Review of Gerry Cambridge’s The Ayrshire Nestling
With thanks, as ever, to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie, and also to Helena Nelson for a helpful point of clarification, my first review of the year is up at The Friday Poem – of Gerry Cambridge’s...
View ArticleJanuary reading (2)
My further exploration of Dorianne Laux’s oeuvre has continued with Only as the Day is Long, her 2019 ‘New and Selected Poems’ (Norton). I’m surprised that no British publisher has brought out an...
View ArticleReview of Sue Hubbard’s God’s Little Artist
In contemplating writing creatively about the life and death of a real person, famous or otherwise, one has (a minimum of) six key decisions to make, the last four of which are dependent on the first...
View ArticleFebruary reading
Another book which has been sitting on my TBR shelf has at last, and happily, pushed its way into my hands: Don Paterson’s Smith, sub-titled ‘A Reader’s Guide to the Poetry of Michael Donaghy’,...
View ArticlePoem in The Fig Tree – ‘Comedians’ Comedian’
With thanks to editor Tim Fellows, I’m delighted to have a poem in another fine issue of The Fig Tree, here. The poems by the featured poet, Calder Valley Poetry’s Bob Horne, are marvellous,...
View ArticleLaunch of The Fig Tree Anthology 2024 and Crooked Spire Press
As one of the contributors, I’ll be reading at the launch of The Fig Tree Anthology 2024 in Doncaster on Saturday 26 April. The anthology is a print collation of poems which featured in the first five...
View ArticleMarch reading
I’ve continued my merry way through the novels of Rupert Thomson by reading his debut novel, from way back in 1987: Dreams of Leaving. There’s a good summary of its plot and themes here. Its London-set...
View ArticleReview of Hannah Copley’s Lapwing
With thanks, as ever, to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie, my review of Lapwing (Liverpool University Press, 2024) by Hannah Copley is up at The Friday Poem, here.
View ArticleOn another haiku by Simon Chard
the day’s gentle start lesser celandines This is the winning haiku, and therefore featured, haiku for April on this year’s Haiku Calendar, still very much worth buying from Snapshot Press, here....
View ArticleThe Last Corinthians
It’s taken me a long time to assemble my second collection of longer-form poems into a coherent state, eight years since my first. I’m delighted to say that it will be published this June, by a new,...
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