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Poetry School / Pighog Poetry Pamphlet Competition longlist announced
The Poetry School and Pighog are pleased to announce the longlist for their second annual pamphlet competition. After receiving over 600 entries (a big increase on last year’s entries), judges Simon Barraclough and Catherine Smith can reveal the 35 poets on the longlist. Simon Barraclough says of the judging process ‘Arriving at the long-list was…
Poetry School
Summer courses on CAMPUS
Dear CAMPUS poets – our swimming shorts are on and our 12 tog duvets have been stuffed back in the attic. Summer is arriving. The Poetry School’s summer term starts 5 May 2014 and we’ve got lots of new, excellent online courses packed full of powerful poetry prompts and fool-proof exercises to get you all…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)This is the end
So I have come to the end of my residency at the Poetry School. It has been a lot of fun, lots of writing in the evening, lots of editing in the wee weekend hours. A great opportunity, and thanks to all of the staff at the Poetry School for being so supportive and encouraging….
Alex MacDonald
Twit Twit Twit: Charol-Annnnn Dhuffy
One of the great things about Twitter is how people can take on personalities for comic affects. There’s a fake Queen, fake Prince Charles, fake David Cameron, so why not have a fake Carol-Ann Duffy? Young_Laureate’s tweets are hilarious and weird, and have very little to do with C.A.D. (or do they?) but the idiosyncrasies…
Alex MacDonald
‘Is There a Doctor in the House?’ The day in tweets…
[View the story “Is There A Doctor In The House?” on Storify]
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Keep Yes and No Unsplit: the rise of Internet translation
Last year, I was delighted to be asked by SJ Fowler to be part of his Camaradefest (a continuation of his series of events where two poets collaborate on a project) with Jack Underwood, Faber Poet and lecturer on Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College. We merged recent ideas which we were both interested in. Then,…
Alex MacDonald
How I Did It: ‘Fat Dandy’
Most people know me as a “performance poet”. I don’t like the term, it’s rather restrictive and plenty of what I write ends up in books, not on stage. Sound is very important though. I want the poem to sound good, to rattle off the tongue, or fall on the ear like a big, soft…
Luke Wright Twit Twit Twit: Crispin Best
I love Crispin’s tweets. Mainly they are plays on words, puns, or subversions of famous lyrics. It is a great example of how Twitter gives an insight into a poet’s work. Crispin’s work is often presented in a fragmented way, humorous and is sometimes aware when an occasion needs capital letters. So Twitter is a…
Alex MacDonald
Internet Explorer: Is ‘Internet Poetry’ any good?
In my previous post and in my manifesto, I mentioned ‘Internet Poetry’ – but what is it? In this post, I aim to give some distinctions of what this form of poetry is, some good examples, and reasons as to why I think it is a sign of a healthy poetry scene. When I found…
Alex MacDonald
‘The Summer our Father Sailed the English Channel’
The summer our father sailed the English Channel, we rolled packets of Polos into smooth white paper tubes. My sister used her felt tip pens to write EMERGENCY MINTS down each bony spine. You were our polar explorer, arctic adventurer. We charted your route, coloured the curved waves of land, solid blue slab of sea….
