David Armano has just posted about changing his perception of some spam e-mails from ‘nonsensical gibberish’ to ‘poetry’. It reminded me of the time I used a series of spam e-mails to create a piece for a poetry class assignment. I’m usually unconvinced by ‘found’ poetry (it feels a bit like cheating) but this was […]
Poetry
The Golden Targe
I’ve started reading Michael Schmidt’s Lives of the Poets as light relief after the academic rigours of my research dissertation. Lots of good things in it, not least of which is the opportunity to fill in a few gaps in my reading. Like William Dunbar – apart from ‘Lament for the Makars’, he’d scarcely registered […]
Magma at Aldeburgh Festival – Postscript
I had a great time at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival on Saturday, as one of the three Magma editors talking about editing the magazine. Aldeburgh turned out to be a charming seaside town and we found ourselves presenting in the delightful Peter Pears Gallery within a pebble’s-throw of the sea. Rather than just talk about […]
Magma Roadshow Talk – Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, 4th November
I’ll be one of the three Magma editors giving a free talk about how we edit the magazine, at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival on 4th November. I’ll be talking about my experience of editing Magma 34. The other editors will be Tim Robertson, who edited our current issue, Magma 35, and Anne-Marie Fyfe, our guest […]
Magma 35 – the London Issue
I’ve been meaning to post for a while that Magma 35 is now available, and very good it is too. Tim Robertson has done a terrific job of selecting poems on the theme of ‘London’, including some excellent writing about the difficult subject of the bombings last year. Laurie Smith has complemented the new poems […]