tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24221120667906513132024-03-17T08:20:13.193+00:00litrefsLiterary News and Views by Tim LoveTim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.comBlogger559125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-36217543422039455212024-03-14T06:46:00.001+00:002024-03-14T06:46:42.878+00:00It's personal<p><img src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/tshirtcareful.jpg" style="float:right; width:300px">By default in poems, "I" is the poet. In a poetry book with several poems about "mother", it's tempting to assume they're all about the same person. These assumptions aren't always correct. At the very least, names might be changed to protect the innocent. Details might be adjusted to improve a poem - events might be conflated or exaggerated; surplus details and people might be edited out.</p>
<p>Policies vary. In "Material" by Ros Barber (Anvil, 2008) there's little to stop readers identifying the persona with the poet. The Acknowledgements page ends with "<i>Finally, apologies are due to all those individuals who find themselves incorporated as 'material' when they would have chosen otherwise</i>"</p>
<p>Robert Lowell used quotes from letters by (ex) wife Elizabeth Hardwick when writing "The Dolphin". He did so without permission. When he changed details for aesthetic reasons, it sometimes made Hardwick look worse than she was. The book won a Pulitzer.</p>
<p>Perhaps more writers should wear a tee-shirt like I got one Xmas. Don't worry - I don't write novels. Anyway, I'm careful when writing about people living or dead. More than once I've shown someone a poem/story, asking if I could publish it. And the "I" in my poems is often not me even when the details come from my life.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-67839351012108234872024-03-07T21:46:00.003+00:002024-03-07T21:46:48.125+00:003 events this week<p>On Sunday I went to CB1 - live, open-mic poetry in Cambridge. Maybe 30 people were there. My favourites were a poem about grief (with mirrors and boxes) and a comic piece that kept coming up with good lines (I wish I'd written some down). I read a 250 word piece of Flash - maybe the shortest piece of the night.</p>
<p>On Monday I Zoomed into a Milton Keynes Lit Fest event - a discussion about Flash with Electra Rhodes and Jupiter Jones. About 70 people attended. Rhodes gave some useful checklists of ways to improve a text. One idea is to use vocabulary from one domain (e.g. knitting) for a piece that has nothing to do with that domain. What most struck me was the number of Flash pieces she's published given that she only started writing Flash during Covid. I manage about 5 published Flashes a year.</p>
<p>Tonight, Thursday, I Zoomed into a Matthew Stewart reading (Fire River Poets) - about 20 people, half of them doing open-mic. There was a short discussion after about Factual Truth vs Poetic Truth, and the influence of Larkin. When Larkin wrote "<i>Every poem starts out as either true or beautiful. Then you try to make the true ones seem beautiful and the beautiful ones true</i>" maybe by beauty he meant poetic truth.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-23278443599242244922024-03-01T06:58:00.000+00:002024-03-01T06:58:10.135+00:00Drafts on paper<p>When I'm at workshops others seem to come up with finished products in minutes. Not me. My first drafts (even of poems) aren't much good. I'm a rewriter.
