poetry
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My poem “45 Minutes” has just been posted on the Artisan Initiatives website. It was written for the Artisan magazine time-themed issue, but they couldn’t fit in. Never mind, I’m happy with online publication and very pleased to contribute. However, when you read it, bear in mind that each of the lines beginning “time enough”…
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A big moment here yesterday: my contract from Salt for The Ambulance Box came through. It feels such a significant point to have reached; the book is that next step closer to becoming a reality! I was almost as excited as when Chris Hamilton-Emery accepted it! (You can tell by the number of exclamation marks…
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Just heard the excellent news that Dedalus Press in Dublin will be publishing my friend Ray Givans next year. Ray has had several small press publications previously, but this will be his first full collection. I’m delighted our first collections will be out in the same year.
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My time for the “Four Hour Festival” event has been confirmed: I’m on at 15:00 and it’s a 10-minute set. Plenty time to get myself organised for that. The event is open to prose as well as poetry and I’ve no idea what the balance between the two will be, but it should be fun.…
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Dropped into the Scottish Poetry Library to pick up a couple of the books on the shortlist for the Forward best first collection prize. I’ve decided to focus on that prize because of the stage I’m at in my own publishing history. Frances Leviston‘s and Andrew Forster‘s books were the only two from the list…
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In the past few days, this year’s Forward Prize shortlists have been announced. Here they are in full: Main PrizeJamie McKendrick – Crocodiles & Obelisks (Faber)Sujata Bhatt – Pure Lizard (Carcanet)Mick Imlah – The Lost Leader (Faber)Jane Griffiths- Another Country (Bloodaxe)Jen Hadfield – Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)Catherine Smith – Lip (Smith Doorstop) First Book Simon Barraclough –…
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Just discovered this page of interview excerpts from a small gathering of big-name poets. It’s something of a mixed bunch to my eye (no great fan of Betjeman, me), but it looks worth investigating and at least it’s pretty international. I’ll certainly be commenting on Walcott‘s remarks on rhyme at some point once I’ve digested…
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You know, I haven’t written anything for weeks. It’s not a case of writer’s block as much as one of writer’s break, one of those fallow periods you have now and then. In past years, I’ve found the summer a surprisingly unproductive season: I never write on holiday (so I no longer expect myself to);…
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Jane McKie’s Knucker Press launches what looks like an interesting new pamphlet tonight: Way Out by Victoria Macrae. Here’s what the press’s website has to say about it: In early 2008 Victoria Macrae spent 65 days, 19 hours and 37 minutes as an in-patient in Ward 6 of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. During this period…
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Shore Poets on Sunday went head to head with the Euro 2008 finals. That, coupled with the start of the holidays, might well have had something to do with the somewhat reduced numbers. I have to say, it was a cracker of an evening. The new poet, Simon Pomery, was one of the best we’ve…
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There’s an extensive, thoughtful and very positive review of the sampler over at Jim Murdoch’s ever stimulating blog The Truth about Lies. Jim comments on each of the poems in turn, as well as on general aspects of the pamphlet as an object and collection. This is the paragraph that most interests me: As a…
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Somehow, I had missed until the middle of this week the news that Edwin Morgan has won this year’s Sundial Scottish Arts Council book of the year award for A Book of Lives. Shame on me! Not having read the collection–or any of the other finalists, for that matter–I can’t comment on its merits, but…
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Four poems by Matt Merritt, whose fine HappenStance pamphlet Making the Most of the Light came out in 2005 and whose first full collection Troy Town was published by Arrowhead earlier this year, have just been added to Alex Pryce’s fantastic PoetCasting website. Well worth a listen. PoetCasting itself has just had some good very…
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A week past Tuesday, I went to the launch of Angela McSeveney‘s new Mariscat pamphlet Slaughtering Beetroot at the Scottish Poetry Library. I can safely say it’s the only launch I’ve been to where beetroot cake was on offer. Angela had baked it herself, and it was, you may say, delicious. And the poetry was…
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It’s been a momentous week in this neck of the woods. As you’ll know if you’ve been following this blog for a while, I’ve been working on a full collection of poetry, swapping manuscripts with Rob A Mackenzie and submitting to publishers. On Tuesday, the collection–The Ambulance Box–was accepted by Salt, who propose to publish…
Amy Jo Philip 