This International Women in Translation book group started as an idea from a book seller at Idlewild books in New York – a store specialising in language books and classes. I discovered the group during the pandemic, when those lockdowns meant in person meetings were not possible and like many others I was seeking to…
A fine Day for Seeing at Southwark Park Gallery
There’s just a few days left for the Southwark Park Galleries to see A fine Day for Seeing, an exhibition of works by ten artists accompanied by ten poems, curated by Paul Carey-Kent and Tamar Yoseloff. I’ve been twice over the summer, my first outings to London in over a year (apart from a work…
Celebrating National Poetry Month during April
If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook you will already know that during April I have set myself the goal of posting a favourite poem and/or poet each day. Some days of the week I have plenty of time to read poems but on days when I’m working at my day job the poetry…
Stay at Home Reading List–Winter with Eva by Elaine Baker
Despite apparently having more time since mid-March I haven’t been able to read like I used to. So I’ve gone back to re-read things I’ve enjoyed to ease me back into the habit of reading. I thought it would be helpful to share. I’ll start with Winter with Eva, a poetry pamphlet from V…
Is the future cancelled?
I imagine, like some other writers, I’ve felt too paralysed by the unfolding of events in the UK and across the globe to be able to write much over the last few weeks. March began for me with two weeks of jury service at the local crown court. It was not a comfortable experience sitting…
Thank you to Raymond Antrobus
I have previously blogged about how my book group makes the occasional foray into poetry alongside reading novels. This month we’ve been considering The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus. We began our discussions by looking at Dementia (p81) and noticing how different it was from the usual portrayals of the impact of dementia. In Antrobus’s work…
A Poetry Book group
Just taking a little time away from finishing my MA in Writing Poetry to mention my local book group. Like many book groups we mostly read novels but since last October some of the group have joined me in reading a poetry book about every other month. I’m not sure why other book groups don’t…
Lodestone Poets 4
As mentioned in the previous blog post the fourth Lodestone poetry reading took place at the end of February. It proved to be a real treat of an evening. The Lodestone team, Sarala Estruch, Lesley Sharpe and Dave Wakely have the knack of putting together an interesting mix with never a dull moment. Last Wednesday…
Spring is coming
The days are definitely getting longer, more light earlier in the morning and coming out into light after Wednesday’s afternoon workshop with Katy Evans-Bush. I’m into the final nine months of the Writing Poetry MA and took time away from paid work earlier to work on the latest assignment. I have lots of readings to look…
A Summer of Poetry
I’ve been busy over the summer, reading, writing and studying poetry and haven’t had time to write blog posts which I suppose is how it should be. But with autumn arriving and a new term about to start I’m taking the chance to reflect on the last couple of months. The summer poetics kicked off…