magazines
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My contributor’s copy of Magma Poetry issue 51 arrived in the post today. It’s my Magma debut, with one new poem, “Fallen Icons of the Angel Barbie”, and I’m rather stunned to be named on the front cover alongside Selima Hill, Gillian Clarke, Penelope Shuttle and Pascale Petit. Rob A Mackenzie and Polly Clark also
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Was it Wigtown the last time I blogged? Good heavens! A month is far too long in blog land, isn’t it? Well, I suppose that gives me a neat little link to this post, which is mainly to say that, if you’re anywhere near the National Library of Scotland on Thursday, you should come down
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I had an amazing weekend at Wigtown Book Festival. My previous experience of the town, described here, could not have been any more of a contrast. There was a real buzz about the place and, unsurprisingly, I kept bumping into people I know from the literary scene. The town seemed to have come into its
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On Saturday, I had the unusual experience of simultaneously receiving a rejection and my latest publication. I won’t say which magazine the rejection was from, but the publication was in Silk Road, an American magazine whose poetry editor was, until recently, Robert Peake. It’s a well produced magazine, full of completely unfamiliar names to me,
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Fear not, dear friends: this is not me fessing up to an alcohol problem. No, in fact, it is simply to say that I’m taking part in Gutter magazine‘s “A Night in the Gutter” cabaret evening at Wigtown Book Festival. The other readers will be Rodge Glass — whom I met for the first time
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I’ve just seen that the latest Magma e-newsletter includes a rather lovely mention of The Ambulance Box in Jacqueline Saphra’s article on catharsis in poetry. She says: There are countless poems or collections that successfully achieve the cathartic effect — for me at least — so I thought I’d do a whistle-stop tour of just
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Issue 5 of Salt’s flagship online literary magazine, Horizon, has just hit the screens. It’s the first under the editorship of Katy Evans-Bush and it’s packed with poems, fiction, drama, reviews and essays from a really strong line-up of contributors, including Rob A Mackenzie, Ira Lightman, Ian Duhig, Julia Bird … I could go on,
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Tania Hershman’s The White Road and Other Stories is a wide-ranging and imaginative debut collection of short fiction, some of it very short. Much of this moving, gripping, entertaining and thought-provoking work is inspired by articles from the New Scientist, making it a unique fusion of the two cultures. I was thrilled when Tania agreed
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Michelle McGrane has been generous enough to offer to post a couple of poems from The Ambulance Box on her blog Peony Moon. You can now read “The Invention of Zero” and “Lullaby” on there, along with blurby bits and a short bio. Many thanks, Michelle! It’s turned into quite an encouraging week on the
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An even happier national poetry day than normal here, as I can reveal that The Ambulance Box has been shortlisted for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize! I’m joined on the shortlist by Forward nominee and fellow Salt author Siân Hughes, Forward nominee J O Morgan, Templar poet Dawn Wood and a name new to me:
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My contributors copy of The Edinburgh Review 127 arrived in the post on Thursday. This issue is dedicated to Iraq and includes five of my Scots translations of poems from Sinan Antoon‘s The Baghdad Blues. I had the pleasure of meeting Sinan when he was in Edinburgh for the Reel Iraq festival. I’ve not had
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The first print review of The Ambulance Box is in! It’s part of a piece in Magma 44, where Rosie Shepperd reviews it alongside Paula Meehan’s Painting Rain (Carcanet) and River Wolton’s The Purpose of Your Visit (Smith/Doorstop Books). The review is thorough and extremely positive. Here’s a headline quote: delights readers with a dance
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The first issue of the new Salt webzine Horizon Review, edited by Jane Holland, is now online. It includes one poem of mine, “On Your Arrival“, as well as two poems by Rob Mackenzie, and work by Katy Evans-Bush, George Szirtes and Alison Brackenbury to name only a few. There are also fiction, reviews and
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A letter arrived the other day informing me that issue 63 of The Rialto is at the printers. Exciting news, as it’s the first time I’ll have had a poem in the magazine and, therefore, the first time I’ll have been published in an English magazine. Not that I think it’s better than a Scottish
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It’s worth taking 10 minutes to listen to the interview with Fiona Sampson from Woman’s Hour last week, helpfully drawn to my attention by my wife. She has quite a few interesting nuggets to share about poetry and editing Poetry Review. It’s encouraging to hear that she reads all the roughly 60,000 unsolicited submissions that
Amy Jo Philip 