The Cadaverine and Next Generation Poets 2014

It's been a busy month for poetry for me. I have been working on the Administration of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation Poets 2014, which took a huge amount of work getting the website ready in time for the announcement. Whatever anyone thinks about the 20 names on the list, I hope people are interested in the video archive we created. Filming the poets reading and talking about their work - and having Ian McMillan give his insightful, witty and poetic introductions to each book - was a fantastic experience and I think has created an admirable catalogue of videos that will be watched for a long time to come.

I have also been given the voluntary job of Poetry Reviews Editor for the Cadaverine magazine. They are an online poetry/prose/reviews portal I have always been a huge fan of, on account of publishing exclusively the work on the under-30s. We've already begun building a team of reviewers and I'll be looking especially to focus on debut collections and pamphlets. Check out the Submission Guidelines for details of how to get involved.


 

The Emma Press Anthology of Homesickness and Exile

I'm absolutely delighted to have a poem published in the latest anthology from The Emma Press, a fantastic small publisher who produce lovely books and pamphlets. The latest book is a collection of poems inspired by Ovid's Tristia, featuring some great poets such as Cheryl Moskowitz, Holly Hopkins, Rachel Long and Cath Drake. It makes for a lovely selection and would be a nice gift for anyone living away from the places they recognise as Home.

Do check out the book and their website if you are not familiar with them. I have been consistently impressed with the level of attention to detail Emma Wright and Rachel Piercey bring to their editing and event-organising, and the manner in which they treat their poets.

Safe travels!

Review: Moontide by Niall Campbell on The Literateur

It’s become a moment to savour when the debut collection of an Eric Gregory Award-winner hits the shelves. The Society of Authors have an uncanny habit of getting it right with young poets – Sam Riviere, Emily Berry, Ahren Warner and Helen Mort are just a few recent winners to be lavished with justifiable praise and attention – and 2011-recipient Niall Campbell seems next in line. After a widely admired debut pamphlet from HappenStance, After the Creel Fleet (2012) and winning the Poetry London Competition, Moontide is a collection punctuated by tides, ice and fading light, and presents us with poems of impressive confidence in their relative quiet....

Read More on The Literateur 

Two Poems on The Cadaverine

The Cadaverine have published two of my poems, 'In loving memory' and 'Tinnitus'.

You can read them here:

 

www.thecadaverine.com

Division Street by Helen Mort Review

My Review of Division Street on MouthLondon.com



Division Street must be one of the most anticipated debut collections in some years. Helen Mort won the Foyle Young Poets award five times, received an Eric Gregory Award in 2007 and the Manchester Young Writers Prize in 2008. In 2010, Mort became the youngest ever Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust, and her second pamphlet, a pint for the ghost (tall lighthouse), was a Poetry Book Society Choice. It is no surprise then, after such an early career in poetry, that Division Street is a mature debut rich... Read More

Red Doc> by Anne Carson Review

One of my favourite books this year. Read my review on MouthLondon.com Canadian writer Anne Carson has a back catalogue that marks her as one of the most distinctive voices working today. A prize-winning poet, essayist, translator and Professor of Classics, her 2010 collection Nox pushed the boundaries of poetry publication: an elegy and lamentation for her brother, Nox came encased in a box, printed on a single sheet folded like a concertina.

Carson operates in the realms of the fragment and, as Nox presented the story of... Read more

Frontierland

This video is massively inspiring a one-act play I'm writing. If you enjoy watching middle-aged Americans in fun-houses in British seaside towns in the mid-1990s, I recommend this as one of the best around.