Mark Goodwin on Swallows

There's a terrific post here from Leicestershire poet Mark Goodwin, about his children hand-rearing a Swallow. It's interesting from an ornithological point of view, but it's also full of lovely writing. That phrase "a bringing in of the far" is great.

Mark Goodwin - Along A Line

This is a rather wonderful blog post by poet Mark Goodwin – make sure you watch the video at the end, too. Mark's books include a 2014 collection from Longbarrow Press, Steps, that explores walking, climbing and balancing, among other themes.

First Shindig of 2016

I've been very poor at updating things around here just lately, but for now it's worth highlighting this event, on Monday night - as always, it's worth making the effort to get along to. Open mic slots will be available, and Mark Goodwin always reads well. It all starts at 7.30pm, and entry is free.

States of Independence - the best yet?

Saturday's States of Independence event at De Montfort University was arguably the best yet - certainly it seemed busier than ever.

I was only able to be there for part of the afternoon, but I did catch readings by Simon Perril and Julia Gaze, promoting their Open House chapbooks. I bought both, and very good they are too - I'll have more to say about them in a later post.

I caught up with plenty of familiar faces from Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham and further afield - Roy Marshall, Mal Dewhirst, Alan Baker, CJ Allen, DA Prince, Mark Goodwin and Jane Commane among them - and it was nice to meet Ian Parks for the first time.

Oh, and I bought a few more books. A chapbook of translations of TH Parry-Williams from Shoestring Press is excellent, and I also picked up Shoestring's Commons, Nadia Kingsley and David Calcutt's Road Kill, from Fair Acre Press*, and a book of local history, Getting The Coal, which I've been enjoying immensely. Congratulations to all concerned on another superb event.

* Fair Acre also had a gorgeous-looking book, Shropshire's Butterflies, which ought to appeal to the natural historian every bit as much as the poetry reader. Definitely one to add to the must-buy list.

March 2013 Shindig!

The latest Nine Arches Press/Crystal Clear Creators Leicester Shindig takes place at The Western, Western Road, Leicester, next Monday at 7.30pm.

Featured readers are Nicola Deane, Jonathan Taylor, Jess Green and Mark Goodwin, and there are the usual open mic slots available - sign up early to make sure of one. Entrance is free.

A gleaning

Over at Kumquat Poetry the other day, this rather splendid piece, Kings, appeared from Mark Goodwin. It's gleaned from my own poem Once and future kings, which appeared at Kumquat a few weeks ago.

Many thanks to Mark for taking the time to engage with my own work, and to Kumquat for showing such interest too.

Stop me and try one

The new issue of Tears In The Fence - no.55 to be exact - arrived in the post yesterday. In fact, two copies arrived, because I subscribe, and I also have a poem, Saltings, in this issue.

As you'll hopefully be able to see from the terrible photo (phone-cam, sorry) above, it's had an external makeover, with glossy, colour covers. Inside, though, the format is much the same. Lots of poetry, fiction, and a really hefty section of essays and reviews. The quality is excellent  as always (on my first skim through, I read fine poems by Kerry Featherstone, Mark Goodwin, Andy Brown and Rupert Loydell - I tend to turn to the names I know first), but there's also an awful lot to read. It's as much a book as a mag.

Anyway, instead of listening to me talk about it, you should try it yourself. There's a free copy going to the first person to claim it - just send me your details in the comment box of this post, and I'll mail it out to you. You will then, of course, become a subscriber and spread the word about one of the UK"s best literary mags, wont't you?

Underneath the arches

Saturday saw the first States of Independence (west), at Eastside Projects, Digbeth, Birmingham, just along the street from the Custard Factory, as it turned out. Appropriately, given that the viaduct above towered over the venue, the Nine Arches Press stall was the first thing to meet my eyes as I entered, but as with the previous SoI events, at De Montfort University in Leicester, plenty of small presses were present.


