Ink Sweat & Tears - the poetry & prose webzine

News round-up

Charles Christian — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:07:06 +0000

Time for another catch-up of news and events...

* Congratulations to regular IS&T contributor Pat Jourdan who has one the latest Carillon magazine competition www.carillonmag.org.uk

* Writer, poet, journalist & editor Nancy Campbell has a new website to promote her editorial and proofreading services at www.campbellcopy.co.uk – Nancy is shortly heading off to the 'most northerly museum in the world' to take up a residencyfor the winter and spring at Upernavik Museum in Greenland, which is a tiny Arctic island with about 200 inhabitants. She adds "I will be occupying my time teaching writing workshops to Inuit children (drawing words with imported maple syrup in the snow) and I'm planning to work on a series of poems about snow and ice..."

* Cafe Writers have sent out a reminder that the closing date for their Open Poetry Competition 2009 (top prize this year is £1000) is fast approaching – the closing date is 30th November. Competition details, entry form and instructions for entry by email can all be found on the Competition page of the website www.cafewriters.org.uk

* Regular IS&T contributor Jeff Winke has been in touch to say his new collection of flash fiction and haibun – I'll Tell You So – has just been published. Click on the attachment for full details.

When Competitions become Kudos

Charles Christian — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

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

Postcards from Aldeburgh

Charles Christian — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:06:50 +0000

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

Charles Christian — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:52:49 +0000

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.

And so we say goodbye to Aldeburgh for another year...

Charles Christian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:47:01 +0000

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.