The High Window

The inaugural issue of The High Window, a new quarterly literary journal, has been published, and you can find it here.

Poets with work in the first issue include Ian Duhig, AF Harrold, Roy Marshall, Abegail Morley, Richard Skinner and Andrew Shields, and there's also a feature on two collage poems by Helen Ivory, an essay by Ian Duhig, translations, and reviews, including one of Martin Malone's new collection, Cur. All things considered, an auspicious start – I'll be keeping an eye on how it develops.

Martin Figura and Helen Ivory at Jazz & Poetry

June's Jazz & Poetry, at the Guitar Bar, Nottingham, features Martin Figura and Helen Ivory, all the way from Norwich. They probably don't need any introduction, to readers of these pages, at least, but you can read more about both here and here - I can recommend hearing them both read very highly.

There are also readings from three up-and-coming poets – Viv Apple, Peter Newman, and Raegan Sealy – plus the usual jazz from 4 In The Bar. The evening starts at 8, but get there early - I'd expect this to be crowded.

Actors reading poetry

There's a very interesting discussion going on at Helen Ivory's Facebook page over the decision to have the nominated poems in this year's Forward Poetry Prizes read by actors at an event at the Southbank Centre.

My initial reaction was disapproval - I've been to a few events over the years where actors have done terrible things to innocent poems, usually by over-emoting, over-enunciating, or trying, as someone on the thread says, to sound as if the poem has just come to them.

On reflection, my position is altering a little, although I still can't really see why they couldn't give the poets the choice whether to read themselves. Some, I'm sure, would have been happy for the actors to take over, so the publicity boost from their presence (which I assume is the major reason they were enlisted) would still be there.

But several people on the thread (notably Gary Longden and Jonathan Davidson) make good points in favour of actors being used. One is that, of course, not all poets read their own work well. I'd still want, I think, for the poets to be able to give the actors some sort of direction, but why not have both options? Some poets probably dread every reading, but can't afford not to try to sell books when they're given the chance.

What does still get my goat, though, is what I think is a rather separate issue, that of the actors adding 'glamour' and 'magic' to the whole thing, as if no poet could possibly be trusted to turn up in their smartest clothes with their hair done.

But anyway, I've posted a poll on this on the right, because at the end of the day what poets think about it is not really as important as the book-buying public's. I'll be interested to see what the results are.

Helen Ivory at Peony Moon

I make no apology for sending you in the direction of Michelle McGrane's fine blog Peony Moon, for the second time in a couple of weeks.

The latest post is this remarkably honest and enlightening interview with Helen Ivory on the writing of her new Bloodaxe collection, Waiting For Bluebeard. The specifics are fascinating, but there's also a lot there that applies to the whole creative process more generally.

Epicentre launches

Epicentre is a new online poetry magazine with rolling content, and Issue One is out now. There are poems from the likes of Helen Ivory, Roy Marshall, J T Welsch and Claire Trevien, plus Mark Burnhope on a biography of David Gascoyne. Plenty to get your teeth into, there – I look forward to having a good long browse later.

Horizon Review 5

I've been out of circulation for the last 10 days or so, and returned to the usual backlog of emails, plus all sorts of interesting goings-on in the poetry world. I'll post more on some of those, such as the TS Eliot Prize Readings and Michelle McGrane's new book The Suitable Girl, later in the week, but for now, I'll just flag up the latest issue of Horizon Review.

I really do think it's going from strength to strength, so kudos to both former editor Jane Holland and new editor Katy Evans-Bush. There's a wealth of reviews. essays, interviews and stories in there, before you even get to the poetry from the likes of Julia Bird, Alison Brackenbury, David Briggs, Ian Duhig, Roz Goddard, Mark Granier, Helen Ivory, Ira Lightman, Rob A Mackenzie, Andrew Philip and Andrew Shields, to name just a few. I've got a piece in there too -  Zugunruhe - which appears in hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica.

Current reading

The latest issue of Tears In The Fence arrived the other day - so far I've only had time to browse it, but I've enjoyed good poems from the likes of Ian Seed, Jane Commane and Sheila Hamilton.

As always, too, a lot of the pleasure is in the reviews - they're given the space they deserve, which isn't always the case in magazines.

Over at Peony Moon, meanwhile, there are some excellent poems by Ruth Larbey, whose Nine Arches Press chapbook Funglish is out now. Enjoy...

EDIT: Oh, and there's four fine poems from Helen Ivory's The Breakfast Machine over at Dan Wyke's Other Lives, too. I may get round to some work, later.

