Dreamcatcher – worth a pile of beans!

During the siege of Leningrad, people flocked to the libraries for nourishment. Here, we flock to the supermarkets for toilet rolls. Perhaps the Russians have something to teach us.

I’m fortunate (so far) in having food and books enough. And my contributor’s copy of Dreamcatcher 40 has just arrived, pulsating with verbal and visual treats.  It’s Wendy Pratt’s final issue as Editor, and she’s really pushed the boat out.

It includes some cracking short stories: Mark Jarman’s fascinating take on Shanghai; Kevan Youde’s mouth-watering sea voyage; a tale from Down Under by Christian McCulloch and something for Movie buffs from Mark Wasserman.

Poets featured include Claire Booker, Nick Boreham, Pamela Coren, Sandra Galton, Yvonne Hendrie, Michael Henry, Gary Jude, Mark Anthony Kaye, David Lewitzky, Karen Little, Jenny McRobert,  Jeremy Platt, Florian Rose, Iain Twiddy and Alessio Zanelli.

The ravishing artwork in this issue has been selected from oil paintings by David Baumforth. Born in York, David’s inspiration is the ‘bitter beauty’ of England’s North East coast.  His technique is Turnerian, but the modern visual risk-taker is very much in evidence too.

“I paint how I’ve always painted,” explains Baumforth, “and that’s with a focus on the truth of what I see in front of me. Yorkshire and its coastline are a constant source of inspiration. My last collections are very well received, and though that is gratifying, success or lack of it can be a distraction.”

Wise words indeed. And what fantastic use of colour. Clearly a painter I need to find out more about. So, thank you, Dreamcatcher for introducing him to me.

This issue also carries reviews of Derrida’s Monkey by Nell Farrell, and The Unknown Civilian by Antony Owen. Plus a very handy guide by Alan Gillott to three, on-line resources for writers: Write Out Loud, The Poetry Kit, and Rhyme Zone.

To buy a copy of Dreamcatcher 40, subscribe to the magazine (two issues a year), or check submissions windows, visit: Dreamcatcher

 

Dream Catcher 37 is Out!

“Poetry produces many delights,” writes editor, John Gilham, in the foreword of the latest Dreamcatcher. And indeed, he’s right. This is a lively collection of poetry, fiction and artwork on the big themes of love, vengeance, nature, mystery, illness and death (among others!)

Poets who appear in issue 37 include Claire Booker, CM Buckland, Angela Cooke, Kieran Egan, Sally Festing, Daniel Gustaffson, Oz Hardwick, Tony McCabe, Mike McNamara, Ali Pardoe, Natalie Scott, Kenneth Durham Smith, Iain Twiddy, Tom Vaughan, Linda Lee Welch and Alice West.

The issue kicks off with a selection of poetry which featured at Poetry For All – an evening of work from poets living with hearing impairment, blindness or autism. Donna Williams’ work I admired in particular, especially her poem ‘These hands are bigger than the sky’. Diversity enrichens all our reading experience.

There are also short stories by Merryn Williams, Eleanor Porter, Alison Mordey, Stewart J Lowe, John Vale, Angelica Krikler and Gay McKenna among others.

Dreamcatcher reviews this issue include Paula McLain’s genre-bending book Flights of Fancy: Circling the Sun on women aviators; Pam Zinnemann-Hope’s first collection from Ward Wood Publishing; and Miller Oberman’s mixing of his own poetry with his translations of Old English poems, in his collection The Unstill Ones.

And what a lovely inter-weaving of featured artist Freya Horsely’s boldly impressionistic and colourfully dexterous work.

To purchase a copy of Dream Catcher Magazine (issue 37) or to find out how to submit your work, please visit: Dream Catcher and Stairwell Books

Popshot 21 – the Dream Issue

I dreamt I had a poem published in Popshot then woke up and found I really did!  A quarterly magazine of flash fiction, poetry and short stories mouth-wateringly illustrated by more than 20 cutting-edge artists – that’s what dreams are made of.

Each issue of Popshot works to a theme and draws submissions from across the globe. I find myself returning to old issues time and time again. It’s a picture book for adults with imagination and flair – a genuine treat to read, pulsing with the unexpected.

The current (Dream) issue is headlined by Hodder author Lydia Ruffles. There are haunting stories about hemiplegia, a giant squid and a Texan ghost by Jeremy Adam Smith, Jenny Holden and Joe Giordano ; flash fiction by Alice Ash and Jack Somers; as well as poetry by Claire Booker, Rachel Bower, Jo Brandon, Helen Cox, Michelle Marie Earl, Audrey Molloy and Emma Tilley, among others.

