Best, Gann, Page, Smith and Thorpe read in Brighton

Clare Best, Charlotte Gann, Catherine Smith and Lorna Thorpe will all be reading at the Pigbaby Festival in Brighton this week:

The 2011 Brighton Poetry Festival

Tuesday‭ ‬22‭ ‬– Sunday‭ ‬26‭ ‬November

Following the fun of 2010's rural Pigbaby party,‭ ‬this year the Alice-inspired event is coming to town,‭ as Pighog runs the‭ ‬2011‭ ‬Brighton Poetry Festival. Its talent-packed programme features free 6pm events at Three and Ten, Brighton and ticketed 8pm events just over the road at the Redroaster Coffee House.

Friday‭ ‬25 November‭‭
18.00‎ ‏Launch of Clare Best's Breastless, in the Pighog Documentary Series

20.00‎ ‏Launch of Lorna Thorpe’‬s new collection Sweet Torture of Breathing from Arc with Charlotte Gann

Saturday‭ ‬26‭‭ November
20.50 - 21.40 Peter & Ann Sansom (with Q&A) from the Poetry Business and Smith/Doorstop
22.00 - 22.30 Catherine Smith

All 18.00 events are free. All other events £5. Saturday evening £10 (Concs £3/£6). FESTIVAL SEASON TICKET £16 (£10 concs)
_____________________

Jeremy Page will be reading at the the last StoryStudio event at the Komedia Brighton on Sunday 11 December:

StoryStudio
Parlour Games
From mind games to board games, expect to be heartened and horrified by short stories, playlets, monologues and live graphic fiction from established writers and upcoming literary talent.
This will be our last night at the Komedia, so come along and help us give it a fiendishly good send-off.
ENTRY:
£6 / £4.50 concs (please bring proof) on the door.
Time: t.b.c. (evening)
Komedia Studio Bar
Gardner Street
Brighton, BN1 1UN

Not Only the Dark, featuring Jeremy Page, Clare Best, Maria McCarthy and Catherine Smith

The new WordAid anthology Not Only the Dark will be published next month and launched at the University of Kent on 6th December 2011. It features poems by Frogmore poets Jeremy Page, Clare Best, Maria McCarthy and Catherine Smith. For more details see http://www.wordaid.org.uk/ and below.

All profits from this anthology will be donated to ShelterBox.

Launch event
Tuesday 6 December 6pm

Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NZ

“Here is a volume of poetry which asks the questions it shouldn’t. Exploring the small and the big things we do, need, and make to survive in a world that is crying out for change against the push to reduce us to the bare minimum.”
John Siddique, author of Full Blood.

Frogmore Papers No. 78 is out now!

Cover art: John Fowler

This issue includes the winning and shortlisted poems from this year's Frogmore Prize, adjudicated by Tamar Yoseloff. This year's (25th) Prize was won by Sharon Black.

Among the contributors to this issue:

