The Poetry Crowd

Stairs and Whispers

When I heard that publisher Nine Arches Press was seeking submissions for an anthology of poetry by D/deaf and disabled poets I was very excited. Submissions could be about those issues but they did not have to be; the only requirement was that the poet fell into the category of being D/deaf or disabled. I sent them 5 poems and two were accepted.

The project is more than just the anthology. As Nine Arches Press describes, 'the anthology 'Stairs and Whispers' is 'The first of its kind and packed with fierce poetry, essays, photos and links to accessible online videos'. I'll be recording both of my poems, Cold Hands and Wandering Eyes as part of the media content.

Nine Arches have a Crowdfunder page to raise funds for this project. At the time I'm posting this the Crowdfunder is at 33 percent towards its target and there are 33 days remaining. Can you help get that up past 50 percent during the coming week?

Help us to publish Stairs and Whispers, the first major U.K. anthology of poetry and essays by D/deaf and Disabled poets.

Shortlisting

It's coming around again ... that day when we find out if we have a secret admirer(s)! I guess it's poetic justice that if I don't write love poems then I'm not going to get any cards from St Valentine. However my poetry nose did sniff out an interesting submission theme by The London Reader on digital love. I only noticed this with 3 days remaining in the submission window, but rather handily there is a poem in my Dressing Up pamphlet called Readers' Wi-Fi, which fit the bill perfectly. It has made the shortlist which means it may be included in the digital love issue, space and content balance permitting. As part of that I had to then answer 7 questions, including how the subject of digital love in my poem reflected my own personal experiences, and whether I thought what we know as love is changing in the digital world; this promises to be an entertaining issue! For the record I'm more than happy to accept Valentine's messages in comments to this post <3

The Main Feature

When you are using screen reading software it can be a laborious task checking bank statements online for one specific transaction. I was expecting some payment for the article and poem I wrote for Poetry Wales disability issue back in June 2016. I decided that the easiest manner of following up on this was to get in touch with them and simply ask, “Have I been paid?” Short answer was no, due to bank details not having made it to the person in charge of paying people (in fairness if I was a bank sort code I’d rather hang out in the poetry department rather than the accounts payable office); I believe this has now been rectified :) But in the course of the correspondence I was asked if I'd like to do a short piece for a new feature on the Poetry Wales website called 'How I Write a Poem'. So I wrote my three insights and sent them in, and next day I appear to be February's Featured Poet! How lovely is that!! :)

Teatime is Scheduled

My first reading event for Dressing Up has been scheduled. I was going to say that it will appear on my new Events page which my lovely website designer at Laurel Creative has added for me as soon as I figure out how to add all the event information ... but it appears she has already added the event for me! That's the kind of efficiency it's wonderful to find in a web designer, thank you Nicky :) The event is at Waterloo Tea in Wyndham Arcade in Cardiff and I can vouch, from personal experience, that they serve very fine teas and coffees and cakes(note the plurals — you may want more than one of each!) which you can enjoy while listening to whoever you've come to see. I went there to see Susan Richardson reading from her poetry collection Skin Dancing, and I enjoyed a pot of white tea and a piece of carrot cake on that occasion ... I hope these are the kinds of details you read this blog for :) It would be fantastic to see you if you're able to make it to Cardiff on 27 April for this reading — if you do then don't forget to come and say hello and who you are, because I have no way of visually recognising you :)

Reaching Out

Mexico seems to get a lot of attention in these Trump-times so when I spotted a call for submissions to The Ofi Presswho are based in Mexico City, for a themed edition about the Arctic, I thought to myself that my poem, The Kapluna Effect (also in my Dressing Up pamphlet), which looks at an Inuk (I was using the word 'Eskimo' but I gather Inuk is preferred) teenager making a decision familiar to many parents of teenage children might have a chance on being accepted. So that submission has gone in this week. The deadline for the Arctic theme isn't until 25 February 2017, so you've a couple of weeks left if you've got something suitable or fancy writing a poem about the Arctic.

Wrap up warm if you're embracing the Arctic temperatures of Valentine's day, and I'll see you next week :)

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