I was delighted to be invited by Taz Rahman to be interviewed for the 'Just Another Poet' video interview series, supported by The Books Council of Wales.
Link to my interview here, via youtube.
Taz is a generous and thoughtful interviewer - would highly recommend.
Many thanks to Matthew MC Smith, and Black Bough Poetry, for my Best of the Net nomination from the Silver Branch Project. My poem 'With my last exhale on this Earth' comes from my debut pamphlet, which is on submission at the moment.
I am the writer of the month, and have a feature page, as part of the wonderful Black Bough Poetry, Silver Branch series. I feel honoured to be part of this selection of poets, from this generous Welsh press, run by the multitalented Matthew MC Smith.
Four new poems, and four poems previously published by Black Bough (in their Deep Time and Christmas/Winter anthologies) are included as well as a short CNF piece. All pieces are available on soundcloud.
My work will be tweeted and posted throughout the month, on Black Bough’s socials.
Delighted to be an online guest for THE festive poetry party this season, hosted by the unequalled Damien B Donnelly from the Eat the Storms podcast. I will be reading a couple of my poems. Tuesday December 14th, 7.30pm. Loads of other wonderful guests too! Free tickets here.
Iamb – wave 8 launch
On the 15th December Wave 8 of Iambapoet will be live, and I am delighted to be included alongside 14 other poets. Mark Anthony Owens has created a gorgeous interface where you can view and listen to 3 poems by each poet.
went live with the exuberant Damien B Donnelly hosting on Saturday 10th July, featuring myself and a host of talented poets, available to listen to now, on just about every podcast platform! Direct link from eatthestorms.com
The wonderful Damien B. Donnelly has invited me onto his Eat The Storms Poetry Podcast (named after his poetry collection) to read a couple of my recent poems. The recording is complete and I’m just waiting to hear the broadcast date. Very excited!
The Poetry Podcast can be accessed through Spotify and most streaming platforms and via the twitter page. This is the 3rd season and all back episodes are available, they really are worth a listen, he has had some great guests and of course, you can hear his own poems too.
Words for the Wild latest theme was the extraordinary Gilbert White. My poem ‘We understand, Gilbert White and I, while in Selborne architecting’ now features on their website here. This is such a special poem to me as 20 years ago or so I used to work in Hampshire, very close to Selborne (Gilbert White’s village) and spent most of some very happy years exploring the manmade and natural environment there. I was privileged to work for the delightful Richard Ashby at his architectural practice, just outside the village. This poem was written for Richard, as a memory of the reverence he instilled in history, careful study and his love of the Hampshire Hangers.
And it’s me!
Back in March Cardiff City of Arcades launched a poetry competition, with the brief ‘a celebration of Cardiff’. The winning poem is displayed in one of the 7 historic Cardiff shopping arcades, alongside 6 commissioned Welsh poets. My poem is now up, in Morgan Arcade, and I’m so delighted it is alongside the lovely Mab Jones’ poem ‘Summer city’. Having grown up, and now living back in Cardiff it is a very special competition to win. Happy days.
I have now set up my Soundcloud page which can be accessed here. There are 3 poems up at the moment, including ‘Precious’ (featured in Black Bough Poetry’s ‘Deep Time’ anthology), ‘Arcade Hopping’ (featured in Wales Arts Review Digithon Festival), and ‘Map of Llandarcy 2008’ (featured in Wild Pressed Book ‘New Towns, an anthology’). Happy listening!
Matthew Smith of Black Bough Poetry has curated 2 volumes of wonderful poems inspired by Robert Macfarlanes’s ‘Underland: A Deep Time Journey’.
Delighted to see my deep time poem ‘Precious’ in volume 2, under the section ‘Liquid walls’. Both volumes, which include fabulous artwork by Rebecca Wainwright, are available from Amazon, details can be found here.
Wales Arts Review Digithon Festival was a 3 day digital arts festival in late March, to raise emergency funds for artists and freelancers who have had their income impacted by Covid-19. The festival included literature, cinema, dance, gigs and art all experienced from the comfort of home.
