Lewes Voices at the Elly: Clare Best, Catherine Smith and Jeremy Page

Three Frogmore poets read from recent collections at the Lewes Voices event at the town’s Elephant and Castle pub last week. 

Clare Best's Cell

The evening began with Clare Best reading from her Frogmore artefact Cell, which won first prize in the Second Light Poetry Competition’s long poem category. Cell  is written in the voice of Christine Carpenter, a 14 year old girl who, in 1329, took a vow of  ‘solitary devotion’ to become an anchoress.

  

Catherine Smith

In a subtly different vein, Catherine Smith entertained the audience with her ballad The New Cockaigne (Frogmore Press, 2014), a ‘verbal feast of sexual, gastronomic and alcoholic excess’. 

Jeremy Page

The evening concluded with the launch of Jeremy Page’s new Frogmore pamphlet Stepping Back: Resubmisison for the Ordinary Level Examination in Psychogeography, which brings together poems written over the last twenty-five years exploring his relationship with the coastal town where he spent his formative years. 

All three titles are available post free from The Frogmore Press or from Skylark in its new roomier quarters downstairs at the Needlemakers in Lewes.

Lewes Voices - Poetry event at book launch at the Elly 22 November 2016

Come and join us at this free event:

Frogmore Papers editor Jeremy Page will launch his new pamphlet Stepping Back: Resubmission for the Ordinary Level Examination in Psychogeography at the Elephant and Castle in Lewes on Tuesday 22 November.  Fellow readers at this event will be Clare Best, who will read from her Frogmore Press artefact Cell – described by Helena Nelson as ‘a potent tale for our times’ – and Catherine Smith, who will read from her Frogmore Press pamphlet The New Cockaigne, of which Ros Barber has written: ‘Delicious, delightful and more than a little bit frightening … creates a verbal feast of sexual, gastronomic and alcoholic excesses.’

Free event. Upstairs at The Elephant and Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ. 7.00 (readings start at 7.30) Tuesday 22 November 2016.

Frogmore Prize 2017

The Frogmore Press is pleased to announce that the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2017 will be adjudicated by Maggie Butt. 

Maggie Butt

Maggie is the author of Lipstick (Greenwich Exchange, 2007), Petite (Hearing Eye, 2010), Ally Pally Prison Camp (Oversteps, 2011) and Degrees of Twilight (The London Magazine, 2015). She is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Kent.

The current issue of The Frogmore Papers showcases all the poems shortlisted for this year's Frogmore Poetry Prize by Catherine Smith. It is available (£5.00 post free) from The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ.

13th edition of morphrog - 'poetry in the extreme - now live

The 13^th edition of morphrog – ‘poetry in the extreme’ – edited by Jeremy Page and Peter Stewart is now live at http://www.morphrog.com/ 

morphrog 13 features challenging and innovative poetry from names both familiar and unfamiliar. Contributors include Nisha Bhakoo, Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Michael Curtis, Robert Etty, Nancy Mattson, Lindy Usher and Aprilia Zank. 

morphrog 14 will go live in January 2017. Submissions of ‘poetry in the extreme’ (supply your own definition), in a single Word document with brief biographical details, are welcome to: morphrpog@gmail.com

Frogmore poets at South Downs Poetry Festival 16 - 24 July 2016

A number of Frogmore poets will be participating in the inaugural South Downs Poetry Festival from 16 - 24 July 2016. 

Clare Best, Patrick Bond, Robin Houghton, Wendy Klein, Jeremy Page and Janet Sutherland are among the writers contributing readings or workshops to this week of poetry. Full details available at: http://www.sdpf.org.uk/programme/

Eve Jackson wins 30th Frogmore Poetry Prize (2016)

Adjudicator Catherine Smith has awarded the 30th Frogmore Poetry Prize to Eve Jackson from the Isle of Wight for her poem ‘Calves on a Carousel’.

Eve Jackson

Catherine says of this winning poem: ‘From the first reading it did strange things to the top of my head. One way of reading it is to say that it describes calves in a field before they embark on their final journey to the abattoir. Not a comfortable subject, perhaps, but an everyday one. ‘Calves on a Carousel’ dazzled me with its quietly devastating imagery.’ Eve will receive two hundred and fifty guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

Runners-up were Kate Ling with ‘Blackheath, Early Morning’ and Catherine Edmunds with ‘Cabbage on a Leash’. Other poets shortlisted were Kaddy Benyon, Sharon Black, David Hale, Wes Lee, Anthony Powers, Andrew Sclater and Natalie Whittaker. All shortlisted poems will be published in the September issue of The Frogmore Papers (number 88), which will be available from The Frogmore Press for £5.00 inclusive of post and packing.

