News, reviews, recommendations

FLASH

Post-Everything, Day 186 (flash) published on Flash Frontier in Dec 2020.

I’ve also had a flash On the Filthy Side on Ellipsis, on 17 Feb 2021.

POETRY

The Secret of Invisibility and The Sleep-Snatcher in SurVision Issue #8 in Jan 2021.

My vispo-influenced poem See in Streetcake, issue 71,part 2 in Feb 2021.

I’ve also had another vispo-influenced poem An amber star taken for Ethel 8, due out in summer 2021.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I’m delighted to have three photos from a series ‘Winter Wonder’ included (page 30) in Littoral Magazine Candlemas issue in Feb 2021.

Another photo, ‘distant light’, is in the blizzard themed issue ix of Nightingale & Sparrow, Feb 2021. The online version can be found here, with my photo in the Creative Non-fiction section between Dagger and Weathering the storm. The print edition is available on Amazon here.

POETRY FILM

I was really delighted last year to add a few lines to the collaborative Redditch Borough Poem, which has now been turned into a short poetry film here.

REVIEWS

I’m absolutely delighted to have reviewed two fabulous recent 4word titles: Pretty in Pink by Ruth Aylett and Every Day I Promise Myself by Rachel Davies.

From my review of Pretty in Pink:

‘[…]Reading and re-reading Pretty in Pink, I found myself underlining so many striking images and phrases. It is impossible to neatly sum up any pamphlet in a review – the poems need to be read directly. But the closest glimpse of the whole of this pamphlet in one snippet is perhaps offered by ‘Anti-Trump demonstration’:

“[…] their electrical shock hits how it is,
burns off dirt and assumptions,
reveals the shine of how it can be.”’

From my review of Every Day I Promise Myself:

‘If I had to pick just one quote that comes closest to encapsulating the essence of the whole pamphlet, it might be the following from the second poem, ‘How To Wind A Fat Gold Watch’:

“Open yourself like a rose that the ladybird will crawl into
then fold your petals around it like a womb.

Empty the lap of your life to make a beanbag soft seat
for a story. Share with her your own story,
the stories of your grandmothers.”

This is definitely a pamphlet that calls to be read, re-read, savoured and shared!’

The full reviews can be found here.

INTERVIEW

I was delighted to be interviewed by the fabulous Abegail Morley for her Creativity in Lockdown series on The Poetry Shed. It includes some of the ways I’ve got through lockdown, tips for trying to stay motivated and alternative sources of inspiration.

Endorsement for Maggie Mackay A West Coast Psalter (Kelsay Books, 2021)

Last year I was delighted to be asked to read and write an endorsement for Maggie Mackay’s manuscript A West Coast Psalter, which has just been published by Kelsay Books. My endorsement is below and you can buy the collection here.

“A West Coast Psalter is vivid with piercing, moving details and vibrant characters. Just as the opening image’s sheets balloon ‘like tides, like sails’, these poems transport the reader across the world and through history, inviting us into childhood memories, wonder-filled glimpses of nature and the knack of many trades and crafts. The lines are alive with breath-taking imagery, atmospheric tones and beautiful, joyous and energetic yet controlled sounds and emotions. Like the suitcase in ‘Sisters’ Song’, Maggie Mackay’s poetry ‘brims with stories | and cotton, needles and threads’ that invite us to ‘keek around the door into dawn’s blether’ and other varied landscapes and lives. ‘Waves on waves linger beyond |the curved earth’, and beyond the narrative arcs and striking gathering of poems in this rich selection. Mackay’s A West Coast Psalter is a fabulous debut collection and a distinctive, unforgettable read.”

Add comment February 20, 2021