I was delighted to be asked by the lovely Mab Jones, to record my poem ‘Arcade Hopping’, that I submitted for the Poetry in the Arcades competition (winner yet to be announced), to be broadcast as part of the event. Poetry in the Arcades is a project to produce new poetry works that celebrate the city of Cardiff which are now being displayed publicly in Cardiff’s iconic Victorian arcades, including Castle Arcade, High Street Arcade, Duke Street Arcade, Royal Arcade, Morgan Arcade and Dominions Arcade.
Readers were a selection of Arcade Poets plus a few Poetry in the Arcades competition entrants. In order, they were: Emily Cotterill (funder of Poetry in the Arcades, honorary Arcade Poet!), Angela Graham (competition entrant), Thomas Tyrrell (competition entrant) , Marcelle Newbold (competition entrant), Mab Jones (Arcade Poet) who helped coordinate Poetry in the Arcades , Siân Melangell Dafydd (Arcade Poet), Sarah McCreadie (competition entrant).
The recording can be seen and listened to here:
Wales Arts Review Digithon Festival was a 3 day digital arts festival in late March, to raise emergency funds for artists and freelancers who have had their income impacted by Covid-19. The festival included literature, cinema, dance, gigs and art all experienced from the comfort of home.
I was delighted to be asked by the lovely Mab Jones, to record my poem ‘Arcade Hopping’, that I submitted for the Poetry in the Arcades competition (winner yet to be announced), to be broadcast as part of the event. Poetry in the Arcades is a project to produce new poetry works that celebrate the city of Cardiff which are now being displayed publicly in Cardiff’s iconic Victorian arcades, including Castle Arcade, High Street Arcade, Duke Street Arcade, Royal Arcade, Morgan Arcade and Dominions Arcade.
Readers were a selection of Arcade Poets plus a few Poetry in the Arcades competition entrants. In order, they were: Emily Cotterill (funder of Poetry in the Arcades, honorary Arcade Poet!), Angela Graham (competition entrant), Thomas Tyrrell (competition entrant) , Marcelle Newbold (competition entrant), Mab Jones (Arcade Poet) who helped coordinate Poetry in the Arcades , Siân Melangell Dafydd (Arcade Poet), Sarah McCreadie (competition entrant).
The recording can be seen and listened to here:
Black Bough Poetry are hosting a ‘Deep Time Day’ on twitter, and across facebook and instagram, to celebrate the publication of their Deep Time poetry anthologies, volumes 1 and 2. All the poems, musical compositions and artwork, by Rebecca Wainwright, were inspired by Robert Macfarlanes’ ‘Underland: A Deep Time Journey’. Contributors will be sharing their readings, photographs and poems. Poems can also be heard on Soundcloud. Here’s mine, with Rebecca’s artwork:
The astonishingly creative K Weber has produced a wonderful poetry pamphlet of 21 poems using donated words, her explanation of the project is below:
‘THIS ASSEMBLY is a collaborative poetry project. I wrote 21 poems using 160 words donated by 160 people. Additionally, there are bonus poems featuring other poets’ writing, unique additions to poems, poets reading their work in the audio, and more! Project was reviewed by a team of readers. Cover and interior art by Greg Lawhun incorporated color palette that won a poll open to the public. In total, 165 people participated in my latest effort!’
I had the pleasure of looking over a few of K’s poems and making a couple of suggestions.
Read the beautiful pdf here. It is also available on soundcloud.
The cover has been released for the ‘International Anthology of Womxn’s Poetry’ titled ‘From the Ashes’ and it is gorgeous. I am so pleased to have two poems included: one within the Chapter ‘On knowing’, and one within ‘On how we love’. ‘Editors Amanda McLeod and Mela Blust have curated a collection of poems that tell the stories of the journey, trials, and triumphs of womxn. In this book, womxn share their most authentic, inner selves; their challenges and their victories; the words they wish they could say; the legacy they dream of for the womxn of the future. With over 50 poets, some internationally acclaimed and others making their publication debut, this stunning anthology captures the voices of womxn around the world.’
All proceeds from the sale of the anthology will be donated to international womxn’s charities. Available for order from Animal Heart Press.