Way back in December last year, as I was first wallowing in the delights of Canadian poetry and checking out the magazines that had published poems I particularly enjoyed, I came across something that sounded interesting: the Contemporary Verse 2 Two-Day Poem Competition. Very simple – you sign up, and at midnight on the first day of …
Hooray for Rattle (without the Shake and Roll)
A lovely bit of news – I’ve been selected as the Editor’s Choice in the latest iteration of the Rattle Monthly Ekphrastic Challenge! Hooray! And what makes it even sweeter is that it was the first poem I managed to write this year, so I’m choosing to take it as an omen of Good Writing …
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takahē: the exit interview
Joanna Preston re-interviews Joanna Preston Today, once again, I’ll be interviewing poet, editor, chicken-keeper, creative writing tutor and masochistic glutton-for-punishment, Joanna Preston. Joanna, good morning. Good morning, Joanna. Lovely to be here again. Love what you’ve done with the curtains. I haven’t done anything with the curtains. I know. This is the way I love …
Signing off for 2016
Having done bugger-all blogging in 2016, it feels a bit rich to be signing off for the year (what, you’re still around?! I thought you’d been ossified), but none the less, I am so doing. It’s been a funny one. Again. We had the Earthquake anthology, plus quite a few more big shakes. Takahē, and …
Free session – An Introduction to Close Reading
As a final little flourish before we all pack things up for the year, I’m offering a free short seminar-style class immediately after the final session of Reading for Writing on December 3rd – an Introduction to Close Reading, focusing exclusively on Don Paterson’s poem Imperial. I talk a bit about the practice of close reading on my …
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A Dark Feathered Art 