publications
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I was asked by my church leadership a while back to write something based on the prayer from chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah to be used in a sermon series on the prophet’s story. Requests like that are always tricky, but I accepted and, having managed it, I read the piece at the
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Hard to believe The Ambulance Box was officially published a year ago today. A lot has happened in that time, personally and professionally. I’ve met some great people virtually and face to face, outsold Keats, been shortlisted for a significant poetry book prize, reviewed here and there and delighted to have seen the collection chosen
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And to prove it, here they are: Are they no bonnie? I like ’em every bit as much as the hardbacks. Chris and Jen do a great job on their books, regardless of what format they’re in. And, for all my professed reservations about prizes, it does feel good to have Shortlisted for the 2009
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To celebrate the fact that The Ambulance Box is now available in paperback (£9.99, but there’s 20% off at the Salt online shop, of course), here’s that wonderful track from The Beatles. The harmonies! The guitar riff! Is there a more exemplary pop song?
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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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It was a week for anthologies last week, what with the Forward book arriving in the post and the launch of The Golden Hour Book Vol ii at Blackwell’s on South Bridge (the old James Thin shop, for those who remember that much-lamented Edinburgh institution of yore). The GH book is a triumph, I have to
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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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A wee update on the launch of The Golden Hour Book ii: the readers will be Aiko Harman, Robert Alan Jamieson, Alan Gillis, Julia Boll and me. The two Alans are well worth hearing. I’m not familiar with Aiko or Julia’s work, so I’m looking forward to hearing some writers new to me. It’s at
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On Friday 25th, I’ll be back at Blackwell’s to read at the launch of The Golden Hour Book ii, an anthology of poetry, prose and music (it comes with a CD) by writers and musicians who have appeared at the eponymous literary cabaret, held in The Forest Cafe. It should be a good evening. The
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Just received my contributor’s copies of Poetry Scotland issue 62. “All New Scottish” consists entirely of work by writers from Scotland who haven’t featured in the magazine before. I have two poems in there: “MacAdam’s Lament for Island Life” and “Onding”. Hard to believe, perhaps, that I’ve never been in PS, but I’d just never
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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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The Ambulance Box is being reprinted! The final copies of the initial print run were delivered to me on Saturday (that’s another story I’ll tell in a post about StAnza) and a reprint of the hardback will be available in the next few weeks. We had discussed reprinting in paperback, but apparently an order for
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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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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”
Amy Jo Philip 