<p><img src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/rewrite2024.jpg" style="float:right; width:300px">My first drafts are always hand-written. When I transfer them to a computer I still mostly edit on paper, printing them out so I can scribble on them. I use arrows (or sometimes numbers) to indicate changes in the sentence and clause order - I'm not good at getting the ordering right first time. I usually add more text than I take away. The closer to a final draft I get, the more I take into account the reader viewpoint. Just before I send a piece off I sometimes make changes purely for the editor (paying particular attention to the first paragraph, etc).</p>
<p>Editing on paper is becoming a lost art. Fortunately, Flaubert’s messy drafts have been scanned in – see for example "<a href="http://www.bovary.fr/folio_visu.php?mode=sequence&folio=&org=3&zoom=50&seq=91" >I, chap 7 : La levrette Djali - définitif, folio 91</a>". My <a href="https://litrefsarticles.blogspot.com/2017/12/rewriting-workshop.html">rewriting workshop</a> talk has more examples.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-32496449174714142842024-02-25T13:19:00.003+00:002024-02-25T13:19:31.845+00:00Substack<p>For years I've used Twitter, Facebook and Blogger. I look at Twitter and Facebook maybe twice a day, posting infrequently if I have publication news. I use Blogger more often, for storing and making posts. I've 1300+ mini-reviews there and many articles. It's easy to use and it's uncluttered. I've been using it since 2011. The stats (over 1.2 million hits) aren't especially meaningful because there's so much bot activity. Here they are anyway -</p>
<p style="clear:both"><img style="width:300px;float:right" src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/litrefs2011-2024.png"></p>
<p style="clear:both"><img style="width:300px;float:right" src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/litrefsreviews2011-2024.png"></p>
<p style="clear:both"><img style="width:300px;float:right" src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/litrefsarticles2011-2024.png"></p>
<p style="clear:both">Blogger's become less useful as those I used to follow (and who followed me) are leaving it. One of the common places they're migrating to is Substack, which offers syndicating and monetising features that Blogger lacks. If you put material there, it can be mailed to subscribers, and you can add material that only paid-up subscribers will receive. It's good for things like newsletters, and good for bait and switch. I'd have used it for publishing my articles and workshop notes had it existed a decade ago. I've started playing with it now, without knowing what I'm going to use it for. I'm watching the way people like KM Elkes use it, to get ideas.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-3255037219102449072024-02-20T08:18:00.004+00:002024-02-22T06:42:37.013+00:002024 - a quiet year so far<ul>
<li>Only 1 acceptance.</li>
<li>1 piece of Flash nearly written.</li>
<li>1 short story from years ago 30% rewritten, incorporating 2 recent Flashes.</li>
</ul>
<p>I don't feel as if I'm bursting with ideas, so it's time to focus on sending off. I've 6 stories, 8 Flashes and 9 poems out there awaiting judgement. 1 of the poems is in a competition (first time for years that I've tried) and 3 stories are in competitions. I've 7 stories to send off, and some poems that have recently been returned to me. Once I've dealt with those I really must get back to writing again.</p>
<p>The phase of the writing process that gives me the warmest glow of satisfaction is when a story I'm working on suddenly falls into shape - I can see what's not needed and where passages need to be added. Completion isn't far away and won't be hard to achieve. But reaching that phase is a struggle. Nowadays especially, as soon as a story reaches Flash length I'm tempted to stop, and start a new piece. My plan in the next month or so is to try the reverse - put some Flash pieces together to make a story.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-77611617354570367552024-02-07T19:35:00.003+00:002024-02-07T19:35:58.736+00:00UK Literary magazines in print<p>Call me old fashioned, but I still like literary magazines that are printed. There aren't many left. Recently it was announced that Planet and New Welsh Review are ceasing - together they've been going for 130 years. I realised recently that <a href="https://www.dreamcatchermagazine.co.uk/">Dream Catcher</a> (poetry and stories, with a few reviews) is still going, so I've subscribed to that. I already subscribe to</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/magazine">Under the Radar</a> (poetry and stories, with several poetry reviews)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.orbisjournal.com/">Orbis</a> (poetry and a few flash-length stories, with several poetry reviews)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com/">The Dark Horse</a> (poetry and essays)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.redsquirrelpress.com/postbox-magazine">Postbox</a> (all stories) - no subscription. I buy it when when it comes out.</li>
