Salt
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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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And the first blogly act of 2010 is to congratulate all those shortlisted for Salt’s 2009 Crashaw Prize, not least Ryan Van Winkle, the reader in residence at the Scottish Poetry Library and one of those forces for the good of (Scottish) poetry hid away in the Forest. It is much deserved and I have
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Ron Butlin, the current Edinburgh makar, has chosen The Ambulance Box as one of his books of the year in today’s Sunday Herald. (The piece doesn’t seem to be online so I can’t link to it.) Recommending it alongside Brian McCabe’s Zero, Tom Pow’s Dear Alice and Polly Clark’s intimate and powerful Farewell My Lovely,
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We always knew that the heart of Salt’s sales operation was an immensely technical process to rival Amazon. Watch and be dazzled …
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At last you can see me haver briefly about The Ambulance Box in the video that Jen Hamilton-Emery took before the Northern Salt reading at the Manchester Literature Festival. Here it is in all its autumnal Manucunian glory: Over at the Salt blog, you can also see new videos of Tony Williams (whose book was
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I’m a bit slow on this one, others having blogged it already, but there’s free shipping on all UK orders until Christmas from Salt’s online shop! Not only will it make your present buying easier, but you’ll make Chris, Jen and the rest of the redoubtable Salt team — not to mention the authors — very
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In the latest Scottish Poetry Library podcast, you can hear me discuss my writing, the poets I carry with me and read “Summa” from The Ambulance Box. There’s also piece about the Southbank Centre’s new project, the Global Poetry System plus an interview with my fellow Salt poet Julia Bird. Rather than discussing her writing,
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Got back a couple of days ago from a week away near Manchester, which happened to coincide with the Manchester Literature Festival. There was a fair bit I’d have loved to have seen, but one I certainly couldn’t miss was the Northern Salt reading with my fellow Salt authors Elizabeth Baines, Robert Graham, Mark Illis
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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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Having become conscious that the Salt website it was becoming a microblogosphere of its own, the team have consolidated the Salt Confidential, Salt Office Life and Cyclone Virtual Book Tour blogs into a single smart, new Salt blog. Not only does it have a clean new look, but it feels like the blog has a
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Lullaby this is the arm that held you this is the hand that cradled your cold feet these are the ears that heard you whimper and cough throughout your brush with light this is the chest that warmed you these are the eyes that caught your glimpse of life this is the man you fathered
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Anyone who has read David Gaffney‘s hilarious, dark, moving and imaginative collection of micro fiction Sawn-Off Tales or who enjoyed his sawn-off operas on The Verb a while back will doubtless want to check out his Fringe show, I reckon. Click the flyer image to go to the Fringe web page for the show. ‘Office
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On Facebook at the moment, you can vote for what you think is the most important book Salt has published. It’s a fascinating list. At the moment, Shaindel Beers is way out in front and looking unassailable. (Well done, Shaindel! It is a strong book.) Of course, importance is deeply subjective but that’s half the
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The front page of Salt’s website now carries a top 20 bestsellers list and I’m delighted to say that The Ambulance Box currently comes in at 11, just above Keats (!). Here are the top 10: Tania Hershman, The White Road and Other Stories Chris Agee, Next to Nothing Shaindel Beers, A Brief History of
Amy Jo Philip 