I heard Geraldine Monk's excellent and energetic reading from her recent Leafe Press book, Lobe Scarps & Finials*, which lit up the rather murkily-lit reading space, and Jim Caruth's understated but quietly resonant poetry. I heard him a few years back, at the the Derwent Poetry Festival, and enjoyed his debut collection A Stone's Throw, so it was nice to catch up with what he'd done since.

In between times, I ate cake (of course), and spent some money. Longbarrow Press's anthology of readings by poets including Matthew Clegg, Kelvin Corcoran, Jim Caruth, Rob Hindle, Mark Goodwin and Lee Harwood grabbed my attention (very good it is, too), and I also bought Lee Harwood's The Books, a mini-chapbook/CD combo, also from Longbarrow. Jon Stone and Kirsten Irving of Sidekick Books were also there, and I bought their Confronting The Danger Of Art, by Ian McLachlan and Phil Cooper. I got it for my sister, but she might have to wait now until I buy a second copy. It comes complete with a badge, you see, and I can't tell you how much I like that.

It was good to chat with Robin Vaughan-Williams, who was manning the HappenStance stand as tirelessly as ever, and with another HappenStancer, Gregory Leadbetter, as well as with John Lucas, of Shoestring Press (a couple of his titles, and a couple on the Five Leaves Press table next door, really caught the eye, but will have to wait until next payday), Alan Baker of Leafe Press, Geraldine Monk, and last but not least, Salt poet Cliff Yates, whose fine collection Frank Freeman's Dancing School I enjoyed earlier in the year.**

* I was going to post a full review of the collection on here, but I'll be writing a review for the next issue of Under The Radar instead.
** If you're reading Cliff, sorry I didn't catch up with you again later. We got cut off mid-discussion and I had to scoot rather too fast. If I can remember what it was I was just about to say, I'll email you.

Last night's Shindig

Last night's Nine Arches Press Shindig at The Western in Leicester was the usual entertaining and thought-provoking mixture of open mic and featured readings.

After I'd managed to get through my set without dissolving into a fit of coughing (I seem to manage to catch a heavy cold a couple of days before all my readings now) Deborah Tyler-Bennett read from her new Nine Arches chapbook, Mytton...Dyer...Sweet Billy Gibson, as well as from other recent collections (including the excellent Pavilion). There's always a terrific stripped-down energy to her poems, and she always reads well too. I enjoyed her set a lot, and I've been enjoying the book this evening.

The second half, hosted by Crystal Clear Creators, featured a hugely entertaining short story from Alex Plasatis, and a set from Leicester poet Roy Marshall, who has a pamphlet forthcoming from CCC. His poems are compact and poised, packing an awful lot into very few lines. I'll look forward to seeing his collection.

In between times, in the open mic spots, Gary Longden's paean to Rebekah Brooks was great, and one of the lines from Mark Goodwin's poem remained bouncing around my head for most of today, but all the readers were of a reliably high standard. What I also find really interesting is how certain ideas and themes emerge during the course of each of these evenings, from a very disparate range of poets.

I also bought Angela France's Nine Arches chapbook Lessons In Mallemaroking, and picked up a copy of Tony Williams' extraordinary All The Rooms Of Uncle's Head for review. Lots of reading ahead - looking forward to my week off from Monday. 

Oh, and as usual, my set:

Zugunruhe

Things Left In Hotel Rooms

Coolidge

1984

Black-throated Diver, Lochindorb

Summer Breeze

Gossamer

Untitled

Shod takes top award!

I was delighted to see on Twitter last night that Mark Goodwin's Shod, published by Nine Arches Press, has won the East Midlands Book Award.

The worthy winner was announced by Ian McMillan, one of the judges, at the Lowdham Book Festival, with Shod chosen from this strong shortlist.

The book's very different from what you might expect from Mark if you've only read his (also excellent) Shearsman collections - I haven't seen any comments from the judges yet, but it's a book that rather transcends genres, a real one-of-a-kind.

Now it's even easier...