</ul>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-36883782853042243382024-01-31T17:05:00.004+00:002024-02-02T07:25:18.034+00:00"Flash fiction as a distinct literary form ..." by Shelley Roche-Jacques<p>In "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2023.2293767">Flash fiction as a distinct literary form: some thoughts on time, space, and context</a>" (from "New Writing - The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing") Shelley Roche-Jacques look at some aspects of Flash, prose poems and short stories.</p>
<ul>
<li>She suggests that Flash has a distinguishing feature that prose poems don't need - "<span class=quotation>I am of the opinion that something needs to happen, or perhaps more importantly, that <i>a context needs to be created</i> in which there is the <i>possibility</i> of something happening</span>"</li>
<li>When comparing Flash and short stories she thinks "<span class=quotation>most critics and writers seem to suggest the difference is more in degree than kind</span>"</li>
</ul>
<p>That seems fair enough to me. I think it's useful to restrict the "Flash Fiction" category to pieces which acknowledge the concept of narrative. There are pieces of short creative prose that aren't prose poems or CNF, nor do they create a narrative context, but such pieces (on the essay/flash spectrum maybe, or shaped prose, or triptychs, etc) can fend for themselves.</p>
<p>She makes some other observations that I agree with too -</p>
<ul>
<li>"<span class=quotation>As an avid reader of flash fiction, I have noticed the prevalence of the simple present tense. ... Perhaps, as Flick points out, because of the simplicity and sense of immersion it offers.</span>"</li>
<li>"<span class=quotation>the brevity of the flash fiction form perhaps affords the writer greater freedom to play and experiment. The deft use of deictic elements can be seen as a way of establishing swift immersion and/or negotiating the spatio-temporal layers and landscape.</span>"</li>
<li>"<span class=quotation>Due to the limited space in flash fiction, a popular and effective technique seems to be to have the protagonist ‘thinking forward’ beyond the end of the scene</span>"</li>
</ul>
<p>I think lots of U.A. Fanthorpe's pieces could nowadays fit in a short text category, but that's another story ...</p>
<p>My out-of-date contributions to the debate include -</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://litrefsarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/flash.html">Flash</a></li>
<li><a href="http://litrefsarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2004/06/short-fiction.html">Short Fiction</a></li>
<li><a href="http://litrefsarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/recent-uk-flash-fiction.html">Recent UK flash fiction</a></li>
<li><a href="http://litrefsarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/adapting-short-texts-for-market.html">Adapting short texts for the market</a></li>
</ul>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-83433614055933139432024-01-17T19:55:00.003+00:002024-01-25T07:38:54.737+00:00Seán Hewitt
<p><img style="width:200px;float:right" src="http://www.timlove.org.uk/img/seanhewitt.jpg">I went to see Seán Hewitt at Pembroke College tonight (in their new auditorium). He has degrees from Cambridge and Liverpool, and lectures at Trinity College Dublin. About 80 people attended, 20 queuing at the end to get books signed! He said that writing his second poetry book he was conscious of writing a book rather than a set of poems. That wasn't so with his first book.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-49174573530476801952024-01-12T07:43:00.002+00:002024-01-12T07:43:58.551+00:00How to review poetry<p>A while ago Charles Boyle (CBeditions) noticed that a book he published which the TLS described as "an astonishing achievement" and the Literary Review described as "a masterpiece" sold fewer than 100 copies in its first year.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://thefridaypoem.com/poem-are-toys-jon-stone/">‘Next time you dive’ (or How to play a poem)</a> from "The Friday Poem" Jon Stone "<i>illustrate[s] what he thinks we need to do to broaden the readership of poetry</i>"</p>
