Earlier this year I received my contributor copy of a new anthology from Grey Hen Press, Two Ravens - Explorations of mind and memory. It's a substantial and impressive collection exploring its important themes from many different angles, through poems written by older women poets. I'm honoured that my poem The Sheffield Man is included …
Category: reading
Engelchen – my mid-year highlight
Joolz Sparkes and I were thrilled to be part of Alison Cotton's Engelchen event at this year's Wandsworth Arts Fringe - a real highlight of my year so far. https://londonundercurrents.wordpress.com/2024/06/29/refugee-angels-celebrated-in-music-poetry-and-letters-home/?page_id=2781
shedding light on (older) women poets
The Second Light Network aims to promote, encourage and highlight women poets, who traditionally have been underrepresented in the 'canon' and still struggle to pack the same punch as the big boys of the poetry world. As women still largely bear the burden of childcare, and caring more generally, finding the time and resources to …
ending the year on a reading high
I've read a lot this year, including around 400 short stories for the Manchester Fiction Prize in the first few months of 2022. As a writer it's often hard for me to switch off the critical/analytical part of my brain when reading, so finding the right book to read in bed before sleep can be …
busy as a Battersea bee
Once upon a time large areas of Battersea were covered in market gardens and lavender fields. The air must have thrummed with bees and other pollinators. Bees feature in the mosaic tiled floors at Battersea Arts Centre, no doubt referring back to these earlier times, but also, like Manchester, an acknowledgement of the role of …
workflow
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 …
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
Best British Short Stories 2021
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 …
Hilaire 