Plus so many gorgeous illustrations – among my favourites Adamastor Studio’s depiction of my poem ‘Butterfly Night’ (see above); Elisa Puglielli’s neat block work; the fluid lines of Joanna Layla’s ‘Chosen’; black & white pointillist portraits by Renzo Razzetto; Charlie Davis’ ravishing colour palette; and the surreal impact of Jorn Kaspuhl’s work. Not to mention those cute otter cubs gambolling over front and back cover by Vector That Fox.

A £20 subscription buys you four issues a year plus free access to Popshot’s digital archives of more than 500 stories.  Can you afford to be without it?

Editor Laura Silverman and Art Editor Alicia Fernandes operate submissions windows and would love to see your work (words or visual) as soon as the next theme is set.

For updates go to @popshotmag, or email hello@popshotpopshot.com, or visit: Popshot Magazine

Bucharest University Press publishes PoetryArt Exchange

An experiment in UK/Romanian collaborative poetry which began two years ago is now available to read in a FREE e-book at: http://editura.mttlc.ro/ rushton-poetryartexchange- romania-uk.html

The book comprises 36 interlinked poems, correspondence and debate from nine participating poets – Claire Booker, Margento, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, Iulia Militaru, John Riley, Andra Rotaru, Steve Rushton, Aleksandar Stoicovici and Stephen Watts.

In life, and virtually, these poets have got together and riffed off each other’s energy and ideas, creating new poems, interactive soundscapes, musical experimentation, exhibitions and live readings of their work at Deptford’s Bird’s Nest Gallery, The Hundred Years Gallery, Hoxton, and Birmingham’s Centrala Gallery.  

“Experimentalism has gone global,” says Lidia Vianu, Director of The Contemporary Literature Press (University of Bucharest) in her foreword to the book. “The change in the language of poetry, as well as in its obsessions, is so brutal that somebody like me, who has been teaching 20th Century poetry, plus the early years of the 21st Century, can only wonder at the brave new world which is opening as we speak, and say with me, poetryartexchange is a book for the next generation.”

PoetryArtExchange has also won praise from Ukrainian-born Ilya Kaminsky (two of whose poems headline the current Magma magazine). He writes: ” . . . nine poets from two countries coming together to smash the barriers and reach out to each other. In our world so torn by various nationalisms, refugee crises, political darknesses, what respite—what a gift, really—to find humans who create a country all their own (all our own, now) out of words. If I had to pledge allegiance to any nation, it would be this one.”

During PoetryArtExchange performances, poetic phrases have been glued to windows, light-projected onto walls, beaten out to the sound of drums, ball point pens and assorted instruments, blown up large as art-works, whispered into microphones above a palimpsest of previous recordings. Sebastian Sterkowicz on bass clarinet and Costin Dumitrache on piano have added further layers of music-making experimentation alongside the poets.

New poems have been created by each participant in a kind of call and response. Margento brilliantly references work by all nine poets in a colour-coded poem entitled: London (né) – Bookar®est Express (A Nuyorican Language GPS). Connections and debate are made between all the poets in English, Romanian, the languages of academia and even the language of satire. Who, for example, is the art critic Johannes Metzger who attacks an imaginary show ‘I Have a Cock’ with unstoppable pretension? Perhaps only John Riley can know.

A film of the PoetryArtExchange performance at The Hundred Years Gallery is available here: poetryartexchange(Romania/UK) at Hundred Years Gallery London

“What a show! Nine writers from two cultures, Romania and the UK, working their brand-new, poly-vocal invention. As one of the poets says, “It’s an attempt at establishing.” It establishes, and powerfully invigorates, so many aesthetics and colors, so many flavors and voices—cases, fonts, songs, diatribes, tracts, interiors and pluralities. This book is dynamic—as in drop-the-mike—as in dynamite.”  David Baker

 Check out the PAE blogsite at: poetryartexchange.wordpress. com

A podcast of three of the poets discussing PoetryArtExchange is available here: Podcast + playlist: Hello GoodBye – 27.05.17 – Sebastian Melmoth, Steve Rushton, Margento + Simon Waldram | hellogoodbyeshow

Topmost photo credit: Christine Leman-Riley.

 

Childhood memories flutter in The Moth

Summer so often brings childhood bubbling to the surface. A time for drowsing, lazing and youthful adventures.  The latest issue of arts and literature magazine The Moth contains images and words that sparkle with beaches, rivers, people disrobed, fragile and intriguing. 

Poets in issue 25 include Mona Arshi, Claire Booker, Christina Logue, Stuart Paterson, Jennifer Tonge and Terence Winch. The art is lusciously reproduced, including beach and seascapes by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, mono-tint bathers by Jane Hambleton and work by Michael Carson (cover).