<p>Helena Nelson has a piece in the same issue. In "<a href="https://thefridaypoem.com/are-poetry-reviews-pointless/">Are poetry reviews pointless?"</a> she writes "<i>First, I want to test out Stone’s theory that I can profitably respond to a set of poems as “toys”. Second, I want to review a book in a non-typical way, avoiding “florid” terms and a standard evaluative stance.</i>" </p>
<p>When I read a book, I write it up online. I used to try the odd review-style write-up - I keep a <a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/p/longer-poetry-reviews.html">list of longer poetry reviews</a> online. Nowadays my write-ups are mostly jottings. I posted a write-up each Wednesday and Saturday, which used to match my reading speed. Now that I'm reading (and listening to) more books, I'm filling up future Wed/Sat slots so fast that I'm up to April 2025. So to slow myself down I think I'll try to write some reviews again.</p>
<p>Rather than toys, I think I react to poems as if they were disposable alien technology - if I don't understand what a part does, I remove it to see what happens, or re-assemble the pieces. Biologists try to understand DNA that way sometimes. However, I have a feeling that I might end up writing similar reviews to before, "fun to play with" becoming a substitute for "good" when describing a poem.</p>
<p>When a new art form (e.g. Cubism) emerges, at first people don't know how to react. There are many individualistic responses. Many will be resistant to change, pointing out how the new work lacks what old, familiar works have. Before too long, collective experience will come to a broad consensus about an interpretative framework. That framework can become too rigid though - a new orthodoxy that fails to keep up with new ways of looking. So let's see what happens if things are shaken up.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-54845180314483753862024-01-06T07:41:00.001+00:002024-01-06T07:41:42.905+00:00Formalish verse<p>Deviations from standard forms are common - to reduce rhythmic monotony; to surprise; to emphasise a word/phrase, etc. These deviations work because of readers' expectations. In mosques, Islamic art deliberately breaks the pattern too.</p>
<p>But other deviations are harder for me to understand. Here are some comments by poets about their poems in "The Best American Poetry, 2000"</p>
<ul>
<li>Olena Kalytiak Davis's "Six Apologies, Lord" is one of a "<span class=quotation>sequence of 'Shattered Sonnets' that sort of simultaneously distort, discard, and highlight formal, thematic, and rhetorical sonnet conventions.</span>"</li>
<li>Adrienne Su says of the 6-stanza "The English Canon" that "<span class=quotation>I deliberately ended the first four stanzas with '-ing', which is a kind of cheater's rhyme, and the last two with the imperfect rhyme of 'combat' and 'scratch.' I threw in 'protest' and 'trust' near the end, for fun. Between the cheating, the imperfection, and the distance between rhymes, I hope that the poem reads as free verse, yet looks formal because of the tercets. The combination of the free and constrained, of modern and traditional, seemed suited to the subject, writing to and from the canon</span>". </li>
<li>Mary Jo Salter says "<span class=quotation>The poem was a liberation to write, technically speaking; though it rhymes, the rhyme scheme changes every stanza, and the meter is deliberately clunky.</span>"</li>
</ul>
<p>In my <a href="http://litrefsarticles.blogspot.com/2006/01/relaxed-forms.html">Relaxed Forms</a> article I list further examples. I still struggle with the idea of random deviations - if I can't see a reason for breaking a pattern, my instinct is to query the craft. I'm most suspicious when the deviation comes in the lines which the poet particularly wants us to understand, as if clarity and form are in opposition.</p> Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-34264803111850869412023-12-30T07:44:00.002+00:002023-12-30T07:46:59.177+00:00Nice poetry reviews<p>On her <a href="https://vamoul.substack.com/p/reading-a-new-poet">substack post</a> Victoria Moul wrote "<i>Most reviews don’t seem to be good at making me want to buy poetry books: ... perhaps ... because they all tend to be so positive. If everything is apparently wonderful, it’s hard to trust any particular recommendation</i>"</p>
