Erbacce 45 is out!

Always full of surprises, the latest issue of erbacce  (Italian for weed) has spread its green feelers across continents, with poetry from Chicago, Germany, Italy and the UK.

Edited in Liverpool by Alan Corkish and Andrew Taylor, erbacce has a fine tradition of presenting poetry that is  unusual, provoking, even – words that make exciting  shapes on the page.

I’m delighted they’ve taken four of my poems for this issue, alongside the work of Peter Eustace (Verona, Italy), Michelle Chen (Whitestone, USA), Clive Donovan (Devon), Alex Dreppee (Darmstadt, Germany), Luke Karl Thurogood (Wigan) and Eric Allen Yankee (Chicago, USA).

It’s great to read a wide range of poets in one magazine, but it can also be enjoyable to read more work, from a smaller pot of poets. This is where erbacce comes into its own. Issue 45 includes 14 poems by Peter Eustace, a thought-provoking poet of pared down words and a fierce eye for detail. In an interview with Alan Corkish, Peter explains how his forty years based in Verona have affected his poetry, and what drives him to carry on writing.

If you’d like to buy a copy of erbacce 45, or submit your work to the magazine, please click on this link:http://www.erbacce.com/

erbacce goes for a hat-trick

The popular journal erbacce has published three poems by Claire Booker, including ‘Barren’ – a poem about the terrifying monster infertility can create.

‘Barren’ started life in poetic form, then developed into a 5 minute play, before ruthlessly demanding still more of my attention. Finally – if one can ever use that word in relation to poetry – I re-worked it into the piece that appears in erbacce (issue 32).

erbacce stems from the Italian word for ‘weed’, but there’s nothing weedy about the poetry sprouting vigorously inside its pages. There’s an incisive interview with poet and playwright Claudine Toutoungi (followed by 11 of her poems) plus work from American poets Nathan Graziano and Linda Benninghoff, and UK-based Amber Goodwin-Figes, Fiona Curran, Keighley Perkins and Colin Sutherill.

To order a copy of erbacce (issue 32)or submit your own work, please click on the following link: http://www.erbacce.com

To watch a 5 minute film of ‘Harriet by the Swings’ – the pre-curser to ‘Barren’ – performed at the Lost Theatre, please click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBHZOSlv2b0&hd=1