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 …
Category: London
making art – and finding poetry – in Nine Elms
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
that live vibe
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 …
a display, a reading, and a little poetry news
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
Poetry taster workshops – TICK
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 …
Remembering my friend Jeanine one year on
Jeanine: a portrait in some of her own words Wowee, dear friend,a year since you passed oninto that spirit worldI have no inkling of. How about that?I bet you’re laughingat our lot, these politicianswith their blabberyab and lies. Holyschmoly, how I missyour sharp tongue and your mischief;our tête-à-têtes peppered with un peu de français,ein bißchen Deutsch. And who could forget your …
Tube now arriving at Battersea Power Station station
The new Northern Line extension from Kennington to Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station opened this morning. I've lived in Battersea for a long time, and for most of that time I never thought the mooted tube line would arrive, so I was not going to miss this historic day. The first tube out of …
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writing local / local writing
I'm happy to have a poem included in a new anthology, Words of Wandsworth, edited by Emily Zinkin, and supported by Wandsworth Libraries and Heritage Service and Moishe House. The anthology includes poems, short stories, art and photography by Wandsworth residents, with each contribution featuring an aspect of the borough of Wandsworth in some way. …
January was my August
I've been thinking about that 'back to school' feeling that many on this side of the world associate with the end of August and the beginning of September. For me, as I grew up in Australia, January was the long summer school holidays and the new school year began in February. August was winter, and …
June Review
June was a busy and rewarding month for me. The Wandsworth Heritage Festival, postponed from last year, kicked off at the end of May, and on the third of June Joolz Sparkes and I gave an online reading from our co-authored poetry collection London Undercurrents. We'd chosen poems that related in one way or another …
Hilaire 