<p>I think reviews are more positive nowadays. In tone they're more like comments in a face-to-face workshop with something good always said, adverse comments being sandwiched in, muted. Maybe nowadays reviewers are much more likely to know the poets, or at least they've communicated online. Or maybe reviewers feel that poetry's in such a bad way that it needs all the help it can get. This positivity (or at least lack of negativity) is especially prevalent when dealing with bereavement poems. Can there be such a thing as a bad poem about Refaat Alareer? The Poetry is in the pity I suppose.</p>
<p>I try to self-moderate my write-ups. After all, half of the books I read are worse than the average book I read. That's the way I rate on goodreads. The reasoning can be extended - half of the poems in a book are worse than the average poem, and half of a poem's lines are worse than the average line. Atomising a poem in that way is tricky though - lines interact with each other (jewelstones need mountings), and a poem full of beautiful phrases may be a mere "anthology of lines". But many poetry books are made of poems that can be individually assessed. If reviewers believe in the concept of ranking poems enough to list (and quote from) a collection's best pieces, why not list and quote from the worst too? It gives readers a better feel for the reviewer's prejudices, and the poet's range.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-13196361778450024552023-12-23T08:38:00.000+00:002023-12-23T08:38:24.633+00:00Nine Arches Press's Poetry Book Club<p>Last year I got all of Nine Arches Press's poetry publications in their bulk Book Club deal. I'm renewing for 2024 - see <a href="https://ninearchespress.com/shop">their shop</a> for details. I got about a dozen books, some of which I wouldn't have bought individually, but at least it keeps me in touch with a variety of current poetry.</p>
<p>My favourites were "A Whistling of Birds" by Isobel Dixon, "Tormentil" by Ian Humphreys, and "Frieze" by Olga Dermott-Bond.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-91295141084377114542023-12-14T06:53:00.001+00:002023-12-14T06:53:56.902+00:00A busy month<p>I've attended 3 Zoom poetry events, a live prose event, a book fair, and a writers' social event.</p>
<p>I've had 3 poems, 2 Flashes and a short story accepted in amongst the rejections.</p>
<p>I've sent more things out. I've 4 stories entered into competitions, 5 stories with magazines, 7 Flashes and 12 poems out.</p>
<p>I've read 2 poetry books (Claire Crowther, Kosta Tsolakis), a story collection (Yan Ge) and listened to 5 novels (2 of them literary). I'm currently, belatedly, listening to "H is for Hawk".</p>
<p>I've extended a few drafts by a few words. I may have finished a poem.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-16007818511926253222023-12-10T20:56:00.001+00:002023-12-10T20:56:44.278+00:00Pindrop Press book launches - Fiona Larkin and Jonathan Totman<p>Fiona Larkin and Jonathan Totman shared a Zoom book launch this evening. Poems were shown as well as read out. Both read well, not saying too much between poems.</p>
<p>Maybe "Borderland" was my favourite Fiona Larkin piece. Seeing the texts rather distracted me - some were short-lined, others weren't and I couldn't work out why - the reading gave no clue.</p>
<p>Jonathan Totman's "Sessions" had therapy as a theme (the book has 50 poems, sessions last 50 minutes). They were all described as sonnets, though I think this is needlessly provocative. I like the idea of the sonnets representing the room/time constraint, and I liked the poems. Going by this sample, there's much variety of approach to the topic (not least being on either side of the desk). Maybe "On a scale of 1 to 643" was my favourite.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-5930089579092014312023-12-02T22:27:00.001+00:002023-12-02T22:27:27.836+00:00Norwich - City of Stories<p style="clear:both"><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/norwichcreativequarter.jpg" style="float:right;width:200px">I had a wander around Norwich, going to a zone I didn't remember. Apparently the area’s been called “Over the Water” since the 13th century.</p>
<p style="clear:both"><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/norwichacityofstories.jpg" style="float:right;width:200px">Norwich’s nickname on publicity leaflets is the “City of Stories”. It has a puppet theatre, the Norwich University of Arts, and UEA (where Ishiguro and Ian McEwan went). And of course, there was Julian of Norwich who wrote the earliest surviving English language works known to be written by a woman (near where Dragon Hall now is).</p>
