Friday, April 23, 2010

Peter Porter

So Peter Porter has died ; one fish fewer swimming against the poetry tide. I don't mean in terms of attitude, but stylistically - an Augustan, metaphysical and satirical poet, in a largely Romantic age. I met him once, a few years ago when he came to read and talk to the creative writing students at Sheffield Hallam. He was good-natured and tolerant, urbane and interesting. He talked about Auden, and read one or two including 'The Cave of Making' - it unlocked Auden for me, and now when I read late Auden there's always the faint hint of an Australian accent somewhere in the background. And - he wouldn't have clumsily written the word 'Auden' three times in one short sentence, as I just have...

Qualm

April's issue of Qualm is now online, containing poems by Jamie McKendrick, Claire Crowther, Malachi Smyth, John Whitworth, and three by me. Hurray!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

'An inventive, incisive first book'

Ben Wilkinson reviews The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street in the TLS, and very generously too:

'With virtuosity and brio, the poems blend the English lyric tradition with the styles of European and, in particular, German writers from Goethe to Gottfried Benn, developing a decorative yet tightly metered free verse as capable of witty evocation of complicated landscapes as of subtle, plainspoken pathos.'

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Lemon Monkey reading

Monday, April 12, 2010

Two places behind John Keats...

Very pleased to see that The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street is listed at number 11 in Salt's top 20 bestselling books of last year – pinching myself, in fact.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Beehive Poets Readings

Next Monday I'm reading with fellow Salt poet Antony Rowland at Beehive Poets in Bradford. It's at the New Beehive Inn, a classy old boozer by all accounts. 8.30 start. Be there or be elsewhere...

Thursday, April 01, 2010

NaPoWriMo