RED CAR MOTORS ON TO THE UK

My little red car tour for my poetry pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car is over at the inimitably wonderful Vanessa Gebbie's blog here today.

Oh, and I won the Literary Death Match last night. Score! It was enormous fun. Big thanks to Todd Zuniga for being a brilliant host. Report anon.

THE RED CAR TOUR IN GRAN CANARIA

I'm over at Irish poet Liz Gallagher's Musings blog today on stop#4 of The Red Car Tour, for my new poetry pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car. We are dressed in red frocks and enjoying the carnival in Gran Canaria, while discussing poetry and translation and other stuff. Join us by clicking HERE.

THE RED CAR TOUR CONTINUES TOMORROW

Hi all, do stop by tomorrow for directions to poet Liz Gallagher's blog in The Canary Islands for the next stop on my Red Car Virtual Tour for Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car.

We will be dressed in carnival outfits (what more could you ask for?!) and chatting about prose poems, poetry in translation etc. We'd love you to join us!

RAMBLING IN MY RED CAR OVER TO SCOTLAND

I'm so pleased to be in Angus in Scotland on my Red Car Tour. I lived in Ullapool in the Highlands for a spell so it is lovely to be back in the only country outside of Ireland where I've ever truly felt at home.

Poet Rachel Fox has done a really charming (and welcoming) job of having me at her blog, More About the Song. Zoom on over there to see what she says (it's all very lovely) and listen in on on our little chat.

FRUSTRATED IN GALWAY

I am fed up with people on Facebook going on about how much they are writing. '10,000 words today - I'm on a roll!' 'A whole story done today - yipee!' etc etc. Oh go away.
I am hardly writing at all. I want to write, I have the will, even the little clicks of things to write about but it is IMPOSSIBLE with an 8 month old baby who wants undivided attention. And I can't afford a creche, so don't suggest it. Neither do I have family on hand to provide relief. The only time I get to write these days is late at night when baby's Dad is here to take over (and I'm usually too tired by then) or in the car when he drives. That's why I like going places more than ever.
I'm not looking for sympathy. I am just VENTING. Today I sat her on my lap while she wriggled and screeched and I put the finishing touches to my poetry MS before sending it to the publisher. It was frustrating and not a little difficult. I hope the MS is not back to front or inside out or anything.

OK. Rant over. Join me tomorrow at Rachel Fox's blog for an interview as part of my Red Car Tour for my poetry pamphlet. We talk bravery, among other things.

VIRTUAL TOUR FRIDAY & TANIA'S SHORT FIC SUBS LIST

Back from the birthday jaunt to Roma, which was rather lovely, and I'm too busy to blog properly.

So, 2 quick things:

I am at Rachel Fox's blog on Friday for stop 2 on The Red Car Tour. Do join us for a spin.

Tania Hershman has an excellent list of places that publish short fiction in the UK and Ireland here at her blog. It includes links. She spoils us all really.

VIRTUAL POETRY TOUR KICKS OFF XMAS EVE

I've decided to do a mini virtual tour for Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, my new poetry pamphlet out from Templar Poetry. I have a few poet/bloggers lined up to host me. Thanks y'all.
Sick of all the ice and frost here, I am jetting off to sunny New Zealand for my first stop at the blog-home of the lovely Rachel Fenton, which is seasonally (?!) called Snow Like Thought.
Tune in on Christmas Eve for our chat. We talk about poetic obsessions and Paul Durcan, amongst other things.
HUGE thanks to Total Feckin' Eejit who designed my tour logo above. Thanks TFE!

DERWENT POETRY FESTIVAL - A REVIEW

The Derwent Poetry Festival was fantastic: relaxed and friendly and there were lots and lots of women poets reading, which made a refreshing change from many literary festivals.


Friday night kicked off in Masson Mills with the presentations to the four 2009 Templar Poetry pamphlet winners (of which I’m one) and a reading from Pat Winslow.

Masson Mills is an enormous textile mill which has has been converted into a shopping area and conference suites. It lies just outside the Victorian spa resort of Matlock Bath which is situated more or less in a gorge. The whole place is stunning: stone-cut houses, the impressive gorge over the river, sweet little souvenir shops, Victorian bandstands and foot-bridges. It is a gorgeous place to hold a poetry festival. And in nearby Cromford, there is a fabulous, quirky bookshop called Scarthin Books that has a café with veggie food and vegan cake. Vegan cake! It was made for us...


As a former actress, Pat Winslow read beautifully and I enjoyed her poetry which featured, among many things, salt, flits to France and some work based on her experience of working in prisons. Sample here.

With baby in tow, I didn’t get to every reading but I got to as much as I could. My own reading was on the Saturday afternoon with fellow pamphlet winner, Omagh native Dawn Wood. Dawn is a very engaging and warm reader. She is a scientist by profession (in a Dundee university) and she read beautiful science-inspired poetry about everything from hummingbird names to taxidermy.


