Back from the launch of Before the Sirocco in Wellington. It was a good night – heaps of people turned up, and included a large junior contingent from Christchurch. (Well done everyone!) Met lots of people who's names and poems I've been familiar with for the last few years, and generally had a ball. …
NaNoWriMo: a mad (but brilliant) idea
November is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple – you have from November 1st to November 30th to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch. Straight through. Why do something like this? Or, as their FAQ puts it: If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a …
Le Groupe est mort, vive le Groupe*
Yesterday I said goodbye to a poetry group that I've been a member of for the best part of ten years. And I do mean the best part – these guys have taught me so much, seen me through so many writing phases and stumbles and growth spurts and dry spells ... they were my …
Before the Sirocco – launch ahoy!
Well it's finally done: the 2008 NZPS anthology Before the Sirocco is now officially out of my hands. I've even submitted my expenses claim. It's been an interesting task. Certainly much easier this time around – you always forget just how much donkey-work there is. Things like checking names and addresses, entering data onto lists. Printing. Posting. …
Subverting Clichés – an axe to grind
One of the exercises I gave my CPIT students recently was the classic "reanimating clichés" (i.e. take a cliché and treat it as though literally true. Explore it. Give it life again). I've always enjoyed it, and have managed to get a couple of perfectly acceptable poems from it in the past. One (light) poem …
A Dark Feathered Art 