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Originally posted on Poet Laureate:
In the excitement leading up to this year’s National Poetry Day I thought I would gather the news and summarise it for you. To celebrate locally we encourage you all to buy tickets for Voices of 1919 at Elmslie House, Malvern as part of the Autumn in Malvern Festival. Click…
February has been an amazing month. I love writing in the start of a fresh year, seems that all possibilities are achievable and the cold air is enough to keep me chained happily to my desk/dining room table.
I continued to write new material and submit work this month, although I did overload my Action Plan and found it quite unmanageable. A lesson to take forward now into March. There were a few opportunities I didn’t feel ready for that I hope will come up again next year and will fit in more with what I hope to be doing by then. It is hard to make such decisions but I have learnt that it is important to objectify and consider what you can gain and what will be the challenge in choosing that path at this moment in time. It is wisdom that comes with growing older for me as I have always taught myself to say YES, YES, YES!
This month I have headlined, performed poetry sets, done open mics, written new material, researched, edited, submitted and been published. I have run the full writing gauntlet and occasionally felt the pummel sticks.
It was also Sammy’s funeral, I have written about this at the end of the review.
Week 1:
I sent a poem to Emma Press for approval for the Waterstones Love Poetry Night, supported WWM promoting the Worcester Writing Group.
Headlined Stirchley Speaks at the P Café along with the wonderful Mark Kilburn and Alisha Kadir. Booked onto a workshop.
Went to Daniel Sluman’s Book Launch for ‘the terrible’ and finally met him and Emily in person. I had a superb evening and was able to enjoy the words of Angela France and David Clarke, two poets I admire greatly, all published by Nine Arches.
After the book launch I hotfooted it back across to the Black Country to catch Emma Purshouse in action at PTS Permission to Speak, although I arrived in the interval the 2nd half was long and jam packed full so it was worth the extra miles to get there and I did get to watch Emma – it has been too long. It was good to be back in Scary Canary as it has been a while since I have been able to attend Robert’s night due to double booked dates.
My three romance poems written in January especially for a brief of how we love in the 21st Century were all accepted for publication by New Ulster.
My two Spider poems written for the Maligned Species Project were published in e-book form. You can buy your own copy £2.99 Spiders E-book Fair Acre Press money raised goes to local wildlife charities as stated on the Fair Acre Press website.
My Writing West Midlands Young Writer group worked on our book focusing on an alternate history (AH). It was a great session, we hope to have the work finished by late Spring. The group has grown recently but we still need to secure new membership – 12 to 16 year olds if you know of any in the area looking for fun creative writing/hobby.
I just had time to get home and eat before rushing back out to celebrate National Libraries Day with an evening of poetry from Liz Berry, which was wonderful. Her work fills me with spirit or the spirit of her work, the essence leaves me within a cradle of positivity, I just feel younger afterwards and full of that hope, that a younger me felt.
I spent the last day of the week writing and creating my overly ambitious action plan.
RELATED LINKS
National Libraries Day Liz Berry
Week 2:
I heard last month that Fair Acre Press had taken both my spider poems for publication in the maligned species e-book series, this week they released the Grey Squirrel E-book with another of my poems included. Squirrel E-book £2.99 You can buy a copy here, the price point is to keep it affordable for all, the content of each collection is outstanding, it truly is a bargain and you are making a charitable donation at the same time.
Nadia Kingsley and all her commissioned poets and eco-experts have worked tirelessly for months on this project and it would be great if the response for the e-books was as strong.
I submitted a poem to Visual Verse based on the American Gothic and from writing this poem built up a body of research I would like to explore further when I have finished working on current projects.
I booked a place to perform at the Feminist Fundraiser to raise money for Refugee Action.
I went to Sammy’s funeral. Later that evening a few of us went to HOWL at the Dark Horse in Moseley, we were still pretty much propping each other up but I think Sammy would have approved. I performed my valentine poem, the one about the volcano and the whales.
I missed the final SpeakEasy with Maggie and Fergus at the helm because I was one of 10 performers sharing the stage before Liz Berry took us through her heart-warming set of love poetry and more. It was great to perform at Waterstone’s in Birmingham and to meet new to me poets too, not to mention listen to Richard O’Brien read from his pamphlets and Liz Berry of course. Phenomenal as always.
