A bit of reflected glory to start the year off – the super-prestigious TS Eliot Prize for poetry has just been won by Philip Gross, for his collection, The Water Table. You can read all about it on the Guardian website.
The Eliot Prize was created by the Poetry Book Society in memory of its founder. Worth £15,000, it is one of the very big prizes for English-language poetry collections. Previous winners include Carol Ann Duffy, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Les Murray and Mark Doty.
Philip came to Glamorgan to join the MPhil staff when I was there. (Hence his kind comments on the blurb for The Summer King.) He took over from Tony Curtis as head of the MPhil at the end of last year. A lovely, lovely man, a fine teacher and a superb poet.
Well this is my last post for 2009. It has certainly been quite a year. Looking back, the two biggest things were surviving NaPoWriMo (although I haven’t finished anywhere near as many of the poems as I should have – grr), and The Summer King being published. Pretty decent milestones!
I read lots of good books (and a few bad ones); taught more classes; heard lots of great, good, and bad poetry; wrote a couple of poems I’m really proud of; started lots of poems that I hope will be good (when I eventually get around to finishing them … grr again); wrote some stinkers (bah); managed to get myself embroiled in a couple of controversies (some days I really wish I could be a sheep); and saw my first two issues of Kokako safely out the door and into the wild world.
For the hell of it, here’s my 2009 list.
Poetry Collection of the Year:
Europa, by Monizia Alvi.
Wow, followed by oh wow. Hair-curlingly powerful.
The Blushing Bride Award for Best First Book:
Shared between Anne Berkelely’s The Men from Praga and The Propaganda Poster Girl by Amy Brown.
Two books that just get better and better each time I read them.
The Vinko Bogataj/Eric Moussambani Award:
Get Some by Sonja Yelich.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Didn’t. But I salute the attempt.
Disappointment of the Year:
Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett.
Methinks the well is drying up, more’s the pity. Understandable, and tragic. Pterry, you will be sorely missed.
The Stoke the Bonfire Award for Most Detested Book(s) of 2009:
Cecilia Dart Thornton’s execrable Crowthistle Chronicles, especially Weather Witch and Fallowblade. (Covers shown purely so you can avoid them.)
The Anna Wintour Award for Editorial Helpfulness:
Jeff Hilson for The Reality Street Book of Sonnets.
As well as the (many) issues he and I discussed so vigorously earlier this year, there was one thing I forgot to mention: there are 84 poets, organised by date of birth. And no index.
The Michael Pollan Award for Required Reading:
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
It was a close race between this and Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science, but the sheer enormity of the whole American fast food thing gives this one the nod. Beg, borrow or steal a copy NOW.
So there you have it. One bibliophile’s personal take on the year’s high(and low)lights.
I’ve put a new batch of poems up for the summer, and plan to kick back with some new collections over the break (as well as working frantically on preparing for the three poetry courses for CPIT Summer School).
Have a merry, poetry-filled holiday season.
See you late January!
photo Chester Higgins Jr.The New York Times
I came across the following story a wee while ago – in New York City, there’s a new Poets House, just by Rockerfeller Park. It looks like a lovely space, and if I ever had to visit NY it’d be high on my Must See list. I especially love the idea of having sensors in the staircase that trigger the playing of a recorded line of poetry.
It got me thinking about the relationship between poetry and buildings, and the various places that I’ve seen that are poetry spaces – poetry libraries, poetry walks, poetry venues.
Probably the best known one in New Zealand is the Katikati Haiku Pathway, which has haiku engraved on boulders along a beautiful pathway that meanders along the Uretara Stream. Apparently it’s the biggest such pathway outside of Japan. (The HaikuNZ pages have quite a bit of info on how it came into being, and I highly recommend it!)
Then there’s the Scottish Poetry Library, just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. What an amazing place! I went in intending to spend an hour or so, and ended up staying the whole day. Completely lost track of time. It’s an incredible treasure house for poetry-focused bibliophiles. I could easily have moved in there. Name a book of poetry published in the UK in the last twenty odd years and it will almost certainly be there. And their stock of non-UK poetry is pretty impressive too. They also have a really useful website, with plenty of links to all kinds of poetry things – recordings, guides, teaching materials, you name it. (Check out the Poetry Map of Scotland for starters.)