<p style="clear:both"><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/dragonhall.jpg" style="float:right;width:200px">The <a href="https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk">National Centre for Writing</a> isn't in the creative quarter. It's in Dragon Hall, which dates from the 15th century. It’s not normally open to the public though there are many courses, some run in association with UEA. It’s the first time I’ve been inside the building. I didn’t realise how big the extension was.</p>
<p style="clear:both"><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/dragonhall2023.jpg" style="float:right;width:200px">I went to the Publishing Fair - local self-publishers. Some were novelists, though there were several factual books too. Later I trawled the city's bookshops. There are at least 2 charity bookshops.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-66561932875393996352023-11-29T08:17:00.000+00:002023-11-29T08:17:10.636+00:00Red Door Poets at Milton Keynes Lit Fest (Zoom)<p>Last night, online, I saw Mary Mulholland, Paul Stephenson, Lesley Sharpe, Fiona Larkin, Chris Hardy and Helen Ivory.</p>
<p>I may have got the titles mixed up, but I think the pieces I liked best were Mary Mulholland’s "pig town, o the shame of you", Paul Stephenson's "Button" and Fiona Larkin's "Beach". I've not seen Helen Ivory read before though I've read 2 of her books. I liked much of what she read without any particular poem standing out.</p>
<p>For slow listeners like me it was useful to have the text shown during the readings - about half the poets provided this facility. </p>
<p>I'm still thinking about the use of the chat facility. At this event the remarks were not followed up by the emcee or other attendees. Sometimes they mentioned particular poems. More often (understandably) they were lists of adjectives.</p> Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-43269379039789837922023-11-26T08:00:00.000+00:002023-11-26T08:00:22.141+00:00Zoom poetry readings - Acumen and break-out rooms<p>Acumen had an issue launch on 24th Nov. Over 30 attended. People who arrived early could chat, then there were 3 break-out rooms that people were randomly assigned to, giving us a chance to get to know some people. After a few readings (during which people were encouraged to type in the chat section) we went back to the break-out rooms with the suggestion that we could talk about the poems or about "what is poetry?" Muting and splitting was ably managed by Danielle Hope (who popped into the break-out rooms and alerted people to comments in the chat) with help from Kim Moore. The room I was in had Kim Moore and Rory Waterman, a treat in itself.</p>
<p>At live events during intervals, people break into clusters - some people catching up with friends, some people listening, looking around for familiar/famous faces. Break-out rooms are a simulation of this I suppose. I think the format worked well.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-8029554588714456052023-11-25T07:10:00.001+00:002023-11-25T07:25:54.696+00:00Some books<p>Rather than await an "eagerly anticipated" book, why not rummage on secondhand shelves?</p>
<p>Many of the books I buy are years old, found by chance in charity shops. Charity bookshops nowadays even have sections for "Short stories", which is more than some high street bookshops can manage. The books below aren't really neglected masterpieces, but they've stuck in my memory longer than the more recently published books I've read. Many of them are the author's first books, which may explain why I was impressed by them - they lack padding, and even the pieces that don't work for me have interesting parts.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-weather-in-kansas-short-stories-by.html">"The weather in Kansas: short stories" by Crista Ermiya (Red Squirrel Press, 2015)</a> - short stories. One was in "Best British short stories". There's a Borgesian piece. Most involve marginal people who are as likely to look from a distance at normal people as to look for ghosts or Self.</li>
<li><a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/2023/11/all-beloved-ghosts-by-alison-macleod.html">"all the beloved ghosts" by Alison MacLeod (Bloomsbury, 2017)</a> - short stories. A wide variety of types, though many are based on real people. One story (the least meta/essay one) was in "Best British short stories". </li>
<li><a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/2023/10/basic-nest-architecture-by-polly-atkin.html">"Basic Nest Architecture" by Polly Atkin (Seren, 2017)</a> - Poems from Magma, from her prizewinning MsLexia pamphlet, etc. 3 1st prize winners, 2 2nd prize winners, 3 3rd prizewinners and many shortlisted poems.</li>