The next day, inspired I sat down at my desk after work and researched and wrote new poetry. Now with the submission fairies.
I am amazed that I survived these two weeks as well as I did as I was also working full time for the first time in years too. At the end of the 2nd week it was also Mr G’s birthday and Valentine’s, so I had to schedule collapsing for Monday!
RELATED LINKS:
Love Poetry with The Emma Press
Fair Acre Press Maligned Species Project
Week 3:
Feminist Poetry Night for Refugee Action
Week 4:
I was back to work this week and it also my younger brother’s birthday. I had my poem ‘Restraint’ published on Visual Verse.
I researched the Valentine Day Massacre, another notebook filled with promising poetry ideas for the future, although beyond macabre. I was writing the poems to perform at 42, there were a few of us who took the theme literally.
I did battle with the end of my action plan – which was so complicated I copy and pasted a new end of the month list. I submitted some poetry and wrote a new poem in my lunch hour to take to Stanza.
I had the lovely surprise of post that wasn’t bills but my contributor copy of the gorgeous Abridged Floodland issue magazine.
The weekend saw me make a few last minute submissions and thereby avoiding all household lists of things I need to do, (now added to the March plan)!
*a test to see if Mr G still reads my blog*
RELATED LINKS:
Nuclear Impact, David Bowie, Al Capone
And on the extra leap year day, I did not propose to Mr G, to be honest I forgot I could until we were chopping up veg for our amazing tea. I didn’t write a new poem. I worked hard and kept my temper around youngsters who were losing theirs, I marked books and smiled impressed by some of the detail. I drove home through road works, caught up with some telly. Prepped that meal that Mr G made and caught up with this blog.
© 2015 Rangzeb
Sadly, February also saw our goodbyes to Sammy Joe (Samantha Hunt), her funeral was on the 10th February.
A day of reflection and tears, helium hearts and balloons released to clouds as people from all walks of life (friends) and family laid her to rest. Sammy kept all her circles separate but a good deal of cross over occurs. I knew it would be a sad day (total understatement – as I still can’t really find the words) but I hadn’t prepared myself for how I would feel afterwards.
There is not a day that passes without me thinking about her. Sometimes not thinking, but I see her face right there even as my mind focuses on a computer screen or making the dinner.
The day of the funeral the weather had been forecast as rainy, overcast. Usual for the time of year. The sun shone, brightly and despite some darkening clouds not much rain fell and nothing but sunny skies for the duration of our time at the Crematorium.
To lose a friend at any time of life is horrible, to lose them unexpectedly is even worse and to have mixed feelings about their passing, knowing they should still be here on earth makes it feel unbearable.
When that person belongs to a community it makes it easier because you have each other to reach out and share grief together. So a big thank you to poetry friends (nowadays just called friends, I think) who have carried me through this difficult time.
AWF is lucky to be promoting Daniel Sluman and his new collection of Poetry ‘the terrible’ due out later in 2015.
Interview with Daniel Sluman – By Nina Lewis
Sonia Hendy-Isaac
© 2014
1) You studied a BA in English Literature & Creative Writing in 2008, had you written poetry before then?
Like a lot of people, I’d tried writing poetry in my teens. I think it was probably a way to try and come to terms with my disability, and the general confusion that comes with puberty. The writing was absolutely awful, lots of she’s so pretty, why doesn’t she love me? type poems. I can’t help but wince when I glance at them now.
2) Can you remember the first poem you were really proud of?
I don’t think that feeling has really happened yet, I’m not sure it will. The perfect poem in my head is always going to fail on the page, I see my job as minimizing the damage. I think that ‘Absence’, the first poem from my debut, was really important to me in opening up a dialogue between myself and my disability, so that definitely stands out in that way.
3) What motivated you to complete an MA in Creative & Critical Writing?
I enrolled on the BA in English Literature & Creative Writing on a kind of a whim. I was staring down the barrel of temp work and I felt like I was at an important crossroads in life. I enjoyed the BA so much, the MA seemed like a no-brainer, and the theory and workshops I engaged within my MA have been vital to me as a writer and as a researcher. I’m incredibly happy that I made the decision to do my MA, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to take this step up to PhD level.
4) What would be your best tip for combating procrastination?
