The North takes a breather
"We have decided for the first time since 1986 to postpone The North. It will now appear in October (ie missing the spring issue). Apologies to all our writers and subscribers.
We are crazily busy, not least because our 25 Year events continue till June, and so, together with all the usual commitments, it was either take a break or have a breakdown. Thank you for your patience and for your continuing support -- and thank you too for all the great feedback on the latest issue with its redesign -- much appreciated.
We will be considering submissions again from May." — Ann and Peter Sansom
Andrew Stibbs (1939—2011)
"We are very sorry to announce the death of Andrew Stibbs on 22nd December.
Andrew was much loved by everyone who knew him, and he was a great friend over the years to us at the Poetry Business. He was an inspiration to many at Leeds University (where Ann occasionally worked for him) and indeed to us.
Among other things he was known to us for his wise, informed and always generous-minded reviewing — we were more than once able to pass on appreciative feedback from North readers, including one comment that he was 'The Prince of Reviewers'.
Andrew Stibbs was a very special man and he will be much missed."
— Peter Sansom
Next Writing Day: 18 February
Full details of the Writing Days here. Contact us to let us know if you're planning to attend.
After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin — PBS Translation Choice
"Were it for no other reason than the part Lipkin played in preserving and publishing Vasily Grossman's 'Life and Fate' he should be remembered." — Martin Amis
Yvonne Green's award-winning collection, After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin, is now available.
Ian McMillan on Stanley Cook (Yorkshire Post)
How’s this for a poetic description of one of the kids in your class at school: “Unhealthily pale as if he were grown indoors/or underneath a brick that excluded the sun” ?
Or this, for a likeness of one of your old teachers: "His fading youth was underlined by wrinkles/and floodlit by the sporty shirts he wore"? Yes, we’ve sat with lads like that in assembly and been taught by the bloke who “maintained his ideals in a mild-mannered way/that only invited opposition".
Those exact and lyrical descriptions are from poems by Stanley Cook, one of Yorkshire’s unsung writers who died 20 years ago this year and whose reputation is well-worth reviving in preparation for the 90th anniversary of his birth next year.
— Read the rest of the article here
Ian McMillan on his writing
"I’m a writer because of many things, I guess: my Great Aunt Bella Howatson was a Scottish Victorian rhyming balladeer and she used to write rhyming letters to my dad; my dad and mam were penpals in the Second World War, him in the Royal Navy, her in the WAAFs and because they met through writing maybe that’s another reason for writing being important to me..."
Asterisk*, Poems and Photographs from Shandy Hall — Paul Munden
ASTERISK* is a sequence of poems inspired by Shandy Hall, the extraordinary house in Coxwold that was once home to the writer Laurence Sterne. The book is a personal interpretation of things Shandean, combined with photographs of the house and its garden.
'*(Title Poem)' with photo, as presented in Asterisk*. Click the image to enlarge.
Antiphon poetry magazine
"We think there’s a gap in the market for a really good online UK poetry magazine. One that will publish a wide range of well-crafted, skilfully written poems, and not limit itself to any particular form or style: just exciting poetry. Hence our new magazine, Antiphon.
The first issue will appear this Autumn, with a new issue every quarter.
The core of the magazine is the poems. But we know most readers of poems are also poets. So we'll include features on poetry and poetic writing of current interest, and we'll also showcase the work of particular groups of poets. If you belong to a poetry group, or perhaps follow a creative writing course, let us know and we can publicise your best work and your events.
Some of the best poetry being written today struggles to find its audience — so we're also keen to publicise the work done by the many small presses that publish pamphlets and booklets of up and coming and established poets. We invite the editors to join our forum and discuss their poets and publications.
We also hope you'll let us have your opinions on the poems and articles and contribute to our discussions on what makes a successful poem."
Find the Antiphon website here and the Submission Guidelines here.
Ed Reiss shortlisted for Aldeburgh First Collection Prize
Congratulations to Ed Reiss. His collection, Your Sort, has been shortlisted for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2011.
The winner will be announced on Friday 4 November at the opening reading of the 23rd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
"Ka’aba', taken from this collection, was highly commended in the 2011 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and republished in the Forward Book of Poetry anthology.
Christy Ducker, 'Armour' — PBS Pamphlet Choice
Congratulations to Christy Ducker, whose Smith/Doorstop pamphlet, Armour, has been selected as the PBS Pamphlet Choice for Autumn.
Armour was a winner in the 2010 Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Simon Armitage — who said of the collection, "Unsettling and edgy, these poems have the strangeness of myth and the zany logic of nursery rhymes, but for adult ears. A real zest for language and startling imagery".
Read a poem from the collection here.
Forward Book of Poetry anthology
Two poems published by us have been highly commended in the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem category, and will consequently appear in the next Forward Book of Poetry anthology.
The poems are "Ka’aba' by Ed Reiss (from Your Sort) and 'Sheperdess and Swain' by Jean Sprackland (from North 46).
How the Amstrad PCW 8512 changed the course of English Literature
'Desk-top publishing was quite primitive at first, or my version of it, so that I remember very clearly putting letraset onto an Ian McMillan/Martyn Wiley cover on a desk in Huddersfield Polytechnic library, and feeling a definite move up in the technological world when I acquired a set square and cutting board.
And not really desk-top publishing at all but typed on a wordprocessor. The first little Macs were just coming in, but for me then it was the Amstrad PCW 8512. Amstrads were cheap and everywhere and, though limited, just a bit more professional and certainly quicker than a typewriter.'
Peter Sansom, on Poetry Publishing and Technology in 1985, in the first issue of brand new zine Any Plan Will Do.
