Slow, slow, slow!
A year later--okay over a year later--I have discovered some reviews of The Angels' Share online. I am quite excited by this, as these are some more than the first collection got: showing that it takes a terribly long time to get going in poetry-- as well as showing that I must be terribly idle to even be looking!
First, I found one in Australia: Tintean, a journal for the Australian Irish Heritage Network. They used to be a hard-copy journal but have gone over to an online version. The reviewer is quite kind, overall, but isn't keen on Pair Bond-- one of the poems that goes down a storm at readings--nor some of the Mallory poems--where I would have 'recycled' some of Mallory's quotes from his letters and journals, which I suppose might have made the poems seem stilted, as the language of the early 20th C is more formal than our 21st C brogues. Can't win 'em all, I guess.
Then there's a very warm one from Dublin Duchess --on an aside, her reading list is quite exhaustive and worth checking out. She loves Pair Bond, but thems the breaks, as they say.
Mike Begnal's review on Todd Swift's Eyewear blog is very generous, I got the impression he really liked the book and his favourite towards the end, Modern Fantasia is one of my favourites too.
And lastly there's one on Magma poetry's blog but alas, I don't know what it says yet, as there seems to a problem with the website--maybe it's just me!
By the way, if you're wondering what Pair Bond is all about, click on the link for a very short video of me and some Poetry Divas giving it what for (thanks to you-know-who for putting it together for me).
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Awfully Brrr for May
Coldy, coldy coldy. Out weather here in Ireland is giving us much pause for thought, what with these unseasonable northerly winds. The garden outside was given its annual shearing about three weeks ago and has been behaving immaculately ever since.
My pinky clematis looks lovely, spread all over our neighbour's wall and all the other plants I put into a small raised bed are thriving - bar the bean plants. Is it the cold? Is it the rain? I don't know.
What I do know is that the peas I put beside them are thriving; already climbing up the string and bamboo wigwam I set up for them. But the beans are withering and looking decidedly peaky. I should have just stuck with the peas overall, perhaps.
In writing news, all is very quiet since the end of the Dundalk Book Festival back at the end of April - almost a month ago. I believe most events were well attended and we Poetry Divas helped to rock the Panama Cafe on the Square (hai). We had an interesting afternoon, with many readers and even a musical interlude. More on Michael Farry's blog.
A highlight for me was Noel McGee, doing an excerpt from a one-man play, I, Kavanagh. This is a brightly woven piece with excerpts from Kavanagh's work and work about his work. The audience loved it - what with Patrick Kavanagh being from out the road a bit - and I saw many audience members mumming the words of his poems along with the actor.
There were parts in it I remembered from Antoinette Quinn's Biography of Kavanagh, which by the way if you've never read it is a fantastic read and full of inspiration too. One to buy rather than borrow. "O he was a quare one..." Kavanagh's poetry is something I return to time and again, probably because of the local connection but also because of his way of talking about the land. When you're a country girl, like me, it's nice sometimes to be grounded by what you've come from.
My pinky clematis looks lovely, spread all over our neighbour's wall and all the other plants I put into a small raised bed are thriving - bar the bean plants. Is it the cold? Is it the rain? I don't know.
What I do know is that the peas I put beside them are thriving; already climbing up the string and bamboo wigwam I set up for them. But the beans are withering and looking decidedly peaky. I should have just stuck with the peas overall, perhaps.
In writing news, all is very quiet since the end of the Dundalk Book Festival back at the end of April - almost a month ago. I believe most events were well attended and we Poetry Divas helped to rock the Panama Cafe on the Square (hai). We had an interesting afternoon, with many readers and even a musical interlude. More on Michael Farry's blog.
A highlight for me was Noel McGee, doing an excerpt from a one-man play, I, Kavanagh. This is a brightly woven piece with excerpts from Kavanagh's work and work about his work. The audience loved it - what with Patrick Kavanagh being from out the road a bit - and I saw many audience members mumming the words of his poems along with the actor.
There were parts in it I remembered from Antoinette Quinn's Biography of Kavanagh, which by the way if you've never read it is a fantastic read and full of inspiration too. One to buy rather than borrow. "O he was a quare one..." Kavanagh's poetry is something I return to time and again, probably because of the local connection but also because of his way of talking about the land. When you're a country girl, like me, it's nice sometimes to be grounded by what you've come from.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Underground Competition
Ever spent any time on the tube?
Turbulence Magazine subscription rates: single issue £2; annual subscription (four issues): £6 (UK rates - please email for international rates). Please send cheques / postal orders (payable to "A Fisher") to: A Fisher, 29 Finchley Close, Hull. HU8 0NU.
Visit their website at http://turbulencepoetry.blogspot.com/
Submissions are now open for the first Fire Hazard anthology, "Underground".
To mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the world's first underground railway in London in 1863, Fire Hazard is compiling a print anthology of poetry dealing with experiences of underground railways and their impact (for better and worse) on the communities they serve around the world.
Themes could include (but are by no means limited to):
Construction of underground railways
History of the lines and the stations
The above-ground communities the underground serves
The experience of commuting / travelling underground
The art of the underground
People experienced on the underground
Subterranean geographies / cities
Mapping the underground
If you would like your work to be considered for this anthology, please send up to four poems and a brief biographical note to us at firehazardpoetry@gmail.com with the word "underground" in the subject title. The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2013. All included poets will receive an electronic copy of the anthology, hardcopies of which will be available for purchase in early summer.
Turbulence Magazine subscription rates: single issue £2; annual subscription (four issues): £6 (UK rates - please email for international rates). Please send cheques / postal orders (payable to "A Fisher") to: A Fisher, 29 Finchley Close, Hull. HU8 0NU.
Visit their website at http://turbulencepoetry.blogspot.com/
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