Repetition and routine. I write pretty much every day, and it’s something I’ve just got used to through forcing myself until it feels normal. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter always poke their head around the door on occasion, and rather than lambasting yourself for engaging with it, it’s important to cut yourself some slack on occasion. Balance is really important, so doing an hour of editing should definitely be seen as worthy of fifteen minutes of idle surfing afterwards, and maybe that reward structure that works well for me, might work well for others too.
5) What does your writing space look like?
Until now, it’s always been a laptop slung on the corner of a sofa, or a dinner tray. Now I have an actual desk space for the first time, which I’ll be using soon. It will have sheets of notes and my manifesto on the in front of it, and the whole living room will have poems stuck to the wall. I like to think that this helps me see the collection as a whole; I can walk around the house, noting how the poems look against each other, and I can make notes directly to them with a pen, to be taken down, updated on my computer, and re-printed for the wall again. Other than that, just a laptop, my fingers, and a cup of tea, which is obviously crucial in lubricating the creative process.
6) Could you tell us a bit about your poetry life before your first collection was published?
Striving is probably the best word to describe it. I wrote, edited, read, and listened as much as I could. I would draft at 3 am outside my halls of residence, with a cup of tea and a stack of drafts, I tried to make every reading I could, and I volunteered for helping with workshops. I started getting a few poems in journals, expanded my network of poetry friends on Facebook and locally, and I just tried to remain focused on getting a book deal. I achieved that in the last year of my BA and I was over the moon (still am!).
© 2014 Nine Arches
7) How does the process of writing a second collection differ from writing your first?
It doesn’t much really. I work on developed ideas on my computer, print them off, scribble obscenities on them, and try again. An awful lot of poems get discarded, or bits recycled from them, and it can take dozens of drafts to write what still amounts to an unusable poem, and years to get something right. That’s always been my process. It’s messy, it’s time-intensive, it’s emotionally exhausting, but it’s the only way I know to write poetry.
8) Where do you get ideas from?
The places in my head I don’t want to enter. Misheard lines from TV. Programmes on Radio 4. The internet and weird forums I find myself in at 3am in the morning. My childhood, and specifically for this collection – my anxieties, nightmares, guilt and shame complexes, and every behaviour these have manifested themselves in
9) How do you write?
First ideas go into my phone, then they get moved to my laptop as a document, then they get their own folder with various drafts of the poem included. I used to write in a notebook but my bad handwriting and shaky hands mean that it’s a lot harder to do nowadays.
10) Who do you like to read?
Melissa Lee-Houghton and Bobby Parker are the two British poets who I come back to again and again. Other than that, lots of poets from across the Atlantic, like C.D. Wright, Brenda Shaughnessy, Rosmarie Waldrop, Dorianne Laux, Robert Lowell, and Adrienne Rich.
11) Was there a specific person who spurred your interest in poetry or encouraged you with the form?
I had an English teacher at Secondary School called Mr Adams, who was probably the best teacher I’ve ever been taught by. I remember one lesson where he read ‘Eve of St. Agnes’ by Keats, and I was transfixed. It was the first time I was aware that poetry could have a physical effect on me. That felt like a revelation.
My lecturers at University of Gloucestershire, Angela France and Nigel McLoughlin were incredibly nurturing in the period where I started to take writing very seriously. The advice and critique they both gave was invaluable to me, and I owe them a great deal.
12) Has your idea of what poetry is changed since you started writing poems?
I think it continually does for all of us. We change as people and that means we change as poets and our notion of what we do is always in flux. Personally, when I HAVE to write something down, that’s poetry, it’s an unrelenting feeling that I need to communicate something that I don’t think I’ve seen communicated in a certain way before. So poetry for me is vital, it’s incredibly personal but at the same time it’s universal and porous (as language is itself).
13) What does ‘being creative’ mean to you?
It’s a reason for living and a part of everyone. It’s play, it’s the opposite of destruction, and it’s making something for its own sake, which is all the more vital in our current capitalist, mass-manufactured, superficial society.
14) Do you have any creative patterns/ rituals?
I edit for most of the day, and when an idea seems ripe enough in the notes app on my phone, I tentatively put it on a Word doc and hope something sticks. I try to read as much as I can at some point during the day, but my concentration levels are severely restricted by my medication.
15) What advice would you give to aspiring writers? (You knew that one was coming)
Don’t compromise. We compromise with our feelings, our dreams, and what we really want to say to people every day, but the page asks nothing of you, it doesn’t judge, so don’t be afraid to put anything in it.
