Here’s my latest poetry video. This poem was first published in Spring 2011 in a magazine now archived at the Southbank Poetry Library (issue 32 of The Journal). Since it’s a short one and was previously published in print and not in any electronic version online, I thought it a great piece for a reading. It’s a poetic weirdo…enjoy!
Ahead of my forthcoming flash fiction piece, The art of something out of nothing, to be published next month, the editor of Pure Slush has posted my author profile on the website. I also completed a questionnaire, which all the writers who contribute to Pure Slush provide, giving a little insight into who they are.
Turquoise… The colour of my soul
The questionnaire asks about the writer’s favourite colour and why. What does a person’s favourite colour say about them? Continue reading
Joseph Robert… bio in a bottle
The Spring issue of Message in a Bottle has Joseph Robert’s latest trio of published poems. ‘Imaginary Property Boom’ comes at a good time – how many people out there are wanting to be first time home owners, but could never in a month of Mondays afford to get onto even the first step of the housing ladder? Resigned to living out their lives in one bedroom apartments where they hand over the best part of their salary to a faceless landlord, they hope against hope their belongings won’t wash away on the flood plain, while waiting for years on a council list only to get kicked off, because the goal-posts keep moving! Continue reading
Since I started offering a space for poetry and fiction reviews back in February, I’ve been pleased with the responses and even more with the quality of writing out there. Writing by Indie authors makes for a much more interesting read than the often ‘filtered’ writing in mainstream publications. When an author takes control of their own work, they don’t have to ‘play it safe’, which is unfortunately the case with some contemporary verse.
Marakech A-ha by Simon Robson is a collection of travel-themed verse giving a snapshot of a package holiday in bite-sized poems. Glimpses of the landscape, people and tradition are pieced together to give an impression of a tourist lost in culture shock, and ultimately coerced into self exploration as a result. Photos taken from a high-rise hotel room and ticket stubs accompany the poems. In ‘Rehabilitating Slowly’, etiquette and customs become stifling even for the locals; people hang their arms out of car windows, exhausted by the social norms. Continue reading
Gullible is Joseph Robert’s latest flash fiction piece, published today in Farther Stars. Farther Stars is a magazine dedicated to Science Fiction. Whilst Gullible can be read as an intergalactic piece, it can also work as a satire of more down-to-earth workplaces, albeit full of ‘space-cadets’.
Intergalactic Bureaucracy!
The story is applicable to any bureaucratic company where there is more of an emphasis on hierarchy than productivity. Take the bigwig in Gullible: Frere Tizzavum Krieg-Sensei. We know the type; ladder-climbing, rule following (except when it applies to them), secretly money-fiddling, overly critical-of-their-employees type of people. And as with any dysfunctional and badly managed workplace Continue reading
The Blue Book is a collection of 60 poems by Jeremy Young exploring social mores through a variety of themes covering everything from contemporary culture to mythology. In poems such as ‘Prayer’, ‘Rhetoric’, ‘Marketing’, ‘Bleaching a Mouse’ and ‘Wot I Fink’, cynicism is cut by humour bringing the bigger picture into context, often in the last stanza, to poke fun at the absurdity of life. An example of how wit and neuroticism are blended well is shown in ‘Vivisection B’, which compares writing poetry to a medical emergency:
‘Secure the stanzas on the gurney
check the meters and complete the forms…
Several of the poems deal with the darker side of life through themes such as war and mortality. Continue reading
Chapbook Publishing… so many options
Looking for a chapbook publisher? Not afraid to go it alone? Willing to consider author-funded as an option? Check out the following links for chapbook publishers, self publishing options, POD and more. There are probably loads more, but these are the ones with books that I’ve either seen reviewed or heard about: Continue reading
What I look for in a poetry pamphlet or book is the quality of writing, first and foremost, followed by the presentation of the poems. I don’t care for shiny covers, or ISBNs, or fancy publishing and copyright information – after all, half the publishers you hear of are actually vanity press. That is not to deride vanity press, of course; after all, some people have the ££££ to spend, and the garage to stock their books while they sell them at events.
As a fellow artist, I can appreciate the charm in Simon Robson’s photocopied pamphlet, Backyard Cabbages. It contains 17 pages of poetry along with black and white photographs of a garden shot in high exposure. Many of the poems focus on ordinary people; neighbours, locals, any sort you would meet in your neighbourhood or down the pub. The poems and photos give the reader a sense of loneliness and isolation as the poet observes everyday occurrences and unsuspecting people, writing about the events in candid speech that is quirky and at times humorous. Continue reading
A few years ago, all the advice available for novice poets pointed to getting yourself published in print magazines, building up a CV and approaching a publisher with a book-length collection. Nowadays, with so many small press magazines folding (whether through postage costs, lack of subscribers or withdrawal of Arts Council funding), more and more poets are turning to ezines as a way of promoting their work, and many are self publishing pamplets at local events and (if brave) sending work for review. But what are the chances of a new or up-and-coming poet making it in a ‘scene’? Here’s my tongue-in-cheek take on scenesters:
Hitting below the belt…
How would I boil down the options? Considering that the ultimate aim of a poet is to have their work read (hey, let’s be honest, who makes a profit at this work anyway?), here’s my idea: Continue reading
In one of my recent Creative Writing workshops for young people, I decided to read one of my poems from a batch of four that were published in Issue 17 of Sarasvati Magazine three years ago. It’s often hard to find poetry that will engage youngsters as they tend to think of poetry as old fashioned, and boys tend to avoid it thinking it ‘sissy-ish’. Luckily for youngsters, performance poetry is making it seem ‘cool’ again.
For my latest session, I chose to read my poem ‘Glass Vision’ for its use of metaphors. The students enjoyed the vocabulary exercise – I gave them a copy of the poem with certain words blanked out and had them listen to the poem as published to fill in the gaps using synonyms for the original words. Most of them could relate to the poem in some way – since it was about the breakdown of a relationship, nearly all admitted they’d lost a best friend at some point in their lives. Bless!
About this blog
Leilanie Stewart 