Today I took possession of Helen Bacand’s books and poetry files. It was a difficult thing, and I had to have a few moments of sitting in the car, staring at the the windscreen wipers before I was able to pull myself together enough to drive safely. The papers were hard, but the thing that …
The Trouble with Teaching
Lets start with a quote from the late Terry Pratchett, that quite neatly sums this post up: Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you had the urge to pass it on.” ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather And there’s the problem. Since …
Awards! (Other people’s!) and a Competition!
Last night the 2013 NZ Post Book Awards were announced, with The Darling North by Anne Kennedy taking out Best Book of Poetry, and Helen Heath’s Graft taking out Best First Book of Poetry. Well done Anne and Helen! The open was a really interesting field – the judges decided they couldn’t only shortlist three, …
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Titles, titles and titular singularities
I’ve been spending a bit of time lately trying to think of better (or at least more interesting) titles for some of my new poems. Having three current ones that languished as ‘untitled’ was one of the things that prompted me, as was getting a copy of James Wright’s Above the River: The Complete Poems. …
October Bouquets
One of the (many) things I love about October is that it is the month when the annual anthologies start appearing. I have in my hands the latest Best American Poetry; the NZPS anthology (Building a Time Machine) launch is just around the corner, and the latest Forward Book of Poetry is winging its way across …
A Dark Feathered Art 