Unspooling language spaghetti or mashing it up?
Voices of Jewish and Muslim Writers at Nottingham Festival of Literature raised interesting questions about writers’ uses of language, form and choices of subject. Iranian born Michael Merdad Zand Anchian’s … Continue reading
Matthew Welton’s The Number Poems
After hearing Nottingham’s Matthew Welton give an exuberant performance of poems from his new Carcanet collection on National Poetry Day last month I knew that this book had to be my next poetry read.
Furious Answers and other new poems
I took part in the Ekphrastic Review’s 20 poem challenge last month. My poem ‘Furious Answers’ was written in response to the painting The Answer is No by Kay Sage (USA), 1958.
Highly commended
We are delighted that our Bloomsbury publication Making Poetry Happen has been awarded Highly Commended in the UKLA Academic Book Award (after being shortlisted back in January 2016). The awards ceremony takes place this weekend (9th July) at UKLA conference in Bristol. I would like to thank all of our many contributors to Making Poetry Happen for their wonderful chapters and evident commitment to making poetry happen in so many varied contexts.
Star Trek, Drafting & Pat Barker
We went to hear novelist Pat Barker speak on Thursday. She was in fine conversation with Sharon Monteith at Nottingham Playhouse in a benefit for Nottingham Unesco City of … Continue reading
Rain Won’t
Last week I made a new poetry discovery which is always a thrilling thing: the poem ‘Rain Won’t’ by Kenji Miyazawa, one of Japan’s foremost 20th century poets. Miyazawa’s last … Continue reading
Building Bridges
Delighted to have a chapter on ‘Integrating poetry-focused digital technology within a literacy teacher education course’ in this fine new publication.
Taking new poems for a swim
New poems never really come alive until they have been taken out for a swim and I’ve heard someone laugh at them or groan or even applaud.