Poets Dawn Wood, Paul Maddern, me, Katrina Naomi

I read exclusively from my pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, which was unusual and fun, as many of the poems are quite recent. I will be giving away copies here next week, so stay tuned!

Belfast resident, Bermuda born Paul Maddern – another pamphlet winner – read later on in the day; I thoroughly enjoyed his poetry which was full of rich, unusual language; some of the poems were very moving and they were packed with the colour and vibrancy of the landscape in Bermuda.

The Irish feature strongly on Templar Poetry’s list, and Saturday night saw two more Irish poets take the floor: Maggie O’Dwyer from Dublin and Enniskillen man Nigel McLoughlin. Both read wonderfully well – I laughed out loud at some of the wry and often hilarious moments in both of their work. Maggie was launching her first full collection and she stated that ‘First collections are about the past’, which I am inclined to agree with. Like her pamphlet, which won last year’s competition, her collection Laughter Heard from the Road, is full of slant humour, colour, pear trees and wafts of cigarette smoke. My only complaint about Maggie’s reading was that it was too short – I could’ve listened to her for ages.

Nigel started his reading by saying it was great to read to an audience that loves poetry but also scary. ‘What if they don’t like the work?’ he worried. He needn’t have fretted – we loved the work. He read many beautiful, crafted poems featuring his family, including the stunning poem ‘Topography’ where he and his sons’ and wife’s bodies make mountains in ‘the Ireland of the bed’. Nigel’s language is sparky and fresh and his poems are incredibly well made.

The last full reading I attended was the last reading of the festival, featuring Scottish poet Angela Cleland and Katrina Naomi from London. Angela leans towards performance poetry and she has a confident, conversational style. She talked about how at readings everything you say and do can be taken away and used by the other poets, and then read a poem about a striking woman at a lit event, whom she had ‘stolen’ for a poem.

Katrina Naomi

Katrina Naomi’s poetry is very much my cup of tea: it is dark, concise, blackly humorous and zinging with life. Katrina’s personal style is genteel rockabilly and she looked fabulous in a purple 1940’s dress which was gifted to her by a member of last year’s Derwent Festival audience! Don’t you just love the nice things that happen via poetry?! Katrina is currently writer-in-res at Haworth, home of the Brontë sisters. She read from her new collection The Girl with the Cactus Handshake and a stand-out poem for me was ‘Tunnel of Love’ which is set in Dreamland, her local childhood amusement park in Margate. It’s a sharp poem about male vanity and teenage love/lust-angst. I loved all of her work and her reading was a great ending to what was a fantastic, warm-hearted festival. All credit to Templar Poetry’s main man, Alex Mc Millen.

Alex McMillen - publisher, Templar Poetry

Two things to note:
1) Templar publish the literary magazine Iota and there is still time to enter their first poetry competition here.

2) Next year’s pamphlet and collection competition will be judged by Pat Winslow. I will advertise it here as soon as details become available.

Portrait of the Artist with a Red...Vehicle?!


Thanks, once again, to Culture Ireland for funding!

BACK FROM DERWENT & MELUSINE POEMS

A quick post to say I am back in half-a-piece and one book richer from the Derwent Poetry Festival which was magical, fun, relaxed and wonderful. (Half-a-piece because me and The Baby both have colds and are exhausted - but happy!) I will catch up with you all later.

Our town has suffered in the floods so there is all sorts of issues with school closures, no drinking water etc. to be getting on with. Plus the Dublin launch of Nude is on Wednesday. No rest for the wicked or the sick...

I hope to write a proper report on the festival asap. Meanwhile, I have two poems on the Melusine AKA Woman in the 21st Century site, an online journal of literature and art by women (but not only women) about women here.

DERWENT POETRY FESTIVAL

JUNO WRITING A POEM...

The 3rd Derwent Poetry Festival takes place at Masson Mills, Matlock Bath from the 20th - 22nd November 2009.
It celebrates the publication of 4 new Templar Poetry Pamphlets, including my pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car; some new collections and the Templar Poetry Anthology.

My reading is on the Saturday:
1.45 - 2.30pm
Pamphlet Poets Reading: 1
Two of the four winning poets from the
2009 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection
Competition: 2009, Judged by Tim Liardet

Dawn Wood reads from Connoisseur
Nuala Ní Chonchúir reads from Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car

Thanks to Culture Ireland for funding my trip across the water.

ALL IRELAND POETRY DAY 2009

I'm reading tomorrow in Athlone Library for All Ireland Poetry Day.

Venue: Aidan Heavey Public Library, Athlone Town Centre, Co Westmeath

Time: 7pm, 1st October

There are hundreds events on all around the country so do try to get to something.

I'll read from Molly's Daughter, Tattoo:Tatú and my forthcoming pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car.