Hollow Earth, a selection of new poems written by NTU Secondary English PGCE teachers following their visit to the inspiring Hollow Earth: Art, Caves and the Subterranean Imaginary exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary in January 2023.
Living as a Writer
Join us online at NAWE Conference 10-11th March for two packed days of talks, workshops, presentations and lively discussions about…
School Dinners: Tapioca
Tapioca, a new poem, has just been published in English in Education. Enjoy – even if you don’t like tapioca!
Writing in Education Vol 88
The latest issue of Writing in Education published this week online by NAWE.
Organ Grinder reading: Tues 7 Feb at 8
I’ll be reading a selection of mainly new poems including Found works from the Melbourne virtual residency that I had…
The Year of the Rabbit
Happy New Year and thanks to Yuka Nakai for her delightful drawing to celebrate The Year of the Water Rabbit…
Celebrating Cliff Yates
A post in celebration of the wonderful poet, human being and Villa supporter Cliff Yates
Found Poetry writing workshop
Why don’t you write some found poetry this month? Come to my workshop for Nottingham Poetry Society: 26th November 2 -3.45pm ICC, Mansfield Road.
Environmental poetry
It’s National Poetry Day this Thursday (6th October). I hope lots of poets and poems are making new connections with…
Poetry Writing Workshop for Victoria State Library
Below is a YouTube recording of the poetry writing workshop I gave for young people online for the State Library…
Poetry Place at Arnold Library
Inspire Culture Poetry Festival 2022 is now well underway across Nottinghamshire libraries. Visit Arnold library to see the Poetry Place touring exhibition.
Updated poetry writing/teaching links
I’ve recently updated my links page by adding new links to some more of my favourite poets and poetry journals…
Moniza Alvi and Alan Baker: new poetry
Spring is proving to be a great season for new poetry. My two best reads so far both present fascinating…
Melbourne poem 4: Sold
Sold is the last of my Found Works from the State Library of Victoria archive. It draws on advertisements from…
Melbourne Poems 3: Lost, Stolen or Strayed?
Lost, Stolen or Strayed? is the third Found Work written during my virtual residency with the State Library of Victoria
Dancing in the sky: young Melbourne writers
Melbourne young writers were sharing some very promising ideas last weekend in their Gandal writing workshop hosted by State Library of Victoria. Here are some of their lovely suggestions about the keys to Melbourne Zoo…
Keep on writing: ideas for writing poems and stories exploring State Library Victoria’s collections
This weekend’s workshop with Melbourne young people will focus on using digitised artefacts and photographs from the State Library of Victoria
Melbourne Poems 2: Flag-Staff
Flag-Staff is the second Found Work arising from my Melbourne City of Literature virtual residency.
Chinese Tea and Poetry
As the Spring Festival draws to a close, there was a good deal to learn and savour about Chinese Tea and poetry at Lakeside on Sunday.
Melbourne poems 1: Sailed from Naarm
Sailed from Naarm 1838 – 1846 is the first for a series of Found Works created during my virtual residency at the State Library of Victoria for Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature
Counterfeiting Robert Burns
While you prepare to sip your wee dram of Talisker (or other preferred tipple) and to address your haggis on…
Poetry Place: virtual exhibition & book
Poetry Place virtual exhibition now live. Be Inspired.
The Shed (for Dad)
I read this poem at our lovely Dad’s funeral at St Nicholas Church, Stevenage on Friday. Thanks to everyone who…
Melbourne Virtual Writer-in-Residence
I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected as a virtual writer-in-residence for Melbourne, Australia in November 2021.…
Poetry Place exhibition open
The Poetry Place exhibition is now open for viewing in Mansfield Central Library until 31st October 2021 and then on tour around Nottinghamshire libraries until 2023.
Poetry Place and Inspire Poetry Festival
Poetry Place exhibition opens 18th Sept at Mansfield Central Library. Poetry Place workshops 25th Sept and 9th October at Edwinstowe Library.
