Suzanna Fitzpatrick's The Deeper Read

In the context of a review culture in which hot takes, pseudo blurbs and cod-academic posturing are rife, it's a huge breath of fresh air to encounter a critic who engages with a poet and their poetry, who gets to grips with the nuts and bolts of every line, who reaches far beyond a mere description of thematic concerns, all without lapsing into jargon or self-aggrandisement.

This is why I'm thoroughly recommending Suzanna Fitzpatrick's The Deeper Read today. It's a regular Substack where she delves deeply into one collection at a time. Her writing and insights are terrific in their clarity, worthy of a wider audience and way more interesting than most reviews that can be found in major journals, even the essay-length ones, so I'm not taking restricted words counts as an excuse here. In fact, Fitzpatrick's showing up a fair few bigger names in The Deeper Read. I suggest you explore its archive via this link, but with one warning: it's likely to provoke you into purchases of poetry books that you'd never heard of and suddenly need...!

Sheenagh Pugh reviews Whatever You Do, Just Don't

Hugely privileged that renowned poet and critic Sheenagh Pugh should have written a terrific review of Whatever Yuu Do, Just Don´t. You can read it via this link, but here's a taster to whet your appetite...

...Brexit and its aftermath do not crop up much in UK poetry, but then few UK poets have this perspective on it...this is an unusual collection, from a viewpoint we do not often see, and correspondingly enlightening.

In Poetry London...

 Pleased to report that I have a poem, titled ‘Brambleton Avenue’, in the new issue of Poetry London...

Less of a poet...?

A so-called FB friend (who will remain anonymous, so no fishing!) told me to my face the other day that my promotion of my books was far better than the poetry inside them, implying that I was less of a poet for getting my stuff out there. I can fully understand why a poet might feel uncomfortable about promoting their work, but I can't comprehend how this might then lead to their denigrating other poets who do so.

I was stunned by his words, though I recovered sufficiently to reply that his attitude was representative of the worst of U.K poetry. Which reminds me. Anyone up for a signed copy?! If so, just drop me an email. The address is in my blogger profile...

Submission caps for poetry magazines

Not judgemental, but curious, observational and slightly concerned, this post will tackle the growing question of submission caps.

By submission caps, I'm referring to a limit of submissions that poetry journals will often place on their Submittable call-out for a specific issue. This decision is down to two main factors: Submittable's charging system and the editors' capacity for processing poems.

The consequence of these submission caps, however, is that supposedly lengthy submissions windows for mags that use them pretty much go straight out of the window. This is because, for instance, if a journal opens to submissions for a month but reaches its limit on Submittable after a few days, those windows are hugely shortened. And then it requires an operation of scramble and dash (or military-level planning!) on the part of the poet to ensure their poems reach the editors before that limit is hit.

And a further potential consequence is the watering down of the quality of submissions. The best poets aren't necessarily the ones that are hustling and chasing submission opportunities, poised at their keyboards to press send as soon as a window opens. The standard of the journal might well suffers.

Right, so that's an incipient problem recognised. But what about a potential solution? And that's where things get extremely tricky. Without submission caps, editors' entire waking hours would entail wading through thousands of poems in search of gems, their reading skills getting ever more jaded. And any step away from open calls would dismantle any journal's claims to be seeking out new talent and fresh poetry.

Deep down, it seems that more and more people hold serious aspirations to getting their poetry published in quality journals. Which is possibly a good thing. If only all of them were buying books at the same rate as they submit their own work. Though that's another massive can of worms, so we won't go there again today.

What do you think of submission caps? How might poetry journals best cope with the huge number of subimssions that want to knock on their doors?

An extra reading in Oxford

On top of my forthcoming readings in London, St Albans and Bedford (see previous post), I'm now delighted to announce an additional event.

I'll be the featured poet for the Oxford Poetry Circle on 26th February. The venue is the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and the timings are 7-9 p.m.. Here's a poster with all the details...

Three forthcoming readings

Right, so I’ve got three in-person readings coming up. The details are as follows:

Saturday 28^th Feb. Guest Poet at Ver Poets in St Albans (with Mat Riches). Venue is St Albans General Library, kicking off at 11 a.m.. This is a free event.

Monday 2^nd March. Rogue Strands Poetry Reading at The Devereux in London (with Mat Riches, George Szirtes, Christopher Reid, Jemma Borg and Katharine Towers). This event begins at 6.45 p.m. and it’s free.

Tuesday 3^rd March. Guest Poet at Ouse Muse in Bedford. The venue is the Eagle Bookshop, starting at 8 p.m..

It would be great to see you there!