Category: Poetry
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The promise of Jocelyn Simms
If you’re in the book trade, you receive a lot of books for review, but there are certain names that, like those first signs of approaching summer, bring a sparkle of anticipation. I was looking forward to The Promise of Thaw by Jocelyn Simms, and the promise was fulfilled. The back-jacket reviewers are Elaine Briggs,…
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What’s Nigel doing these days?
In the front of our first ever poetry anthology, Routemasters and Mushrooms, I wrote, “the works speak for themselves. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. We intend this collection to be the first of many.” That was 2006. The winning poem, which opens the book, is by Nigel Humphreys. The writers…
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Three poems find sanctuary
You too can be Battersea Poetry Home. It’s amazing the treasures you can rescue from potential oblivion, and give sanctuary to in your own head. When you pick up a poetry book and find something you love, ideas, images and phrases take root. You have enriched yourself, as well as rescuing a book that might…
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Blog of blogs for Earlyworks Press
Greetings to all the authors and friends of Earlyworks Press! I’m sorry for the long silence on the competitions and website fronts. COVID blah blah recession blah blah need to earn a living – you know how it is. For those who signed up to our newsletter for competition news, I’m afraid there isn’t any…
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Back in the days of the desktop publishing explosion, this happened…
Way back before I got involved in publishing, I had developed a fascination for small press books, glorious evidence they are of specialist endeavours that most people will probably never get to hear about. Someone commented once that there were probably more than a few books on my shelves that were the sole surviving copy…
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The Astonishing Worlds of Mandy Pannett
How many years ago did I jump on a train to Arundel to have lunch with Mandy Pannett, and talk about organising a poetry collection competition? It happened before the Corbyn movement swept me away for several years of single-minded battle; it happened before the most urgent women’s campaign of my lifetime, and before COVID,…
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Women writing poetry – scary?
Ask a poet for a bit of text to for the back jacket, to encourage readers to open her book, and you get this…. Wormwood, earth and honey Selected poems by Catherine Edmunds teasel scratches, bramble catches deep inside my den of mischief mud pies splatter, cracked plates clatter if you dare to enter here…
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20th Century Art in Hastings
This article, adapted from a piece in a former Hastings anthology, Visions of Hastings, explains how the Hastings Modern Art Beach Book came to be… text © 2010 K Green, pictures © 2010 K Reekie They threatened to build an art gallery on The Stade in Hastings and, despite a furious tide of resistance, they…
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Stocking Fillers for Adults
Let’s go back to the dawn of Earlyworks Press time for today’s ‘Christmas books’ blog. Back then, the press was very much Hastings-based, and the heart and soul of the membership was our Terry Sorby. ‘Porkies’ was very much his plan. A page-turning collection of sizzling jokes, rhymes and mini-stories, it’s just perfect for Christmas…
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Do not buy silly shorts
Of all the strategies you could employ, shorts in winter are the worst. ESPECIALLY if they look like this… Do not wear them In fact, do not wear shorts in winter at all… Read them Earlyworks Press has a fantastic back-list of high-quality short story collections. A well-written short story is the perfect companion by…
Kay Green 