Mackenzie is now available in the culture section of the Huffington Post’s UK edition. I am hugely grateful to Robert for taking the time to ask us some penetrating and stimulating questions. In other news, I’ll be
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This is an edited version of a piece that Elspeth wrote for the Scottish Poetry Library‘s Poetry Reader newsletter last year: On the road touring across the USA and Canada as production manager with Puppet State Theatre Company, my bedside book collection a) moves from one hotel nightstand to another on an almost weekly basis b) overlaps
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In common with many in the poetry blogosphere, I was shocked and sadened to read that the American poet, critic and blogger Reginald Shepherd died this week, aged only 45. The news came to me through Ron Silliman‘s blog, which is fitting, as it was a link from a post of his that first took
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Elmar Kuiper, one of this year’s StAnza readers, videoed various other festival participants reading around St Andrews. There’s a selection on the StAnza Facebook pages and the whole lot is on Kuiper’s YouTube pages. I particularly like the intense focus of this one, Brian Turner reading the title poem from his collection Here, Bullet:
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Rob A Mackenzie got himself in slightly hot water with some comment writers on his blog last week for daring to suggest that he might not consider Magi Gibson’s work poetry. Unfortunately, instead of following the question of what makes a poem a poem, which could have thrown up some interesting ideas and insights, the
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If you’ve been following my and Rob A Mackenzie‘s posts about our manuscript swap, you’ll probably be waiting for the more detailed comments I promised on Rob’s poems*, so here they finally are. There’s a lot of very good stuff in Rob’s MS, with a few really fine poems. Think of Rob A Mackenzie, and
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In the absence of the inclination or opportunity to say anything else at this moment, due to a bout of summer indolence, I’ll highlight a couple of additions to Tonguefire: A list of the poems of mine that are published online. A poll on the Forward best collection prize shortlist (top of the sidebar). Additions
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I discovered some more rich seams of poetry recordings on the web this week. First off, there’s the Internet Poetry Archive, an American site not to be confused with Britain’s Poetry Archive. The Internet Poetry Archive very small, with recordings from only seven poets so far, but some significant names. I was pleased to find
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I’ve added a few new links and rearranged the sidebar a little by creating a “Poetry Resources” section, not that I’m that clear as to what the precise division is between that and “Words”, but there we go. A couple of sites I’ve only just discovered are Modern American Poetry, which contains useful critical material
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The programme for StAnza 2007 is now available. It’s the 10th StAnza, and the line-up is a good ‘un. I’m particularly interested in hearing Jorie Graham, but I’m disappointed that the Eric Gregory Award showcase reading is at a time utterly inaccessible for me. However, I’m appearing in The Gathering: 100 poets reading a poem
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There was a rare opportunity to hear American poet Sharon Olds read for the Poetry Association of Scotland on Wednseday night at the Scottish Poetry Library, so I took it. In the first half of the evening, she read mostly from her Selected Poems. After the interval, the usual PAS order was reversed, with questions
Amy Jo Philip 