Deadline looms for morphrog - 'poetry in the extreme' - 12 June 2016

The deadline for submissions to the thirteenth edition of Frogmore's online journal morphrog - 'poetry in the extreme' - is looming.

As ever, editors Jeremy Page and Peter Stewart are interested in reading poems that may struggle to achieve publication in more mainstream journals. If you have never seen morphrog, visit http://www.morphrog.com/ where number 12 will give an indication of the kind of work that is likely to find favour.

Submissions should be sent in a single word document to morphrog@gmail.com no later that 12 June 2016.

morphrog 13 will be published in July 2016.

Frogmore call for submissions: Watermarks - New Writing by Lido Lovers and Wild Swimmers

In 2017 The Frogmore Press and Pells Pool in Lewes — the oldest freshwater pool in the UK — are publishing an anthology of exceptional new prose and poetry to celebrate the life aquatic.

The anthology will be edited by Tanya Shadrick (currently Writer-in-Residence at Pells Pool), Rachel Playforth and Rob Read. 

Tanya Shadrick, writer-in-residence at Pells Pool, Lewes

 We are looking for work by writers who find inspiration in or near lidos, lakes, sea pools and other wild swimming places. The writing has to be short — a maximum of 1000 words for prose and 50 lines for poetry — but supple. We want work full of quick turns, graceful strokes or surprising dives into the depths: stories which hold the attention and last in memory as good swimmers do when they take to the water; writing which has us catch our breath, laugh in delight or shiver a little.

Rachel Playforth

Nature and life writings are welcome, but must — like fiction and poetry — emphasise scene, story and sensation. We are not seeking local history, natural history or journalism.

We can only consider original writing in English, but authors are not restricted to UK waters: We are interested in work situated both close to home and far away.

Further criteria for submissions:

•   Original material only. Submissions must not have been published previously in print or online , nor should they be out on simultaneous submission before January 2017

•   Work should be double-spaced in Times New Roman or Arial

•   For email submissions, use Watermarks in the subject line. Only one piece can be considered, and should be sent as a Word attachment to: watermarksanthology@gmail.com

•   You can submit work by post to Watermarks, The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1PJ. If you would like your work returned to you please enclose a suitably-sized SAE. We can only acknowledge receipt by email, so for that purpose please include an email address with your postal submission.

•   If you swim regularly at a particular lido or outdoor water, please mention this in your covering message.

•   We are not able to pay for work accepted, but contributors will receive a copy of the anthology upon publication.

•   The deadline for submissions is 15 September 2016

•   Successful authors will be contacted by the end of January 2017

Alexandra Loske, Editorial advisor

Submission details: The Frogmore Poetry Prize 2016, adjudicated by Catherine Smith

The deadline for submissions of poems or this year’s 30^th Frogmore Prize is 31 May 2016. 

Adjudicator 2016: Poet Catherine Smith

Adjudicator Catherine Smith will read all entries. 

Sponsored by the Frogmore Press    www.frogmorepress.co.uk

Submission details:

The winner of the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2016 will receive two hundred and fifty guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers. The first and second runners-up will receive seventy-five and fifty guineas respectively and a year’s subscription to The Frogmore Papers. Shortlisted poets will receive copies of selected Frogmore Press publications. Previous winners of the Prize have been David Satherley, Caroline Price, Bill Headdon, John Latham, Diane Brown, Tobias Hill, Mario Petrucci, Gina Wilson, Ross Cogan, Joan Benner, Ann Alexander, Gerald Watts, Katy Darby, David Angel, Howard Wright, Julie-ann Rowell, Arlene Ang, Peter Marshall, Gill Andrews,A K S Shaw, Sharon Black, Emily Wills, Lesley Saunders and Sarah Barr. Adjudicator: Catherine Smith will read all poems submitted for the 30th Frogmore Poetry Prize. She is the author of three full collections of poetry: The Butcher’s Hands (2003), Lip (2007) and Otherwhere (2012), all published by Smith Doorstop. The Butcher’s Hands won the Aldeburgh/Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, and Lip was shortlisted for the 2008 Forward Prize for Best Collection. The Frogmore Press published The New Cockaigne, a ‘rollicking ballad of revolution and fantastical carnal excess’ in 2014. Conditions of Entry Poems must be in English, unpublished, and not accepted for future publication. Poems should be typed and no longer than forty lines. Any number of poems may be entered on payment of the appropriate fee of £3 per poem. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to The Frogmore Press. The following methods of payment are acceptable: cheque drawn on UK bank; British postal order; sterling.    Each poem should be on a separate sheet, which should not include the name of the author. The author’s name and address should be provided on an accompanying sheet of paper. The winner, runners-up and shortlisted poets will be notified by post. All shortlisted poems will appear in number 88 of The Frogmore Papers (September 2016), which will be available at £5.00 from the address below, and on the Frogmore Press website.           To receive a copy of the results, please enclose an s.a.e. marked ‘Results’. Poems cannot be returned. Closing date for submissions: 31 May 2016. Copyright of all poems submitted will remain with the authors but the Frogmore Press reserves the right to publish all shortlisted poems. The adjudicator’s decision will be final and no correspondence can be entered into. Entries should be sent to: The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1PJ. The submission of poems for the Prize will be taken as indicating acceptance of the above conditions.

