Having spent the last two weeks writing funding proposals (and with next week being number three), my own writing has taken a bit of a back seat. Times like this I find myself more and more relying on exercises to give my muse the jolt needed to get the lazy sod out of bed and …
Two classes for Spring 2012
With blossoms bursting out all over my plum trees and daffodils peeking up through the peastraw, it's time to pimp the Spring Poetry Classes. Two shorter classes this time round. First, a three week Formal Poetry class. We’ll be having a shameless wallow in the points and pleasures of historical forms, such as (but not …
Poetry, judgement, and the Oh God of Earthquakes
On Thursday night I was at the monthly meeting of the South Island Writers' Association, to present the results of the Jean Ruddenklau Poetry Trophy for 2012. It was the first time I'd managed to deliver judgement in person, and was an … interesting experience. The competition itself was quite tricky to judge. Usually you …
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Rhian Gallagher wins the NZ Post Best Poetry Book Award 2012
Some really wonderful news – last night Rhian Gallagher’s gorgeous collection, Shift, won best poetry collection at the NZ Post Book Awards! I consider Rhian a friend, so I can’t review the book. But I can, will, have and do tell people what I think about it – it is brilliant, musical, deft, moving, and …
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Venues; the continuing disappearance of
Like Good Comedy, it would seem that the secret of running poetry workshops in Christchurch is ... timing. Yes indeedy, hot on the metaphorical heels of my adding the forthcoming Formal Poetry workshop to the sidebar list, comes the news that yet another venue has fallen to the ongoing trauma of the earthquakes. For those …
A Dark Feathered Art 