British writing
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I’m rather chuffed today to see the full contents for the forthcoming Salt Publishing anthology The Best British Poetry 2011. It’s quite a roster of many of the best new and emerging poets from the UK, with plenty familiar names and a good number that are new to me. It is particularly pleasing that my sequence
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I’ve just watched one of the most quietly beautiful films I’ve seen: “Basil Bunting”, Peter Bell’s 1982 film portrait of the Northumbrian modernist master, which comes bundled along with the new Bloodaxe edition of Briggflatts. The tone reminded me in some ways of “Into Great Silence” for the way it concentrates the mind on the
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Yesterday, my copy of The Forward Book of Poetry 2010 arrived through the post. And a lovely job they’ve done of it too. The cover design is strong, elegant, and simple; the book is pleasantly thick and chunky in the hand. Indeed, the back cover proclaims it “the biggest yet” of the Forward books, with
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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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The programme for the the Debut Authors Festival 2007 came through the door this week. This year’s festival has a 100% increase on the 2006 poet count: there are two–namely Daljit Nagra and Annie Freud–but that’s still one down on 2005. Also as with last year, the poets are mainstreamed into the programme alongside the
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I’ve been musing a little about the usefulness or otherwise of the term “mainstream” in relation to Scottish poetry. I think it’s fair to say that, in UK terms, Hugh MacDiarmid would not be regarded as mainstream. His non-mainstream status is emphasised by the fact that he turns up in the marvellous PENNsound archive, which
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Gists and Piths is a newish British poetry and poetics blogzine, which seems to lean towards the experimental. I haven’t read the poetry on the site, but I enjoyed “Some thoughts on the mainstream” and the review of Daljit Nagra‘s book (which I also haven’t read yet). Should be worth following this blog’s development.
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1 I recommend a listen to this week’s edition of “Poets and the Nation”. It’s a good, intelligent piece of broadcasting about how cultural change in Scotland has been reflected in poetry through the ages. It bounces about time a bit more than last week’s, which is one thing in its favour. 2 Radio 3
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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
Amy Jo Philip 