Publications update…
Raceme reviews and poem In its spring/summer edition the Bristol-based journal Raceme published a new poem ‘Across Colne Water’ along…
Connecting on National Writing Day
It’s National Writing Day today (June 23rd) so take a moment, take part and write wherever you are. Head over…
Out of Time
Delighted that my Out of Time poem has just been published on Dwelling During the Pandemic, Ohio State University’s Poetry…
Tinkering with Words, Playing with Language…
Just gearing up for my open lecture for the Japanese Society of Teaching Japanese Spring Conference next weekend. The session…
Dazzling poets
Over the last week I’ve been rereading You Speak in Constellations – the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Anthology…
New Writing in New Writing
Our paper focuses on issues of permission and the space for creative writing practice. he paper began as a reflective piece on space and face-to-face poetry workshop practices but, because of the way the pandemic is potentially changing so much about how writers of all ages are able to work, we thought it was important to begin to explore some of the new challenges and opportunities for creative writing post-COVID.
Free Miner2Major poetry workshops using archive images
The programme of workshops is now well underway and it is great that some poems have already been submitted for…
Poetry Place free poetry writing workshops: new dates added
Poetry Place free writing workshops on Miner2Major Sherwood Forest Region. New dates added: https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/whats-on/events/poetry-place-writing-archive-photography-sherwood-forest-area-online-workshop-2/
Spring Learning
This poem was written last spring as streets fell silent and we peered out warily. It was one of very…
Some poets and poems to enjoy on International Women’s Day 2021
I could spend days recommending favourite poets and specific poems and still not get to the bottom of my list…
Poetry Place: Sherwood Forest online poetry workshops
https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/whats-on/events/poetry-place-writing-archive-photography-sherwood-forest-area-online-workshop/ There are just a few places left on this first pair of free Inspire online poetry workshops, funded by…
The Poetry Table: Politics of Poetic Craft
I’ve spent a late snowy afternoon online today in the good company of Hafsah Aneela Bashir, Yomi Sode and Anthony Joseph, the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows 2019-20.
Poetry Dispatches from 2020
Caroline’s Bird’s The Air Year was without doubt this year’s most breath-taking read. The sweep and swirl of her fifth…
Translating Kazakh poetry
Last week I participated in a collaborative Kazakh poetry translation workshop run by the Poetry Translation Centre. The evening was great fun and I learned a good deal about Kazakh language and poetry.
New publications
I have two new poetry-related academic publications which will I hope interest you: Published on line this month: Hennessy, J.,…
Science and Poetry: Atomic poems
Last week I participated in a fascinating online event to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2020. It was organised by Junction…
Vision: some favourite poems for NPD
Happy National Poetry Day 2020 everyone. I hope you are feeling excited and nurtured by all the poetry treats that are winging your way today – and that you can store some of them up to see you through these difficult autumn days. The theme of this year’s NPD is ‘Vision’ which is a lovely subject, open to many different interpretations. Here are some of my personal favourites on that broad theme…
Fires: Deryn Rees-Jones
Fires, is an exquisite work by Deryn Rees-Jones with images by Charlotte Hodes. It is hard to pin down exactly what Fires is. You might call it a long poem, a lyric essay or a collage of ideas about the nature of poetry.
What they left behind
Thinking of all friends in Japan today (August 6th) a very difficult seventy fifth anniversary day. I wrote this poem…
Dollies: an animation by Carina Barber
For this final example of design work based on my poems by NTU Graphic Design students, I have chosen an…
Testing the Water
A delightful short poem film by Maria Vidal
I’ll never get over the moon
It’s been a moon filled month and for a certified moon geek like me, who wrote her first poem about the moon in the weeks of excitement that summer in 1969, it has been a blast. First there was the fantastic Apollo 11 film directed by Todd Douglas Miller and there’s always been moon-related poetry to inspire us.