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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…

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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…

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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…

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‘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….

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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…

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‘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…

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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…

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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…

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‘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…

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Live 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…

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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:…

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‘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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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‘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…

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Downloading the Undergrowth

“You do worry about buying electronic goods these days, because technology evolves so fast. It’s not quite the same concern when purchasing an anvil” – Harry Hill Poetry, for many people, will be seen as an anvil – something that won’t fluctuate within the constant gallop of technology. Unlike TV, film or modern art, that…

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How to Write Poetry: a List of Various Guides, Primers, Essays and Introductions

Poetry School staff doing some ‘very important’ poetry-based research on Facebook one recent lunchtime noticed an interesting thread populating itself on Allison McVety’s page. Poet and friend of the Poetry School, Allison was asking for recommendations on the technicalities of writing poetry – and dozens of her writerly friends responded with tried-and-tested books and essays…

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This Twittering World

‘This Twittering World; or 8 Things I Don’t Necessarily Disagree with About Poetry On The Internet’   Internet as 3D Poet The Internet provides the readership of a Poet with a rounded representation of his or her life and work. Social media, which typically the Poet is fond of, allows the Poet’s Shakespearean ‘aside’ to…

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Meet the Doctors: Helen Taylor

An Interview with Helen Taylor

The second of our eight Is There A Doctor in the House? poet tutors is Helen Taylor. Helen is studying for her PhD at Royal Holloway University in London, concentrating on the Liverpool-based movement Merseybeat. Helen, what’s your PhD about? Helen: My thesis is the first major critical discussion of Merseybeat poetry, considering it as…

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Meet the Doctors: Tara Bergin

An Interview with Tara Bergin

How many times have you been to a literature event and a person in the audience has asked the person on stage ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ We’ve just discovered the answer. The Poetry School’s forthcoming Is There A Doctor in the House? event is the place writers (you) get their ideas from….

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Live Q&A with Sean O’Brien: ‘The Poetry of History’

We’re ecstatically excited to announce that Sean O’Brien will be coming to CAMPUS this Spring to kick off a new season of Live Q&A’s and answer your questions. Sean is one of the most prolific and important figures in British poetry over the last four decades, as well as being a highly acclaimed critic, journalist,…

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