I’m excited for 2016. This may not sound terribly rational, given the terrible floods just down the road from me and much, much worse to come on a global scale, but I am genuinely glad of the chance for a fresh start and a new perspective on things. 2015 was a great year. I left the terribleness of 2014 behind …
Poet in Residence at Northern Poetry Library
When I moved to the north east of England 10 years ago, I was slightly beside myself to be based so close to the Northern Poetry Library in Morpeth. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone interested in poetry and I’m really pleased to be one of the poets in residence for the new digital platform. This will involve a huge …
Mslexia Spotlight Poetry Evening
The wonderful Mslexia magazine is putting on an evening of poetry on Wednesday 23rd September at the Black Swan in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Doors open at 7.30pm and I’ll be reading with Gillian Allnutt, Linda France, and Aileen Ballantyne, winner of the 2015 Mslexia Poetry competition. More info here.
Free copy of creative writing article
Last month my first academic article in 8 years was published in New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing. Usually access to these journals is via the University’s subscription (if you’re a student) or personal subscription, but GUESS WHAT? I get 50 free e-prints to share with you lovely people! The article is titled ‘Should Taught Creative …
The Norwegian edition of THE BOY WHO COULD SEE DEMONS
Really pleased to share the Norwegian edition of The Boy Who Could See Demons – I think this might just be my favourite cover (although the Italian edition is a close runner-up). All of the foreign editions of my books are published by different publishers, and it’s been interesting to see how differently each publisher produces the book. I’m delighted with …
2015 Belfast Book Festival
I’ve had a wonderful time at the Belfast Book Festival this week and am sad to be leaving tomorrow morning. This is just a quick recap of the past week or two – I’ll be posting a link to the TV interview I did for the Writing Depression project in a few days’ time – but in short I feel …
New Website!!
Hi there, In case you haven’t noticed, I have a shiny new website created by the good people at Design House Berkhamsted. What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Let me know (oh, and definitely let me know if you spot any mistakes….). We’re still tweaking and updating and fixing things, but I think it’s almost there. OK…. UPDATES! Apart …
Introducing My New Writing Partner
Yes folks, I have a new writing partner. Well, he doesn’t actually do much of the writing but he certainly insists upon curling up beside me as I type and occasionally chews the laptop. I’m sure he has a novel in him yet. He’s 8 weeks old and adorable. Sadly Ralph won’t be coming to any of my events in ...
Butcher’s Dog Magazine
Hello again. Just a little note to say I’m very pleased to be guest editing the next issue of the fabulous Butcher’s Dog poetry magazine which is just about to close for submissions. I’m excited to read all the poems so be sure to email your submission by Sunday!
Still Harping On Mothers
The lovely folk at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre chose BOOM! as their poem of the week. I subscribe to OBPC and enjoy finding their weekly selections in my inbox, so it was a very pleasant surprise indeed when I opened up this week’s email and found my own poem there. A nice precursor to the final set of Writing Motherhood ...