Caroline Ashley and her poetry were profiled in Contemporary Review (Oxford) last year.
William Bedford’s selected poems are published as Collecting Bottle Tops.
Kaddy Benyon was shortlisted for the inaugural Picador Poetry Prize.
Sharon Black's poems have appeared in various magazines and her first full collection To Know Bedrock is due to be published by Pindrop Press.
John Brantingham has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lives in California.
Miles Cain is a writer, songwriter and storyteller based in York. His novel A Song for Nicky Moon was shortlisted in the Times/Chicken House children’s novel competition.
Tim Cresswell is a Professor of Cultural Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Michael Cunningham’s second collection About Healing was published by Driftwood in 2004.
Michael Curtis is the author of numerous collections of poems. Melnais Suns, Latvian translations of his poetry and prose, was published last year.
Ryan J Davidson has lived in Japan and New York, and is currently in Glasgow, where he is working on a PhD on the influence of William Blake on Walt Whitman.
Suzanna Fitzpatrick's poems are widely published and her work has been commended in several national competitions.
Nancy Gaffield is studying for a doctorate at the University of Kent. Tokaido Road is shortlisted for this year’s Felix Dennis (Forward) Prize for Best First Collection.
Joy Howard is the author of Exit Moonshine (Grey Hen Press 2009) and Refurbishment (Ward Wood 2011).
Kim Lasky is a poet and teacher, author of What It Means To Fall (Tall Lighthouse Press 2006).
Richie McCaffery, Newcastle-born, received a 2009 Scottish Arts Council Edwin Morgan poetry bursary.
Helen Overell’s collection Inscapes and Horizons is published by St Albert’s Press.
Moya Pacey completed an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths. Her collection The Wardrobe is published by Ginninderra Press.
Andrew Pidoux is the author of Year of the Lion (Salt).
Donna Pucciani lives in the Chicago area but pays frequent visits to England. She has published four collections of poems.
Lesley Saunders, author of several books and pamphlets of poetry, has held
various poetry residencies, including at Acton Court, Iron Acton, a Tudor house built for Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
Lorna Thorpe’s second collection of poetry is due from Arc in November.
Emily Wills has had two collections published by The Rialto.
Jennifer Wong is based in London. Her collection Summer Cicadas was published by Chameleon Press.
Jeremy Worman’s autobiographical collection of short stories about London Fragmented is reviewed in this issue.

Launch of Clare Best's new collection EXCISIONS - two events for your diary

Two events will mark the publication of Clare Best's new collection EXCISIONS:

16 September 2011:

WATERLOO PRESS and NEEDLEWRITERS
invite you to celebrate the publication of
EXCISIONS  by Clare Best

on
Friday 16th September 2011
from 7.00 pm (reading at 7.45 pm)
at the Needlemakers Café, West Street, Lewes
(for details and map see http://www.needlemakers.co.uk/)

4 October 2011:
SELF-PORTRAIT WITHOUT BREASTS

Clare Best performs poems from her sequence exploring preventative double mastectomy
Display of photographs by Laura Stevens
Followed by a discussion with Dr James Mackay MA, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, Consultant Clinical Genetic Oncologist
on
Tuesday 4th October 2011
Reception at 6.30 pm for performance at 7.30 pm
at
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Chowen Lecture Theatre, Medical School Teaching Building,
University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9PX
 
Excisions may be ordered from Waterloo Press (£10.00) from 16th September

http://www.waterloopress.co.uk/
More info: clarepbest@me.com 01273 480985 07805 190026
http://www.clarebest.co.uk/

Result of the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2011

THE FROGMORE POETRY PRIZE 2011

Announcement of the result of the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2011, sponsored by the Frogmore Foundation and adjudicated by Tamar Yoseloff.

The Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2011 is awarded to Sharon Black of St André de Valborgne, France for the poem FIBONACCI PONDERS THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. She receives the sum of two hundred guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

The first runner-up is Lesley Saunders of Slough, Berkshire for the poem SMALT. She receives the sum of seventy-five guineas and a year’s subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

The joint second runners-up are Caroline Ashley of Summertown, Oxford for the poem THE GEOLOGIST’S WIDOW and Miles Cain of Heworth, York for the poem PHONE. They each receive the sum of twenty-five guineas and a year’s subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

Other poems shortlisted were:

MOUCHE VOLANTE Sharon Black

PEPPERMINT BLOOD Suzanna Fitzpatrick

HYDRO Joy Howard

FLOOD Kim Lasky

MORSELS Helen Overell

APHASIA Moya Pacey

New work by Jeremy Page, Charlotte Gann, Clare Best and Tamar Yoseloff

Frogmore Prize adjudicator Tamar Yoseloff’s latest collection The City With Horns (Salt) is launched at the Purdy Hicks Gallery, Hopton Street, London SE1 on 2 June.

