Category Archives: poetry

The Status of the Cat – Sean Elliot’s recently published poetry collection

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Clare Spencer

In May 2013 I found myself coping with depression. Through the fog I reasoned that if I felt this bad, it would be difficult to feel any worse so why not take a risk? I had repeatedly tried to have … Continue reading →

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Uncovering a hidden history – Nessa O’Mahony’s new poetry collection

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Clare Spencer

For much of my life, I had absolutely no idea that my grandfather, Michael McCann, had fought in the First World War. I grew up with the image of him as the archetypal Irish nationalist hero of the first decades … Continue reading →

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Ink Pantry interview with Mike Johnson on visual poetry

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Clare Spencer

An interview with Mike Johnson, on the subject of visual poetry, was published in the Ink Pantry blog on 14 June 2014.  Ink Pantry Publishing was founded by a group of former students ‘whose paths crossed while studying Creative Writing … Continue reading →

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Heavenly Bodies – a constellation of poetry

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Clare Spencer

During the first three weeks of 2014, eighty eight poets around the world started writing a poem – some were veterans with several collections to their name, some only at the start of their careers, some were writing with English … Continue reading →

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Debut poetry chapbook from Shanta Everington

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Clare Spencer

Shanta Everington’s debut poetry chapbook, Drowning in Cherryade, is published this month by US-based independent publisher, bedouin books, (http://www.bedouinbooks.com) after winning their annual poetry chapbook competition. Editor Michael D’Alessandro says, ‘Drowning in Cherryade conjures candy-colored scenes of youth mirrored in … Continue reading →

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Mike Johnson’s visual poetry displayed

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Clare Spencer

I recently had a couple of visual poems displayed in a Swindon Art Gallery, under the auspices of ‘Domestic Cherry’ magazine and Swindon Artsite. Sometime before that, I had a number of poems displayed,  for a month, in Corsham Library, … Continue reading →

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Mike Johnson’s career in poetry writing

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Clare Spencer

 My poetic praxis principally stems from PhD studies on twentieth-century kinaesthetic and otherwise experimental poetry (e.g. visual poetry, sound poetry, Merz, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) – what could be called avant-garde Modernism or Postmodernism.  Making it new, both in terms of structure and … Continue reading →

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Katrina Naomi is awarded writing residency

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Clare Spencer

Katrina Naomi has been awarded a prestigious Gladstone’s Library Residency in 2013. She has just returned from reading at the Poetry on the Lake Festival in Italy, where she won second prize in the Poetry on the Lake short poem … Continue reading →

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Pauline Plummer (Hughes): recent writing successes

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Clare Spencer

Pauline Plummer’s verse novella From Here to Timbuktu has been chosen as a Read Regional book, by New Writing North.  This means that it will be promoted for the next nine months through readings and publicity.  The Read Regional campaign … Continue reading →

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A new verse novel from Pauline Hughes

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Clare Spencer

Smokestack Books, the publishers of Pauline’s new verse novel, describe it as follows: ‘ The fabled city of Timbuktu, once the dazzling capital of the Songhay empire, is now just another impoverished desert town on the tourist trail. From Here to Timbuktu follows … Continue reading →

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