‘Voicing Shadow, Singing Light’ is a blog series designed to tear down barriers of silence that perpetuate suffering from mental illness and deadly last resorts. In August I put a call out on Facebook and Twitter requesting poems that articulate some aspect of mental illness – whether as sufferer, survivor, carer or friend. The response has been overwhelming – hundreds …
VOICING SHADOW, SINGING LIGHT
Mental illness affects all of us. More than a third of the population of Europe is affected by mental illness every year, with depression now recognised as Europe’s leading chronic condition. Mental illness is strongly linked to suicide; according to the World Health Organization, by the time you have finished reading this paragraph at least one person will have committed …
Film rights…. and a poetry offer!
The film rights for THE BOY WHO COULD SEE DEMONS have been optioned by Sebastian Dungan, a Sundance-winning, Oscar-nominated and all-round lovely producer based in LA. Back in February Sebastian emailed me to say he loved the book, and via Skype told me he’d actually come across it in a public library (usually film rights are optioned on the heel …
Film poems, Festivals, and What-to-do-while-waiting-for-feedback
Hello there! Gosh, it is really JULY? Really?? I don’t know about you, but this year has just flown. Anyhoo, that means I have lots of news for you. Hooray! (or ‘Hurrah!’, depending on which part of the world you’re from. Perhaps I should just say ‘Wheeeee!’) Hmmm, where to start. I’ll show you my film poem, shall I? What’s ...
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!
Today is the publication day for my second poetry collection BOOM! Needless to say, I am over the moon, not least because this collection has been four years in the making but because of the subject matter – motherhood. My 8th book, it’s probably the most personal book I’ve published to date. I had the opportunity to give the first reading ...
National Poetry Competition
National Poetry Competition Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a very posh award ceremony in a very posh club in Mayfair, London (did I mention that it was posh?) because my poem ‘Hare’ was commended in theNational Poetry Competition, or in other words got placed in the top ten out of 12,085 entries. I was bowled over by …
Writing Motherhood Events!
Writing Mother Events! Hi there. Isn’t it a lovely day? I don’t know about you but a bunch of 99p daffs on my dining room table cheers me up immensely. As does seeing the tender purple heads of crocuses nipping up in the park. I LOVE spring! OK, so the Writing Motherhood conversation is happening over at the Mslexia blog …
Cover reveal and more!
Am very pleased to reveal the cover for my new poetry collection BOOM!… What do you think??? I’m so excited for it. The image is one of Brooke Shaden‘s amazing photographs – I am so grateful that she’s letting me use it. The larger project surrounding BOOM! has begun. Booking has just opened for the first ‘Writing Motherhood’ event at …
Writing Motherhood
Writing Motherhood Hello again! Well as usual it’s been aaaggges since I last blogged and that means tons of news. I’ll start off with what I think is the best news – The Arts Council gave me full funding for my ‘Writing Motherhood’ project. What’s my ‘Writing Motherhood’ project? Hey, great question, and thanks for asking. It’s a project I’ve …
Recording Anya’s narration for THE BOY WHO COULD SEE DEMONS audiobook
First of, thank you to all of you who have taken pictures of BOY on US shelves. Anyway, keep the pics coming, they make me so happy. So this blog post is loooong overdue. Well, maybe not so much: I did promise you video diaries during the recording of the audiobook for THE BOY WHO COULD SEE DEMONS but I ...