A night in Norwich

On Monday, I was in Norwich for the launch of Helen Ivory and Martin Figura's new collections, The Breakfast Machine and Whistle, respectively.

The launch reading was really excellent - varied and well-paced and with a couple of musical interludes, and Norwich Arts Centre is a fine venue. I've been enjoying both books since, and although they're very different in their subject matter, I think they share something in that they manage to wring the maximum effect out of seemingly plain, everyday language. I'll be posting full reviews once I've digested them properly, but in the meantime both are well worth checking out.

It was lovely to catch up with Helen and Martin again, and also to meet and chat with a number of other fine poets, like Penelope Shuttle and George Szirtes.

George has a fine piece about the event over at his blog. He makes some excellent points, I think, about the literary world generally. He also touches on something Martin and he mentioned on the night - what a great place Norwich is for writers of all kinds. Various different scenes seem to overlap and mix, and there's an atmosphere of mutual support. It might have something to do with Norwich's geographical position, I suppose, but whatever, it's refreshing, and sort of inspiring.

Martin Figura - Whistle

Over at the excellent Peony Moon, Michelle McGrane has blogged about Martin Figura's debut collection, Whistle, out now from Arrowhead. I'm looking forward to seeing a copy - all being well I'll be able to make it to the launch in Norwich next month (Martin's wife Helen Ivory has her new Bloodaxe collection The Breakfast Machine launched at the same event).

You can read more about the book, about Martin, and even sample a few poems, over at Peony Moon now.

Cake corner

Martin Figura sent these photos of last week's The Birds and the Trees event at Norwich Arts Centre.

There's Mark Cocker and Katrina Porteous reading (and looking suitably passionate and inspiring).

It won't surprise anyone who knows me well, though, that I'm pictured holding a large dish of cake (a lovely moist lemon, rosemary and olive oil confection that Helen Ivory had made). I'm pretty sure that was a second helping, too.

The Birds and the Trees

On Sunday I read at Norwich Arts Centre as part of The Birds and the Trees, an event organised by Café Writers. The sun shone, the turnout was excellent, and it was all a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, Paul Farley was ill and unable to make it, which meant a bit of a last-minute rejig, so Katrina Porteous and myself read two 15-minute sets each in the afternoon, then, after a very nice picnic out in the garden, we read for about 10 minutes each before Mark Cocker’s talk. To finish off, there was a brief Q&A session.

I’d heard Katrina read on the radio, but she’s one of those poets who can still surprise you every time with the power of her performance, and the depth of her material. She was genuinely hypnotic at times, especially in the poems which involved Northumbrian dialect, and she was ably assisted by Martin Figura (who had organised the event) on one piece which required two voices.

Mark’s Birds Britannica is, as I’ve said on here before, one of my favourite books, but this time he wasn’t reading from it or from the equally highly-praised Crow Country. Instead, he turned his attention to trees. One of the things I like most about his writing is that it’s sort of telescopic – it zooms in on very fine details and back out again, and in doing so of course makes all sorts of unexpected connections – and that was much in evidence here. I’ve been thinking since about a lot of the things he mentioned, and I’ll write more about it and how it applies to poetry and birding over the next few weeks. Oh, and Robin Hood even got a mention, too, and you know how much I like anything to do with that particular legend.

Finally, it was lovely to meet all sorts of new people, including Michael Mackmin, Aoife Mannix, Katrina and Mark, of course, and last but certainly not least, Martin Figura and Helen Ivory, who very generously put me up. I hope I’ll have the chance to reciprocate sometime, perhaps later this year when Martin’s book comes out with Arrowhead.

My set-lists, for anyone interested, were:

The Creek
Sevenling (“High on the windward hills”)
Poem
Scorpio Over La Selva
Stoat
Troy Town
McNaught
The Memory of Water
At Gedney Hill
Hares In December

Ringing Redstarts
Paradise Tanager
Pinkfeet
Dotterel
Yellow Wagtails
Another
Gossamer
Another Bloody Poem About Birds
Raining, Craswall, Evening
Skylarking

Yellowhammers
The Meeting Place
Crash
Heaven
Knots
West Leicester Lullaby

Oh, and I did a bit of birding along the North Norfolk coast on the way back yesterday, but the wildlife was rather overshadowed by an absolutely incredible thunderstorm. I was lucky that I wasn't caught out in it, so could just enjoy a real spectacle.