Quick mention here for poet, writer and journalist Carole Baldock who has now taken over the UK's old Competitions Bulletin magazine and relaunched it as Kudos. Published six times a year, this is the definitive guide to current UK (plus many overseas) poetry and short story competitions. It also covers novels, anthologies, plays and non-fiction. Definitely worth the cost of £3 per issue (£18 for 6 issues – overseas €25 or $35 pa) – not least as it carries lots of flyers & entry forms you'd otherwise have to send away for with SAEs etc. The November issue is out now, the next one is scheduled for January 2010. For details write to (or send a sterling cheque – payable to Carole Baldock) 17 Greenhow Avenue, West Kirby, Wirral CH48 5EL or visit www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com
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Sunday, November 15
When Competitions become Kudos
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 15 Nov 2009 05:00 PM GMT
Monday, November 9
Postcards from Aldeburgh
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Nov 2009 07:06 PM GMT
Here are a few more pictures from Aldeburgh... the first picture shows the queue at one of the town's two main fish & chip shops – this one tends to get the bigger festival crowds although the locals say the other chippie farther up the High Street is better. This picture was taken at around 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon.
 Alternatively, you can visit another festival institution – the Cragg Sisters Tea Rooms (incidentally that is not a real cat in the window).  Here's a view from the Town Steps towards the shore – and yes the sea really was that colour – it may have been shadows cast by the clouds (as distinct from a current of warm water flowing out of the nearby Sizewell nuclear power station).  And finally, forget what people say about Maggi Hambling's 2003 sculpture Scallop (raised to commemorate local cultural hero Benjamin Britten – the lines "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" comes from his opera Peter Grimes) being the most important piece of public art in Aldeburgh, this is without doubt the most popular statue. 
Normal service is resumed
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Nov 2009 08:52 AM GMT
We're back from the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and back to our normal publishing schedule of one new piece of poetry or prose everyday – although we will also be posting up some final reports, pix and video clips from Aldeburgh.
Sunday, November 8
And so we say goodbye to Aldeburgh for another year...
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 08 Nov 2009 06:47 PM GMT
 And so the sun sets on Aldeburgh for another year and we say goodbye to the Festival until 2010. Among the sessions I caught this Sunday was the Fantasy Festival looking at all the poets who had been approached to attend the festival, since it started in 1989 but who – for a variety of reasons – never made the trip. Aided and abetted by some rare video and audio footage, Naomi Jaffa, Michael Laskey and Dean Parkin filled in some of the gaps. Although ill-health and frailty (in some instances followed by death) and a fear of flying/dislike of travel were the most frequent explanations, we did also have such classics as: the poet who seriously believed he already performed at Aldeburgh once and didn't want to come again – he had but that had been for the entirely separate Aldeburgh Music Festival. The poet who was frightened his ex-wife would hunt him down there. And the poet whose backstage rider included copious supplies of a white powder normally inhaled up the nose. But, at least we now know the author of the line "If I were a voting man, I'd vote for you" – its from Days of Pie & Coffee by James Tate, another American poet who looks like he'll never make it to Suffolk.  However, my favourite event of the day was the last of the Close Readings (sponsored by Ink Sweat & Tears – hey, that's us, hooray) when Roger Robinson gave his analysis of Robert Hayden's poem Those Winter Sundays. Without doubt this must have been one of the most energetic and enthusiastic readings Aldeburgh has ever seen, a veritable masterclass that ran for double its length and concluded with Roger fielding questions from the audience like the most popular creative writer tutor in town. I've now ordered all his books.
