Thursday 3 April 2008

More news

Eras seem to be ending all over the place. I noticed the other day that Robert Minhinnick is stepping down as editor of Poetry Wales. It's a magazine I buy now and then (probably every other issue, when I see it on sale in Borders), and usually enjoy. No word yet on who'll be trying to fill his shoes.

Elsewhere, I was surprised to find that Stride Books is quietly passing away (don't worry, though, the magazine continues to be very much alive). It's a shame, because the handful of Stride volumes I've got are, quite apart from their eclectic content, beautifully produced, with a definite house style. I know some will feel that content should be everything, but I'm an unashamed book fetishist. I like them to look good on the shelves (or more likely the floor in my house at the moment), feel good in the hands.

Finally, there's this lovely little plug for Troy Town on the HappenStance site, thanks to Helena Nelson. I'm thinking of taking that "Merritt is the man to take on holiday with you" line entirely out of context, and seeing what sort of offers I get.

5 comments:

Andrew Philip said...

Robert Minhinnick's replacement is Zoƫ Skoulding. The name wasn't familiar, but she has a MySpace with blog. I got a rejection from her the other day and I'm glad to see she seems to be continuing his approach of providing useful feedback.

Matt Merritt said...

Ah, thanks Andrew. The name sounds familiar, without knowing much about her. I'll have a look at the blog.

Jane Holland said...

I got a rejection from her too, about a week ago, alongside a mystifying comment which described a five page poem (which in my egotism I had secretly thought of as leaning towards modernism) as a 'terrific performance piece'.

She didn't want it though, for all its terrific-ness.

Andrew Philip said...

Matt, the blog only has two entries so far. Both of them are poems from her next Seren collection, due out this year. Worth watching how she develops it and useful to see what she herself writes. The Scottish Poetry Library doesn't seem to have any of her work.

Jane, responses like that can be soooo frustrating, can't they? But I'd much rather have one of 'em than a simple standard rejection slip!

Matt Merritt said...

Yes, I had a slightly mystifying one from Chapman last week, but it's still nice to get a lengthy comment rather than a printed rejection slip.