...to buy Nine Arches Press books. The new online shop is up and running, meaning you can directly order copies of Under The Radar magazine, short stories by Joel Lane, or poetry from the likes of David Hart, David Morley, Roz Goddard, Luke Kennard, Myra Connell, Claire Crowther, Ruth Larbey, Simon Turner, Mark Goodwin, Peter Carpenter and myself.

You don't need a PayPal account (no bad thing, given the problems I've had getting my account to work lately), and postage is just £1 per item.

There are also seperate pages for each publication now (here's the one for my collection, hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica), and a sneak-preview of some of Nine Arches' forthcoming publications.

Constructed Landscapes

Last Thursday, I took part in a workshop led by Mark Goodwin at the Phoenix in Leicester, which took the work of artist Helen Saunders as its starting point.

It was a great couple of hours, very inspiring, and I'm going to go back for another look at Helen's work, as the exhibition has been extended until a week on Friday (June 10th). Quite the best thing, I think, was that Helen herself took part, and talked quite a bit about her processes and techniques.

I'm going to come back to that, and its relevance to poetry (incidentally, I might be wrong, but I think Helen's responsible for the cover of Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts' Edgelands), in more depth a bit later, but in the meantime, I can recommend the exhibition very highly.

Poetry at SoundCloud

Mark Goodwin pointed me in the direction of the rather splendid SoundCloud, and in particular the Air To Hear group. Mark and a number of other poets have been posting recordings to the group for a while now - have a listen to some of them. They're far from being straight readings of poems.

Mark's own Frost And Stars was the first that I listened to, but there's loads of other good stuff. Some work better than others, but it's a really goods way of getting poetry out there.

Nominated

hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica is one of the nominations for the East Midlands Book Award 2010, alongside poets such as Mark Goodwin (nominated for both his Nine Arches Press and Shearsman volumes), Deborah Tyler-Bennett, John Gallas and Maxine Linnell. It's also a pleasure and an honour to be on any list with Jon McGregor.

Warwick Words Shindig

There's the latest Nine Arches Press Shindig at Wilde's Wine Bar, The Parade, Leamington Spa, this Sunday (12th September), at 7.30pm. Entry is free.

To celebrate October's Warwick Words festival, it will feature a reading from Warwick Laureates past and present, plus a prize draw for tickets to two Warwick Words events and some Nine Arches goodies. Warwick Laureates past and present confirmed to be reading so far are: Helen Yendall, Jane Holland, Cathy Whittaker and Marg Roberts.

Mark Goodwin will also be reading from his latest Nine Arches collection, Shod, and there'll be live music, too. You can sign up for open mic slots on the door.

Sweet sole music

Monday night saw a book launch with a difference, as Mark Goodwin's new Nine Arches Press collection Shod was unveiled at The Looking Glass in Leicester.

Rather than the traditional format - poet reads selection of pieces from new book - Shodfest saw a number of Midlands poets (Steve Carroll, Pam Thompson, Lydia Towsey, George Ttoouli, Simon Perrill, Stevie Blue, Katie Daniels and myself) picking four pieces each from the book (which tells the story of shoe messiah Sidney Realer), then reading them in turn. If the poet before you read the piece you'd been planning to read, you moved on to your next piece, and so on. It'd be hard to pick out highlights, although Simon's breathless recital was great, while Lydia injected real tension and drama into the proceedings.

It worked really well, I thought. It was fascinating to hear different people's takes on the book, and I only hope we did Mark some sort of justice. The collection, incidentally, is terrific - you can read more about it here.

The open mic was excellent, too, with some familiar faces and some new, the latter including conceptual poet Ira Lightman, who was passing through Leicester and popped in. All things considered, a triumph, not at all dampened by an absolutely torrential downpour as I drove home.

Shodfest!

Myra Connell - From The Boat

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Myra Connell is among the readers at this Sunday's Nine Arches Press Shindig at Wilde's Bar, Leamington Spa. The others, as if I'd let you forget even for a minute, are Luke Kennard and myself, and there'll be open mic slots available to sign up to on the night.

