It's just over a week since I launched the found text poetry booklet found ~ flow ~ flux into the world. This was the culmination of my project, which was commissioned earlier this year by Wandsworth Council. Held in the same room where I'd run the workshops back in June, the launch was such a …
Continue reading found ~ flow ~ flux launched into the world
I began writing this post on Thursday 2nd June, but life, specifically Covid*, intervened. Now, very belatedly, here's my account of the Manchester Writing Competition Gala Prize-giving Ceremony... which has the aura of a dream to me. An almost out-of-body experience. And I was only a judge! After months of reading hundreds of stories, rereading …
Just a few weeks ago I met up with my fellow 2021 Manchester Fiction Prize judges Nicholas Royle and Simon Okotie to decide on the overall winner from our shortlist of six stories. Over the previous months we'd read hundreds of stories, and then gradually whittled our unofficial longlist down to six via email. It's …
When I saw a call-out earlier this year for artists' proposals to make new work in Nine Elms on the theme of 'movement + metamorphosis', I knew I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I've been following the changing nature of the area around me for years, and here was a chance for …
Continue reading making art – and finding poetry – in Nine Elms
What a buzz it was to read to a real live audience last Thursday. Around 16 people attended my reading at Putney Library and it could hardly have gone better. There was applause! There were smiling faces! There was even a Bravo! I split my set into three sections, reading first from Triptych Poets, followed …
Late last year Stephen Graham, with whom I collaborated on the booklet indoors looking out, mentioned he was planning a show of new work at Putney Library, and that there was an empty display case in the library, which he suggested I could use to showcase some of my books and any related visual material. …
Continue reading a display, a reading, and a little poetry news
It's not been the easiest year, but here are a few things that have brought me joy: Flickerbook by Leila Berg, published by CB editions. I have read quite a lot this year but this is the book that immediately comes to mind as my favourite. I loved it from the very first page. Berg's …
I'm beyond delighted that my short story, The Red Suitcase, is included in Best British Short Stories 2021 edited by Nicholas Royle and published by Salt Publishing. The Red Suitcase was originally published as a limited edition short-story chapbook by Nightjar Press in October 2020, but is now sold out. Over the last few weeks I've been …
On Tuesday, I led the last of five poetry taster workshops at Battersea Park Library. Considering I first started planning these with the library staff nearly two years ago, this feels like quite an achievement. We'd aimed to start in early spring 2020, but we all know what happened. Personally, it's also an achievement, as …
Today is Wombat Day, a day to celebrate those wonderful marsupials found only in Australia. The only time I remember seeing a wombat in the wild was as a child, on a slushy snowy mountainside, possibly Mt Buller, on a day trip with my family. It was probably the first time I'd seen snow too. …
Hilaire 