Karen Jane Cannon Twit twit twit: Emily Berry
If anyone follows me on Twitter, they will know I am a big fan of Emily’s work since forever. Her debut Dear Boy is a wonderful book, filled with funny and sad poems that I just keep going back to read. Her Twitter feed is an immeasurable joy, and when I first started favouriting tweets…
Alex MacDonald
‘The Certainty of Snow’
i.m.o. Dave Knightley First snow of the New Year and, as ever, the cautious and wary will make as if for a siege; check supplies, tune in for updates, and tut at carefree children who shriek just with the thrill of it. Soon the path to our front door will heave, as laden as…
Babs
Open Workshop: ‘Poetry (in)Formal’
‘How does a mountain occur to you? How can it?’ (‘Towards Suaineabhal’, Nichola Deane) How do you choose a form for your poem? Wrong question. How do you let the form find you? A better approach. Better… but perhaps it’s best to ask how the words find their own form, and, at their best, become…
Will Barrett (Poetry School) Twit twit twit: George Szirtes
Many young poets and writers have been influenced/taught by George through his time at the University of East Anglia. Others will be more acquainted with his prize-winning book Reel and his extensive translation projects. I first came across him on Twitter, to be honest. I thoroughly enjoy his tweets about what it’s like to be…
Alex MacDonald‘The Time-Traveller Writes’
As I promised you, time can be re-written: this letter from old age to youth, to tell just how you’ll never know or need to write to warn a younger self than one who writes to you. No need, then, to be a different man: begin as if you knew to tread a surer…
Paul ArmitageLive Q&A with Sam Riviere: ‘Even if it’s Just to Talk: The poet as collaborator’
How much should a poet work outside their comfort zone? What can the writer learn by using other art forms – other than their own – to express themselves? And, with increasing access to the internet and the ability to work together real time, should the poet collaborate with other writers as much as they…
Poetry School
Meet the Doctors: Alireza Abiz
An Interview with Alireza Abiz
The seventh of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poets is Alireza Abiz. Alireza manages a translation business in Tehran and is currently working on his PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Newcastle University. Tell us about your PhD. Alireza: My PhD is a practice-based PhD in Creative Writing – Poetry. It consists of two main components:…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)‘The New Violence’
So this comes from a place of love. The world has brought us to a place where to be sincere is to look foolish. Self-image has become so tangled with creation that the end result suffers and serves only to reinforce the unnerving feeling that nothing is really real anymore. Anyone who creates in this way…
Emma Hammond
Meet the Doctors: A B Jackson
An Interview with A B Jackson
The sixth of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poets is A B Jackson, who is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. Tell us about your PhD. Andrew: As it stands (and these things tend to shift over time) my thesis focuses on representations of polar exploration in contemporary poetry. By…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)
Meet the Doctors: Lisa Matthews
An Interview with Lisa Matthews
The fifth of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poets is Lisa Matthews. Primarily a poet, Lisa also writes prose and does lots of other things associated with literature, writing and creativity. However, at the heart of her practice are the succinct, perception-changing lines, forms, discipline and imagery of poetry. Hello Lisa – what’s your…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff) Twit twit twit: Patricia Lockwood
The title of my residency is ‘This Twittering World’, a reference to T.S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton and, also, Twitter. I discovered a lot of my now favourite poets through Twitter when I joined several years ago. It also was an eye-opener into how the poetic mind works, shoring its ideas into small fragments. In this…
Alex MacDonald
Meet the Doctors: Janet Rogerson
An Interview with Janet Rogerson
The fourth of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poets is Janet Rogerson. Janet is currently studying on the PhD Creative Writing programme at the University of Manchester. Hi Janet – tell us a bit about your PhD Janet: It’s a Creative Writing PhD, which is two-thirds creative and one-third research. The split is fortunate because I’m…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)Meet the Doctors: John Challis
An Interview with John Challis
The third of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poets is John Challis. John has started a PhD in Creative Writing at Newcastle University on contemporary poetry and Film Noir, and now works as a teaching associate. Hi John – tell us a bit about your PhD John: My PhD is concerned with identifying the…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)
Meet the Digital-Poet-in-Residence: Alex MacDonald
An Interview with Alex MacDonald
No-one gets into poetry for the fame and riches. Frankly, most poets are regarded as viewing mainstream culture with suspicion, attracted as they are to the arcane world of collecting unusually-shaped pamphlets, conjugating gerunds and seeking out clandestine spoken word evenings in the backs of run-down Japanese laundrettes. For many poets root, hog or die…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)‘Learning to Count’
Seven, eight you’re fucking late she says. Hours we waited. Then he says something like Oh, for Chrissake and they both go on until doors slam bangbang! Don’t pry. Don’t spy. Never ask why he was late. One, two buckle my seatbelt. Oh. There’s no seatbelt. (This is years ago.) Watch the road! You’ll…
CathyDreyer