Jeremy Page’s new translations of Catullus’s Lesbia poems are published by The Ashley Press this month as The Cost of All Desire. The collection will be launched at the University of Sussex on 21 June. Copies are available from The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ at £5 inclusive of post and packing, and can also be ordered from any good bookshop or from Amazon.

Lesbia hurls the foulest insults
at me in her husband’s presence,
and that idiot exults in every one,
the mule-brained cretin.

If she forgot about me
and kept her peace,
then he could feel secure.

When she snarls at me
it’s because she remembers,
and remembering hurts.

And she talks
because she’s burning.

Clare Best’s first full collection Excisions is due from Waterloo Press in September. Her HappenStance pamphlet Treasure Ground was published to great acclaim in 2009.

Charlotte Gann’s debut pamphlet The Long Woman (Pighog Press) was launched at Red Roaster in Brighton last month. The collection includes poems that first appeared in The Frogmore Papers and Poetry South East 2010.

Two London poetry events with Jeremy Page coming up

The master of modesty and marvellous poetry himself, Frogmore Papers editor Jeremy Page, will be reading in Islington on 21 May 2011 and in Covent Garden on 21 July 2011:

Saturday 21st May, 7.00 p.m.
POETRY IN THE CRYPT
St Mary’s Church, Upper Street, Islington, London
Admission £4 • Poets from the floor welcome • Coffee & cakes
Proceeds will support Hospice Care Kenya http://www.hospicecarekenya.com/
More info here: http://hospicecarekenya.com/images/Poetry_May_2011.pdf

 

Thursday, 21st July, 7.00 p.m.

Poetically Speaking..., reading,

The Poetry Café

22 Betterton Street,

Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BX

In the downstairs room...

On the bill: Katherine Gallagher, Jeremy Page,

Anne Stewart and Merryn Williams

Frogmore Poetry Prize 2011 - deadline 31st May

The closing date for submissions to this year’s (25th) Frogmore Poetry Prize is 31 May. Inaugurated in 1987 when the first winner was David Satherley,

The prize itself has always been paid in guineas. For younger poets for whom guineas constitute a hazy folk memory, the booty is currently £210 (or 200 guineas). The adjudicator this year is Tamar Yoseloff, whose latest collection The City With Horns (Salt) is scheduled for publication on 15 May.


Tamar Yoseloff

Last year’s winner was A K S Shaw and previous winners include Tobias Hill, John Latham (twice), Mario Petrucci, Caroline Price (three times) and Gina Wilson. No entry form is required and the entry fee is a modest £3 per poem. Full details at: http://www.frogmorepress.co.uk/

Number 77 of The Frogmore Papers is now out

Cover art for Frogmore Papers No. 77, by Elizabeth Jardine

Number 77 of The Frogmore Papers is now out and will be mailed out to subscribers and contributors within the next couple of weeks. The issue has a striking cover by Brighton-based artist Elizabeth Jardine and contains artwork by Seattle-based artist Clare Johnson. Other contributors include Judy Brown, Desmond Graham, Christopher James and Ruth Valentine.

Clare Johnson: New Rainboots, 2008

morphrog has now slipped into pre-summer slumber. The next issue will go live on 1 July at http://www.morphrog.com/

And finally, the deadline for this year's Frogmore Poetry Prize - in its landmark 25th year - is approaching. Submissions need to be received by 31 May. The adjudicator is Tamar Yoseloff and the Prize itself is 200 guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers (plus, of course, publication of the winning poem - and all shortlisted poems - in issue 78 of the Papers). Full details available at http://www.frogmorepress.co.uk/

Michael Swan, Brian Aldiss and Maria Jastrzebska

Dementia Diaries, a new play by Frogmore Papers contributor Maria Jastrzebska, looks at how the illness affects those who have it, as well as their family and carers.  Directed by Mark Hewitt for Lewes Live Literature, Dementia Diaries is on tour throughout 2011. See www.leweslivelit.co.uk for details. Click here for a short article on the play and its production in The Guardian.