<li><a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/2007/09/so-many-ways-to-begin-jon-mcgregor.html">"So many ways to begin", Jon McGregor (Bloomsbury, 2006)</a> - a novel. I prefer this to anything else he's written. I've read it 3 times.</li>
<li><a href="https://litrefsreviews.blogspot.com/2017/06/truffle-beds-by-katherine-pierpoint.html">"Truffle Beds" by Katherine Pierpoint (Faber and Faber, 1995)</a> - poetry. Having been published by Faber, she became Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 1996. I've hardly seen her name mentioned since. A shame.</li>
</ul>
<p>Now I'm in recommendation mode, I'll mention a short story that impressed me - <a href="https://theinterpretershouse.org/vail-79">"Rinks without ice" by Jae Vail (The interpreter's house)</a></p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-49460065434156120472023-11-14T15:10:00.001+00:002023-11-14T20:19:24.940+00:00350 today<p>Today I got my 350th acceptance - a triumph of longevity rather than quality, but I'll celebrate all the same. 221 poems and 129 pieces of prose. Poetry is tailing off, Flash is increasing. </p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-86878805371614576702023-11-06T08:02:00.000+00:002023-11-06T08:02:07.477+00:00CB1, November<p>The CB1 poetry evenings go from strength to strength. Yesterday about 40 people attended, despite competition from fireworks events. No headline poets - it's all open-mic, and I think at least 25 read. The majority read from phones. There was rap, a sestina, a villanelle, poems just finished, old poems read from books. There were regulars and newcomers young and old. Few of the poems were "performance" or comic pieces.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-80042317117962059792023-10-28T20:30:00.001+01:002023-10-28T20:30:00.139+01:00The Dark Horse, issue 47<p>In this issue there's quite a lot about about how clubiness and other social pressures affect poetry writing and reviews. In his editorial, Gerry Cambridge writes </p>
<ul>
<li>"poetry is most valued as the vessel for <i>issues</i>"</li>
<li>"The community is inclusive provided one shows that one is right thinking and holds the same values as the group. If one doesn't, unconditionally ... one ... will be covertly or openly excluded"</li>
</ul>
<p>Edna Longley's essay wonders how The Waste Land (which she thinks good in parts) has come to take such an prominent (almost defining) position in Modernism - because Eliot was a critic? "because the academy may need The Waste Land as all things to all theories ... Latterly, the poem has even been called an ecocritique ... Ricks ingeniously or desperately proposes that Eliot's ugly images are cast back upon the reader to test our own prejudices"</p>
<p>NB's contrarian exploits in TLS are explored.</p>
<p>Kathryn Gray writes -</p>
<ul>
<li>"Many poets - too many poets - spend the remainder of their careers attempting to rewrite their most successful book"</li>
<li>"In an age heavily policed by social media avatars, we are supposed to be <i>good</i>. Increasingly, and quite illogically, I think, we also desire our writers to be <i>good</i>"</li>
<li>"I wish more poets wrote in as badly behaved a fashion as they sometimes lived. ... And perhaps a readership for poetry would widen and deepen and we would see far less of the 'school project' syndrome that haunts many a collection"</li>
</ul>
<p>Gerry Cambridge writes </p>
<ul>
<li>"Criticism and reviewing are regarded as the antipathy to 'creative' work ... Nothing is gained [] by calling indifferent work good. All it does is baffle the potential audience outside the subculture and buttress the idea of poetry as a recondite arcana, over the heads of the uninvolved intelligent"</li>
</ul>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-5052359735242194592023-10-21T07:40:00.000+01:002023-10-21T07:40:41.630+01:00Breaking into the US market<p>I sometimes send stuff to US paper journals. I don't know my way around very well, and depend on online ranking lists etc. As in the UK, US paper magazines are disappearing (e.g. Tin House and Glimmer Train - 2 of the top 5 in one list), and the online replacements don't have the same impact. I think more of their journals are university based. And there's the pay-to-submit issue.</p>