Sunday morning at the Aldeburgh Festival
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 08 Nov 2009 12:19 PM GMT
 A lot to catch up with as I continue to juggle an over-ambitiously packed timetable with erratic online access and chronic constipation, so here we go... The good news is that both Annie Freud and Roger Robinson gave stunning performances during Saturday's Emerging Voices session. But then there were two sessions where the audience vibe was definitely split between the love them and hate them camps. Geoffrey Hill gave a bravura performance of his latest writings – all previously unpublished and never-before read in public work. He also revealed himself to have a pawky sense of humour and the ability to control the audience in a way many younger performers can only dream of. (More about performance techniques in a later posting.) But... was he being serious or most-Modern ironic with his introductions, which included explanations of various rhyme schemes of the "this is written in an ABBA pentameter" variety. Talking to audience members afterwards, there was a distinct split between those who thought they had just seen a reading by the most important English poet today and 'WTF'. Hill, incidentally, revealed himself to be a movie fan and believes he cuts his poems, rather like film editors working on a movie in the cutting room. And then there was Albert Goldbarth, whose poem about Stephen Hawking read in a cockney accent of the Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins variety caused a collective jaw dropping that measured on the Richter Scale in Southwold and probably caused a security panic at Sizewell B. We're still pondering that performance. Other nuggets: Jo Shapcott, a last minute substitute player in one of Saturday's readings, remarked that one of the challenges for all poets is 'latent inhibition' – the self-censoring process whereby part of your brain says "you can't say that" when you try to move outside your own comfort zone or belief system – in her case writing about fur in anything but a negative light when she is a lifelong opponent of the fur trade. Late night saw the Open Mic session with 30 performers in just over an hour – there was no nakedness this year – and we even had Penny Shuttle reading her poem about postal filth. At this point I wimped out for the night but the stalwarts were still going strong in the bar at 3:00am – all of which made the turnout of nearly 200 people for a session at 9:00am on the Sunday morning, show true dedication to the cause of poetry. This was the much anticipated discussion on the female poem by Jo Shapcott, Maureen Duffy, Annie Freud and Pascale Petit – and follows in the wake of the now famous letter of complaint earlier this year by a number of poets about the apparent gender bias in the reviews in Poetry Review magazine. This was another parson's nose session that didn't deliver the killer blows that might have been hoped. Was it preaching to the converted? Some people thought so. Did it mean you can't win if you are a man – you're either a chauvinist or patronising – as some male poets subsequently commented? There was definitely agreement that many male poets have a different voice to female poets – and that female poets are requenty 'more emotionally open' than men. However Maureen Duffy made the point that it was bizarre that we were still raking over a debate that started with Aphra Behn in the 17th Century and which still results in a situation where the liberal Guardian newspaper almost exclusively has male poets reviewing male poets, female poets reviewing female poets and ethnic poets reviewing ethnic poets. As Annie Freud concluded, the poetry establishment still has a problem with women poets writing things "women shouldn't say". This debate looks like running and running – but hopefully this session has helped light the blue touchpaper. The (woman) poet I was sitting next to certainly left the Jubilee Hall feeling inspired "That's it," she said "from now on I'll just write what I want to write – and not what I think editors will publish or won't unsettle the men in my writing groups..." Still to come... more reports, more pictures and some video clips.
Beer related submissions please
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 08 Nov 2009 10:00 AM GMT
For reasons that will become apparent later, Ink Sweat & Tears would like to receive some beer related poetry or prose submissions (actually we're happy to receive some beer as well, but that's another story). Send them to the usual address but also include the word beer in the subject line – thank you CC
Saturday, November 7
John Hegley at Aldeburgh - not poetry but poetrees...
by
Charles Christian
on Sat 07 Nov 2009 01:37 PM GMT
 Yes, the cafes in Aldeburgh have put on some special offers for poets – no stereotypes about starving in their garrets here then. Meanwhile John Hegley gave his second performance of the Festival on Saturday morning, giving his leftfield perspective on his journey from Luton and beyond. In contrast with one of the discussions earlier this morning – looking at whether love and death are 'the only true subjects' for poetry – Hegley takes the view that "the everyday is as important as love and death" and that poems about potatoes, dogs and spectacles are just as valid. Hegley said he got into poetry "because he liked the way words and language can fly and be potent". Howevr he went on to add that "its not just about poetry – its about poetrees... there are lots of different fruit on the poetree – some are easily accessible, some are very hard to understand and reach."