Pindrop Press under new management

Pindrop Press, publisher of several Frogmore poets, including Zeeba Ansari, Sharon Black, Abegail Morley and Jeremy Page, is now under the management of Sharon Black, who won the Frogmore Poetry Prize in 2011. The Press was founded by poet Jo Hemmant in 2010 and published eighteen titles under her stewardship, most recently Meeting My Inners by Graham Mummery. 

Sharon Black

All titles in print are available from the Pindrop website at http://www.pindroppress.com/Bookshop.html or may be ordered through any good bookshop.

Frogmore News March 2016

Number 87 of The Frogmore Papers (Spring 2016) is published this week. 

The issue includes prose by Mark Freeman, Gregory Heath and Aaron Peysack, poetry by Mike Barlow, Richie McCaffery, Christine McNeill, Myra Schneider, Zel Norwood and others, and artwork by Alexei Talimonov. The cover design is by artist/bookseller Patrick Marrin. The issue also includes a conversation between Kay Syrad and Clare Best about her latest poetry publication CELL.

Copies are available post-free (£5.00) from:

The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ

Call for submissions

Submissions are invited for the next issue of Frogmore’s online journal morphrog (Poetry in the Extreme). Please send a maximum of six poems in a single Word document to: morphrog@gmail.com . The current issue of morphrog can be accessed at http://www.morphrog.com/

The Frogmore Poetry Prize 2016

Sponsored by the Frogmore Press

www.frogmorepress.co.uk

The deadline for submissions of poems or this year’s 30^th Frogmore Prize is 31 May 2016. 

Adjudicator Catherine Smith will read all entries.

Submission details:

The winner of the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2016 will receive two hundred and fifty guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers. The first and second runners-up will receive seventy-five and fifty guineas respectively and a year’s subscription to The Frogmore Papers. Shortlisted poets will receive copies of selected Frogmore Press publications. Previous winners of the Prize have been David Satherley, Caroline Price, Bill Headdon, John Latham, Diane Brown, Tobias Hill, Mario Petrucci, Gina Wilson, Ross Cogan, Joan Benner, Ann Alexander, Gerald Watts, Katy Darby, David Angel, Howard Wright, Julie-ann Rowell, Arlene Ang, Peter Marshall, Gill Andrews,A K S Shaw, Sharon Black, Emily Wills, Lesley Saunders and Sarah Barr. Adjudicator: Catherine Smith will read all poems submitted for the 30th Frogmore Poetry Prize. She is the author of three full collections of poetry: The Butcher’s Hands (2003), Lip (2007) and Otherwhere (2012), all published by Smith Doorstop. The Butcher’s Hands won the Aldeburgh/Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, and Lip was shortlisted for the 2008 Forward Prize for Best Collection. The Frogmore Press published The New Cockaigne, a ‘rollicking ballad of revolution and fantastical carnal excess’ in 2014. Conditions of Entry Poems must be in English, unpublished, and not accepted for future publication. Poems should be typed and no longer than forty lines. Any number of poems may be entered on payment of the appropriate fee of £3 per poem. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to The Frogmore Press. The following methods of payment are acceptable: cheque drawn on UK bank; British postal order; sterling.    Each poem should be on a separate sheet, which should not include the name of the author. The author’s name and address should be provided on an accompanying sheet of paper. The winner, runners-up and shortlisted poets will be notified by post. All shortlisted poems will appear in number 88 of The Frogmore Papers (September 2016), which will be available at £5.00 from the address below, and on the Frogmore Press website.           To receive a copy of the results, please enclose an s.a.e. marked ‘Results’. Poems cannot be returned. Closing date for submissions: 31 May 2016. Copyright of all poems submitted will remain with the authors but the Frogmore Press reserves the right to publish all shortlisted poems. The adjudicator’s decision will be final and no correspondence can be entered into. Entries should be sent to: The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1PJ. The submission of poems for the Prize will be taken as indicating acceptance of the above conditions.