The Poetry Bookshop in the bibliophile Mecca of Hay-on-Wye is in an old icehouse (insert inevitable pun), and is a place I spent a lot of time (not to mention money!) whenever possible. I quite like the idea of a bookshop dedicated to poetry. The most niche of niche markets.
Moving a bit more laterally … the new Wales Millennium Centre has lines by the Welsh poet, Gwenyth Lewis, in (literally) six foot high stained glass letters around the outside:
Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen
In these Stones Horizons Sing
The literal translation of the Welsh is ‘Creating truth like glass from inspiration’s furnace’ – this link will take you to Lewis’s explanation.
And American Formalist poet, Annie Finch, wrote a poem to be stenciled on the walls of Sitwell’s coffee shop in Cincinnati – you can see photos of it in situ here, or read about the process of writing it in Poem, Revised.
Hmm. Maybe it’s time to add Guerilla Barding to Guerilla Gardening as a social activism technique?
Finally, I have the details! (Although those of you who pay attention may have already noticed the list in the sidebar that appeared a couple of days ago …)
There are three courses. All are being held at the CPIT main city campus (I don’t know which room yet, sorry!), all run from 10 am to 4pm, and all are insanely good value. This link will take you to the CPIT Summer School enrollment page.
If you would like to attend, please book your place as soon as possible – all three courses have a minimum and maximum number of participants. If you wait too long, the course you want to attend may be either full, or (gulp) cancelled. You have been warned!
18–20 January 2010
POET101 Poetry Workshop – Reading for Writing
Ditch your writer’s block and discover new poets to inspire you! This course is designed to explore ways of using existing poems as springboards for your own work, and turn every library into a potential gallery of muses!
Each session will feature discussion of a number of provided poems, followed by writing exercises, and the chance for participants to receive feedback on what they have created. A combination of poetry appreciation with creative writing, and the chance to immerse yourself in poetry for three days.
POET101
Reading for Writing
3 day writing workshop
18–20 January 2010
10am – 4pm
$30
30-31 January 2010
POET102 Return to Rhyme – The Contemporary Formal Poem
Rhyme and rhythm are back! The new innovators of poetry have headed back to their roots, and are doing things with formal poetry that Shakespeare could have only dreamed of. From the sonnet to the sestina, by way of terza rima and the triolet – a chance to explore the world of contemporary formal poetry.
This course is designed to examine modern approaches to writing formal poetry. It will cover aspects of formalism such as rhyme and metricality, as well as considering those forms that are more conceptual than physical. Each session will be an investigation of a number of different forms, with plenty of writing time to put the knowledge into practice.
POET102
Return to Rhyme
2 day formal poetry workshop
30-31 January 2010
10am – 4pm
$25
13 February 2010
POET103 Writing Love Poems
Roses are red, violets are blue,
But how do I manage to say something new?
Ever wanted to write a poem for that special person, but not known how to go beyond greeting-card boring? Join poet Joanna Preston for a full day workshop on writing original love poems. Just in time for Valentines Day!
This course is a chance to look at some of the different ways that poets have written about love, and to then put those strategies into practice yourself. There will be ample writing time, and the opportunity for critical feedback for those participants who want it.
POET103
Writing Love Poems
1 day writing workshop
13 February 2010
10am – 4pm
$15
(I meant to blog about this one a month or so ago, but life took over.)
The Art of the Poetic Line is part of what looks like a very interesting series of books from Graywolf Press. Called “The Art of __”, each focuses on a particular single issue to do with creative writing. In this case, American poet/critic James Longenbach, writing about the implications, rationales, effects and strategies for ending lines.
Verdict? I definitely recommend it. It’s quite opinionated, and very much his personal (although very well supported) take on the issue. But I’ve got to hand it to him – as I was reading through, I kept finding myself saying things along the lines of “yes, but you’re ignoring ___”, only to find it dealt with a page later. He didn’t always win the argument, but I’m quite impressed at how many times he had, in fact, considered (and addressed) my objections. Not a bad trick for a book to pull off. And one that makes it feel like a passionate discussion that you’re a part of, rather than a lecture you’re being subjected to.
One caveat though – don’t read it anywhere too public, or you’ll get the same response from onlookers that I did …