Myra will be launching her chapbook (a very substantial one, too) From The Boat. I've been enjoying reading it this last week - it's allusive, often elusive poetry, showing a refreshing lack of fear of taking risks or, when the occasion demands, communicating simply and honestly.

Anyway, I'll have much more to say about it soon, with a full review, but in the meantime let's just say that I recommend it very warmly.

There's plenty more of interest in the Nine Arches catalogue, too, and some great new releases to come very soon (I've been awaiting Simon Turner's second collection very eagerly, and Mark Goodwin's chapbook sequence Shod also promises great things, judging by what we heard at the Leicester Shindig at the end of January).

But anyway, if you'd like a signed copy of Myra's chapbook, there's only one place to be on Sunday evening.

Off to a flyer

I might not get the chance to post as full a review as I'd like, with work rather getting in the way of the important stuff at the moment, but just a few words to say that last night's Nine Arches Press Shindig at The Looking Glass, Leicester, was a great start to what we hope will be a long-running series.

The downstairs room (it also gets used for the excellent Ship of Fools comedy nights) proved to be just about the perfect size - it was pretty much full, and the acoustics were good - but of course any poetry night stands or falls by the actual poetry.

So, Matt Nunn was the perfect man to kick things off. His high-octane style quickly had the very responsive audience eating out of his hand (not literally - that would just be weird). I've written before on here about how much I like his new book, Sounds In The Grass, but one more time won't hurt. It's wonderful - buy it.

Mark Goodwin was flying the flag for Leicester, and read beautifully from Shod, a forthcoming pamphlet-length sequence. You often hear the complaint these days that poets don't tackle real issues or politics, but I'm hearing more and more, and this certainly did in fine style, without ever descending into sloganeering. Keep an eye out for the pamphlet very soon.

I thought we might struggle to get open mic readers first time out, but five brave souls got up and had a go, both familiar names and new. And best of all, there was some really fine poetry in there.

Finally, Tony Williams read from his Salt collection The Corner Of Arundel Lane And Charles Street, and read very well indeed. There's something very subtly off-kilter about Tony's poetry, perhaps the result of some European infuences (I'm really not well-read enough to know for certain), but whatever it is, it gives it a certain edge of the seat quality. You're never quite certain where it's going, but you enjoy the ride a great deal.

In fact, one thing common to all three featured readers was the way they used humour. You hear it said that it's easy, at a reading, to just go for easy laughs to win the audience over, at the expense of the actual serious business of poetry. But I think what all three of these poets do so well is go for the uneasy laughs - you know it's funny, but you don't know why, and there's always its mirror-image just around the corner.

I'm rambling. Let's just say it was a great night, and thanks very much to all who took part and attended. Watch this space for details of more Shindigs in Leicester very soon.

Don't forget...

The first of a regular series of readings/open mics, run in conjunction with Nine Arches Press, takes place at The Looking Glass, on the corner of Braunstone Gate and Narborough Road in Leicester, on Monday, January 25th, at 7.30pm.

We've got a great line-up, with Tony Williams, Mark Goodwin and Matt Nunn, plus support from anyone out there who'd like to get up and launch the open mic in style.

Tony Williams is a Sheffield poet, whose debut collection The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street (Salt) has been highly acclaimed nationally. The Guardian said: “…from all our cultural loam and junk, Williams has made real magic.”

Mark Goodwin is Leicester-based, and a member of Inky Fish poets, and his work deals with landscape, nature, and their connections to the human world. I wrote about his fine Shearsman collection Else on here last year, and he's always an enthralling reader.

Last but certainly not least, there's Matt Nunn, Birmingham poet, editor and co-founder of Nine Arches, whose latest collection Sounds In The Grass was one of my favourites of last year.

The readings start at 7.30pm, and you can sign up for open mic slots on the door.