Does time matter to poets - more from Aldeburgh
by
Charles Christian
on Sat 07 Nov 2009 09:56 AM GMT
 After some vile weather last night, the sun is out in Aldeburgh and there are egrets on the wing across the marshes between here and Thorpeness, the next village along the coast. I'll be reporting on the day's events and sights later however back to yesterday evening... One of the other sessions I caught was the exchange between Peter Blegvad and Albert Goldbarth on the role of time in poetry. Was it 'the grand metaphysical imponderable' for poets. Discussing such issues as whether time was cyclical or flowed like an arrow – citing poets and philosophies from around the world – Goldbarth and Blegvad treated the audience to a fast and furious foray into one of the key issues poets have struggled with throughout the ages. Although if you accept the argument that time is cyclical, then we'll all be revisiting this topic at another festival in a few millennia's time. After several audience participation questions – one of which revealed that the younger half of the audience felt they had all the time in the world, whereas it was tempus fugit – and grab every pleasure while you still can, preferably right this instant – for the older half, the conversation moved off into the realms of Albert Golbarth's 'memory car' mnemonic for helping to stimulate memory. Memory car??? If you want to remember fish, think of the fins of a 1950s era Cadillac. We were also treated to such nuggets from Blegvad as time comprising "a beginning, muddle and end," "imagination is like a muscle, it will increase with exercise" and "time is abolished by a god metaphor". Goldman countered with the idea that "when you open a book, the author lives again" before going to explain that the old 4-frame cartoon strip has the same structure as a sonnet or setsina. This final point may seem a little obscure but as both Blegvad and Goldbarth explained – before time's arrow ran its course and the session ended – both poetry and comic strips can only provide the framework, leaving it to the reader to fill in the gaps, whereas with short stories and novels, the author does most of this for you. As Blegvad summed it up "poets leave everything out – they telescope narrative time – and leave you to write the story in your head." All in all, a fascinating and thought provoking session – if only there had been more time to explore it further, which is where we came in...
Aldeburgh - first night report
by
Charles Christian
on Sat 07 Nov 2009 12:54 AM GMT
 And so the Festival got off to a cracking start with homemade cakes and tea in the Cinema Gallery, which this year is hosting an exhibition of some of photographs of festival performers taken over the years by Peter Everard Smith. Then it was on to the first of the Festival's six Close Readings – this is one of the hidden gems of the Aldeburgh Festival: one poet reading and scrutinising one of their favourite poems. This year, the first reading was by Tom Paulin looking at the WB Yeats poem In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz. Of course we're biased when it comes to the Close Readings as they are sponsored by Ink Sweat & Tears! Later that evening, Paulin was the headline act in the first of the festival's three-handed readings (along with Richard Price and Pascale Petit) when he read poems covering such diverse topics as the Rev Ian Paisley and the cleaning fluid Swarfega. For those of us who have previously only seen him on Late Review on TV, Paulin's performance and is poetry were an eye-opener. And finally it was time for the Poetry Quiz, complete which such favourites as Who is the Groucho Marxist Poet? - the Spin that Poet Rap - and The Mystery Voice. For those of you who missed it, the answer to the tie-break question was Pascale Petit. The quizmasters were MC Dean Parkin and Grandmaster Mikey Michael Laskey. There was probably less blatant cheating than last ear – perhaps a spirit of friendly collaboration between teams would be a better term? Here some more pictures, starting with the celebration cakes (all homemade)...  Here's the reception – that's Peter Everard Smith way at the back of the shot talking to Katrina Naomi (my camera is not as big as his).  And finally, our two quizmasters for the evening.  Friday, November 6
Its day one in the Poetry Festival house...
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 06 Nov 2009 06:03 PM GMT
More from the Aldeburgh festival front. We've sung happy birthday – eaten cake – and have full evening ahead – including the notorious festival quiz. Last night I actually overheard someone complaining that there had been cheating at last year's quiz. To think, poets cheat to win prizes. More pictures to follow. |
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