16) Do you still owe Carol Ann Duffy a drink?
Hahahaha. I’m sure she won’t remember buying me one, it was five or six years ago. I was attending a festival where she was reading and I briefly stood beside her in the queue when she bought me a glass of red wine. I’d love to buy her one back though, yes.
Daniel’s debut full-length collection, Absence has a weight of its own, was published to critical acclaim in 2012. His second collection the terrible will be published Autumn/Winter 2015, also with Nine Arches Press. He tweets @danielsluman
Look out for more posts about Daniel Sluman and his new collection ‘the terrible’ – COMING SOON!
Having updated my Writing Life Pages* this morning, I realised not everyone checks there monthly and usually that’s not an issue, as they are retrospective pieces about the month that has just disappeared, however (maybe it is because the New Year is close) I have written about things to come in the future. I wouldn’t want any of the 783 followers to miss out on these new ventures so I decided to post more details.
*Actually it’s called The Write Year – maybe if I changed it to ‘My Writing Life’ it would peak your interest.
ANNOUNCEMENT
I am very proud to announce that throughout 2015 I will be promoting the work of Daniel Sluman leading up to the publication date of his new collection. I am very excited about this opportunity and hope you’re interested in finding out more about this young talented, ‘Nine Arches Press’ Poet.
Daniel and I are already collaborating on posts which will hit the blog after Christmas and before the New Year. So WATCH OUT for any post with DANIEL SLUMAN in the title and be very excited too!
Daniel Sluman’s poems have appeared widely in journals such as Cadaverine, Popshot, Shit Creek Review, and Under the Radar. He received an MA in Creative & Critical Writing from the University of Gloucestershire in 2012 and his debut full-length collection, Absence has a weight of its own, was published in 2012. His second collection, ‘the terrible’, will be published Autumn/Winter 2015, also with Nine Arches Press.
Sonia Hendy-Isaac
© 2014
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I am always motivated on the first day of a new month and today is no exception! It also helps that the rest of the week I am committed to my day job and will only have a few spare hours and evenings in my writing skin, so I have a whole list of TO DOs to get done today.
I started well, up early (too early) I managed to submit 3 poems before breakfast, I have often written about how long submissions take even when you already have the writing ready. This was no exception. One cup of coffee and several reads of the guidelines before starting the online form. They join another 6 poems already flying around begging to be accepted!
After breakfast I updated the blog, checked emails and did some background research for current writing ventures. Which is why it is now suddenly nearly 11a.m and I am only 3 items down my TO DO list. I have learned not to PANIC as this only leads to getting less done.
Taking a break to go and visit my Grandma, it is her birthday tomorrow (I’m working) and then I will be back to tick more things off my manic, Monday list!
HAPPY DECEMBER EVERYONE!
© 2013 lushhome.com
Here are some buttons you can choose one to copy and paste onto your blogs to support Inkspill. They are linked to the Inkspill page on this Blog.
Hope to see you all involved, I appreciate you spreading the word.
Clearing out emails, found this Groupon deal.
‘My Life Story’ 1080-Page Hardback 100-Year Diary from £16.95 (50% Off)
I love surfing the net on search mode. The town I just moved away from have held an annual weekend of events ever since I lived there. This year they have expanded there evening programme to feature not just music, but poetry. I wish I had known about it sooner as I may have been able to get involved. Still there is always next year. The details have already been secured in my 2013/4 notebook.
I am very excited because I will be attending a book launch and poetry reading this Saturday evening. More on this event soon.
Before that I have a ton of ‘real life’ to deal with including more applications and an interview!
I have also started to promote INKSPILL and am currently trying to get local press involved – I am amazed by how many writing events occur in the home county without promotion and I for one usually find out about them after the time has passed. I know quite a few local writers and I am sure they will be interested in some of the INKSPILL programme. I will also be emailing a network invitation.
I would gratefully appreciate any sharing of the information (link them to the INKSPILL page) if you are willing to promote October’s retreat through your blog. Feel free to save and use the jpeg from this page. You will of course get a thank you mention in the programme.
Fingers crossed for my mini PR machine, this (like my old town’s annual weekend festival) could be the first of many retreats.
awritersfountain 