<p>I have trouble understanding currently fashionable US poetry, so it's the short story market I focus on. There's a wide range of journals. The most recent one that I was in paid me $20 for a piece of Flash and sent me (expensively, unexpectedly) a contributor's copy, cover price $18. But it's only 290th in one list I found, and in another list it's categorised as <i>Tier 4, Respected: usually small circulation, one or more “notable” prize mentions, sometimes payment</i>.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'll continue trying. I use <a href="https://thejohnfox.com/2021/08/ranking-of-the-100-best-literary-magazines/">John Fox's list</a>, <a href="http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-of-483-literary-magazines-for-short-fiction">Erika Krouse's list</a> etc, which are based on BAP (Best American Poetry) and BASS appearances. A Pushcart nomination would suit me just fine. I check my pieces for UK references before sending off and find that most have something I need to change - local colour is all very well, but obscure nostalgia is deadwood.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-3262908843897106182023-10-06T21:12:00.005+01:002023-10-11T07:00:57.882+01:00Writing and AI<p>I think the majority of literary competition guidelines now include a statement on AI. Usually AI isn't allowed, though the wording tends to be along the lines that they'll delete the accepted online piece if AI use is subsequently discovered.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cultmag.net/submit">Cult. Magazine</a> has an enlightened (or resigned?) attitude - "If AI tools were used to make your submission, please inform us how you used the tool and why". Such pieces are collaborations of sorts. They benefit from the work of others, but so do pieces that were the result of workshop exercises, or pieces that are "after" another work.</p>
<p>It's hard to know where to draw the line. I use a self-written style checker on some of my prose to check on sentence lengths and work frequencies. No generation is involved. I could write programs to do various OuLiPo works for me (N+7, etc) leaving me to judge the best ones to send off, but it doesn't interest me.</p>
Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-87868558731168418012023-09-17T07:33:00.002+01:002023-09-22T20:17:07.682+01:00Poetry trends - Metaphors
<p>In Acumen 107 (Sep 2023), Andrew Gleary writes "<i>There are poets who would use metaphor had not all metaphors been workshopped out of their writing because metaphor is presently unfashionable</i>".</p>
<p>Maybe so. Metaphors go in and out of fashion. There are extreme views about their value -</p>
<ul>
<li>"<i>the damn function of simile, always a displacement of what is happening ... I hate the metaphors</i>", Robert Creeley</li>
<li>"<i>Metaphor is the whole of poetry. ... Poetry is simply made of metaphor ... Every poem is a new metaphor inside or it is nothing</i>", Robert Frost</li>
</ul>
<p>20th century UK Poetry had Surrealism, [political] Realism, The Apocalyptics (Dylan Thomas et al), The Movement, and Martian poetry (Craig Raine, etc). One could interpret each as a reaction to the previous movement, though no doubt influences were more complex than that.</p>
<p>If metaphor is unfashionable nowadays, it may be because the poet and the poem's subject matter have a higher priority. It feels to me that we're in an age where previously suppressed voices are being given space. Minorities (by virtue of race, sexuality, mentality, etc) are out of their niches and have something to say which can be as important as how it is said.</p>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-39675903553501025592023-09-13T16:04:00.003+01:002023-09-16T07:02:52.108+01:00Bookshops<p>Some bookshops I've seen in my travels -</p>
<ul>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/dublinwindingstair.jpg"><br>Dublin </li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/hollandbookshop2.jpg"><br>Holland </li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/turinshop.jpg"><br>Turin</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/edbooks.jpg"><br>Edinburgh</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/istanbulbookshop.jpg"><br>Istanbul</li>
<li style=clear:both> <img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/uppsalabookshop.jpg"><br>Sweden
</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/egyptbookshop1.jpg"><br>Egypt</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/tellitslant.jpg"><br>Glasgow</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/5leavesbookshop.jpg"><br>Nottingham (5 leaves)</li>
<li style=clear:both><img src="https://www.timlove.org.uk/img/emptybookshop.jpg"><br>An ex-bookshop, with pictures of books</li>
</ul>Tim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.com0