A very overdue update

If this blogpost were a library book, I would have a very big fine to pay! Apologies!

It's been very busy recently, and not just in literary terms! This weekend I did a charity hitchhike called Jailbreak, in aid of Cancer Research. I managed to get from Norwich to Rosslare in Ireland within 48 hours and spending no money! Hitchhiking was a new experience that has been inspiring a lot of poetry since I got back.

Apart from preparing for and undertaking Jailbreak, I've been doing a lot of literary stuff. Last month I read at two events: the UEA CWS Open Mic, which was wonderful and which introduced me to some truly amazing young poets, and Freewheelin', a spoken word night run by Lewis Buxton and Alex Valente, and which debuted on March 5th at the Bicycle Shop in Norwich. It was a brilliant night in a lovely setting (although a Baileys hot chocolate set me back £5.60. £5.60?!?!) with a really vibrant variety of poets sharing their work. I was so honoured by my introduction. I can't remember it exactly but I remember thinking how welcoming the atmosphere was, how well Lewis and Alex hosted it, and how poetry is the place where I can feel confident and accepted. It was a fantastic night and I hope there'll be many more to come!

Towards the end of February I took a workshop at Writers' Centre Norwich with the wonderful Pascale Petit. As soon as I saw her name, I just had to book it. Her collection 'What the Water Gave Me' is one of my absolute favourites (I reviewed it here) and the workshop didn't disappoint. It was lovely to undertake some exercises that I found really unusual, but had a recogniseable Pascale Petit spin on them. The afternoon was spent critiquing a poem we had sent in advance, which was really helpful and surprisingly enjoyable! I left having a greater confidence in my work. It was a class for intermediate to advanced writers, and some of the participants had the MA Creative Writing from UEA, but I felt more comfortable in that workshop than I have done in beginner's classes...I guess because I am not a beginner. The thing I particularly liked was that Pascale's choice of exercises really brought out my 'voice', the vocabularly and imagery that I have swirling around in my head, the way I like to look at the world. I was surprised that it was a scientific, geological and botanical lexicon that emerged. I got some good work out of the workshop, had a really good time, and have definitely made a leap as a writer as a result of Pascale's suggestions.

Thirdly, I saw Jeanette Winterson give a talk at my university as part of the UEA Spring Literature Festival. She. Was. Wonderful. I came out feeling so inspired. Winterson read us the first chapter of her new book 'Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?', took questions, and just generally shone. Her humour, her humility, her gentleness, her sharpness, were extraordinary. You had to be there to understand how amazing the talk was. I literally ran down to Waterstones to buy a signed copy of the book afterwards. I'm halfway through it and it's wonderful...perhaps a bit philosophical in places for my own taste, but wonderful.

Anyway, that's all for now folks! :)

Currently Trying to Stay Afloat in a Sea of Literary Activity...

Well, the New Year and new semester are turning out to be bloody busy already! I've spent some time trying to organise my life a bit and I have just realised how much I've got going on in the coming weeks!

First of all, next week is fairly full up as I am first of all going to a reading by John Burnside at UEA, then on Tuesday a friend of mine is reading at poetry night HeadCRASH and then the day after that is my birthday!

The following Tuesday, January 24th, I am performing at Poetry Slam, a presentation and reading session at The Workshop on Earlham Road, Norwich. I started organising this is September with some friends...can't believe it's nearly here! And can't believe I still have no idea what I'm going to be reading!

One exciting thing about it though is that among the many amazingly talented poets from UEA is Meirion Jordan, who is published by Seren. Seren publish some of my favourite writers, and I know Paul Henry, who is also on their list. The bookshop where I work occasionally, Bookish, has some nice close little links with them, and it's lovely that I'll be performing alongside someone who has been published by a small house of such innovation and integrity!

Apart from that, I am hoping to also read at other events, go to other readings both at UEA and in the lovely city of Norwich, as well as writing some stuff and actually studying for my degree.

As well as relcaiming my fitness, which over the last few months has eloped to Brazil, along with my brain and work ethic.

And looking for somewhere to live next year.

And trying to squeeze in a social life.

So much to do!!! But it's so exciting!

Some cool links that I cannot recommend highly enough:

Poetry Slam: http://www.facebook.com/groups/headCRASH/#!/events/125096117609839/

The Workshop: http://www.nosher.co.uk/venues/workshop

HeadCRASH: http://www.facebook.com/events/125096117609839/#!/groups/headCRASH/

UEA Literature Festival: http://www.uea.ac.uk/litfest/Spring+2012

Seren: http://www.serenbooks.com/

Bookish: http://www.book-ish.co.uk/

Three +Three Project

I've got a new project on with artist Rosanne Jedly (see her very cool website at http://www.rosannejedly.com/), in which we inspire each other with our poems/paintings to create new works.

The idea is that eventually this will be published in a little pamphlet, with the paintings and poems next to each other and interweaving. This isn't about creating photoetry (haven't seen an example that works yet) or illustrating a set of poems; it's more about a dialogue between two artists working in different media.

Each piece will work on its own, but our intention is to inspire each other to create something that we might not otherwise have thought of.

The project is called Three + Three, and the intention is that we each select three pieces of work from the other's repertoire and create something new inspired by each of these three pieces.

So far I have written three poems based on Rosanne's paintings (although I intend to write more and then choose the best). They are 'After Oil Seed Rape Field', 'Smoking Hot Woman' and 'Rap' and I'm really pleased with the work so far. Of my poems, Rosanne has so far selected 'The Satellite Rabbit' from a series of poems, and 'Echo Speaks', which you can see on ABCtales (http://www.abctales.com/story/arfellian/echo-speaks). However, she's at a bit of a disadvantage in this, as what with waiting for the layers of paint to dry etc. it takes her longer to complete a painting than it does for me to get a poem reasonably polished off!

Anyway, I've been working with Rosanne in her studio, and also putting together a basic MS Publisher document to give us an idea of how the pamphlet could work, and to check the quality of the photos we've been taking. So far though it seems to be coming on really well! I'm very excited about this :D

I'm loving writing from Rosanne's pictures as well. I've written from pictures a couple of times before but nothing on this scale, and the paintings are really magnificent. Rosanne uses layers and layers of colour built up to create amazing compositions, most often portraits of her 'spirit people'. I think this project has given a depth to my work and a focus that I haven't experienced before. So bring on more 'artistic dialogues'! I'm loving it!!