There are treats in store for story lovers too, including ‘The California Grizzly’ by Matthew Woodman, ‘Proves the Rule’ by James Kincaid and ‘The Chantry Priest’ by Thomas Maloney. I particularly enjoyed ‘Glad There Are Places’ by Hugh Smith:

“I’m glad there are places within you, vast, perhaps endless places, which my love has nothing to do with. My love might ruin your conversation, but it can’t touch your childhood.”

And for a finger on the pulse of one of poetry’s bright young stars, there’s an illuminating interview with Guardian First Book Award winner Andrew McMillan in which he talks about his ex-labourer father, Ian, aka the Bard of Barnsley. Sometimes they perform their work together at venues: “I used to be very resistant. I guess for obvious reasons. It’s just kind of fun now. It’s like our equivalent of a fishing trip or having a lads’ night away.”

The Moth is a quarterly arts journal edited by Rebecca O’Connor and Will Govan and published in Co. Cavan, Ireland.  Look out too for the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, worth 10,000 euros, which is in association with The Moth. The closing date this year is 31st December. For more details, t0 subscribe to the magazine or submit your own work, please visit: http://www.themothmagazine.com/

Recreation ’99 by Jonathan Turner

 

Popshot gets ‘Curious’ with Fiction, Poetry and Illustration

A man in a blue gabardine and trilby is walking through a yellow wall. Curious?

Then buy a copy of Popshot (issue 14) and follow the trail of weird and wonderful things within its latest pages. From tales of deep sea mysteries and time-loops to poems on blue hen’s eggs, leeks that rustle and planetary stalkers, Popshot will have your eyes popping.

Poets featured in the ‘Curious Issue’ include Claire Booker, Rosie Garland, Nancy Carol Moody and Catherine Venn. And there are great stories from Danielle Carey, Jane Wright and Dan Coxon among others, including a brilliant imagining by Rob Stuart on what might happen if humans create a super-powerful artificial intelligence. Be surprised. Be very surprised.

And of course, the glorious illustrations (17 in all) make Popshot such a joy to hold in the hand or view on screen.  Colour-rich or monchrome, figurative or pop-art, there’s something for every taste – each one a potential collectors’ item.

Popshot editor, Jacob Denno, selects short fiction and poetry from thousands of submissions, then hands them over to cutting edge artists to absorb. Once they’re all fired up, it’s down to the drawing board!

It’s a dream come true to know that my poem ‘Clair de Lune’ has inspired an evocative illustration by Mathieu Persan which appears along side it in the magazine. There’s something mesmeric about that moonlit scene that keeps drawing me in.

For more information on Mathieu Persan’s work, please check his website at: www.barbudesign.com

Other illustrators in Popshot’s Curious issue  include Joey Guidone, Alys Hobbs, Kate O’Hara and Carolina Burdon. The cover illustration (top) is by Jörn Kaspuhl at kaspuhl.com.

Popshot continues to grow a community of readers, with copies of the magazine now available in 22 countries. If you want to see why, have a flick through a few spreads here in the Curious Issue.

You can buy a single issue for £6 + p&p or subscribe for £10 a year and get issue 14 as your initial copy, followed by the next two issues over the coming year, plus free access to the digital edition which contains every issue Popshot have ever published.

Ambit 221 – a fruit bowl of art, poetry and short fiction

Ambit is looking absolutely luscious this summer – a splash of fruit and veg on ethereal blue and inside some wonderful reading.

Poems in this issue include work by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Sarah Howe, Richard Scott, Declan Ryan, Claire Booker, Malene Engelund, Sally Festing and Robert Selby.

Artwork is on top form, with cover and a palate of work by South Korean artist Hyounsang Yoo, who gives insights into her journey as an artist and her working process. The Summer Salon of images is refreshingly diverse, including ‘Cherries’ by Kes Richardson and ‘Fatal Flower Garden’ by Melanie Bonajo. And as an added extra, Jenny Dunseath’s ‘An image, I’m pleased, I am sad’ is available to download from Ambit’s website as an animated .gif.

Plus short fiction lovers can enjoy stories by Dave Wakely, Marcella O’Connor, Tania Hershman and Jonny Keyworth – from insights into scientific nuns and gay parenthood to the melting pot of cultures that is New York.

To buy your copy of Ambit 221, or subscribe to the magazine, visit:

Home – Ambit magazine

Claire Booker in Popshot Magazine

It’s been on the Observer’s ‘Cool List’. It was named “one of the fresh breed of literary magazines” by The Independent.

Issue Eight of Popshot Magazine

It’s Popshot Magazine!  A visual feast of illustration, flash fiction and poetry, beautifully designed on top quality paper.

Issue eight offers a rich mix of words and artwork on the theme of ‘Birth’ and includes two of Claire Booker’s poems.  Buy a copy, you won’t regret it!

http://www.popshotpopshot.com