In other news:

Frogmore poet Brian Aldiss has a new selected poems published by the Flambard Press in March 2011. It is entitled Mortal Morning and costs £12.99. For more info on Mortal Morning click here. The Frogmore Press published A Plutonian Monologue by Aldiss in a signed limited edition in 2000. A handful of copies are still available at only £3.25. Get in touch with us if you would like to reserve a signed copy.

Yet another Frogmore poet, the inimitable Michael Swan, has a new collection of poetry out: Oversteps Books is publishing Swan's second collection of poetry, The Shapes of Things, out now at £8. The linguist's first collection of poetry, When They Come For You, was published by The Frogmore Press in 2003 and has been one of our most successful titles to date. Copies are available at the price of £5.95.

Rachel Playforth at Needlewriters in Lewes and Jeremy Page in Germany

The next issue of The Frogmore Papers is going to the printers in the next few days, with a splendid cover by Elizabeth Jardine.

Elizabeth Jardine, Greenroot, oil on canvas

In other news:

Rachel Playforth, regular contributor to The Frogmore Papers in more than one capacity, will be reading her poetry at The Needlewriters in lovely Lewes on Thursday, 10th March 2011, alongside Chris Sykes and Eleanor Knight. There will be music, too. Details here: http://www.needlewriters.co.uk/#/whats-on/4539813579

On 1 December 2010 Jeremy Page's short play 'Loving Psyche' was performed in Bremen, Germany, by the the anglophile theatre group Alsomirschmeckts, which loosely translates as "well, I think it's tasty", on the occasion of the launch of the latest issue of the literary magazine NewLeaf. Because this is the brave new world we have a chance to watch the premiere of 'Loving Psyche' on YouTube. Here are the links (two parts!). Enjoy the German interpretation of a stetson and a musical appearance of Leonard Cohen:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Otn4VPav8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5m_JjVzW8&feature=related

“Languages of Colour”- call for submissions: poetry, prose, non-fiction and art work

The Frogmore Press is inviting submissions on the subject of COLOUR in art, poetry, literature and science. Successful submissions will be published in a volume with the working title Languages of Colour, with publication provisionally scheduled for autumn/winter 2011. The editor will be Alexandra Loske.

Abstract colour blot 'Crimson' by Mary Gartside, 1805
Photograph: Dominic Tschudin

The Frogmore Press predominantly publishes poetry, short pieces of prose and literary reviews. This special volume intends to branch out into non-fiction, art history and the sciences. The volume will be illustrated.
We are inviting poems, very short pieces of prose, short reviews of classic works on colour, particular artists or works of art. Submissions may include images and may have been previously published, subject to copyright clearance. Translations are also welcome.

Maximum word length per submission: 1500; the shorter, the better.

We are particular interested in visual artists submitting graphic work to illustrate the volume.

For more information please email: Alexbythesea@hotmail.com

Deadline for submissions: 30 June 2011
Submissions should be sent with a s.a.e. to
The Frogmore Press
Re: Colour
21 Mildmay Road
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 1PJ

A Swan, a Carpenter and morphrog(s)

Happy new year!



An image from morphrog 2

 The second issue of Frogmore's online journal morphrog went live on 1 January.
Poets featured include Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Hugh Fox, Nancy Mattson, K.V. Skene and Sam Smith.
Here is the link: http://morphrog.com/

Frogmore poet Michael Swan has won the Stanza poetry prize (judged by Sheenagh Pugh) for his poem 'I Wasn't There. Michael's first collection, When They Come For You was published by the Frogmore Press in 2003 and his second is due later this year from Oversteps. Recent work will also appear in the March issue of The Frogmore Papers. Copies of his debut collection are still available from the Frogmore Press at £5.95.

Peter Carpenter, whose work has appeared regularly in Frogmore publications down the years, most recently in Poetry South East 2010, has been elected Chair of the Trustees of the Poetry Society.


Peter Carpenter