Saturday, 5 June 2010

Magazine Moment (11): TIPS for Writers 77


The latest issue [77] of TIPS for Writers (Wendy Webb Books) sports a fine watercolour drawing of Norwich Cathedral on the cover, from the hand of John Tatum. It is a view I know well and love dearly, from my teenage years in Norfolk.
The magazine begins with congratulations to Tina Negus, 2010 winner of the Margaret Munro Gibson Competition for a Comic Poem, adjudicated by Alison Chisholm. In this week in which Matt Merritt of Polyolbion mused (after the appearance of a Marmora Warbler on a certain hill beginning with 'B' near Abergavenny) on the pairing of Blorenge with orange, it was a delight to read about the Green-backed Turple who rhymes with purple! Congratulations, Tina, on a worthy win. I defy anyone to read the poem with a straight face...

Congratulations also to Peter Davies and Pam Gidney, whose poems took 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Incidentally if shelled creatures are your 'thing', you will also enjoy The Turtle by Geoff Williams on p.13. Voice of the Turtle by Norman Bissett on p.17 turns out to be about a Turtle Dove.

Despite the very English cover scene, the issue has a European flavour to it. Wendy has written Fib and Pleiades poems about Italy, and I enjoyed reading Norman Bissett's 'jaffa-hued' interpretation of the Duomo in Florence. The wry humour of Schoolboy Poet by Gerald Hampshire brings us back to the tower blocks and pigeons of home.

In more Romantic mode, we find Claire Knight's majestic Summer Moon sonnet, with its 'owl in silence on the wing'. The issue ends with a Foreword by Pamela Trudie Hodge to Wendy's new publication, How the Mermaid Lost her Voice, and a review of the Mermaid series by Bernard Jackson.

TIPS for Writers costs £3 per issue and is a print magazine. eTIPS is a free pdf which can be delivered to your inbox on request. You can find Wendy's email here if you would like to receive the monthly ezine or would like to take out a subscription to the full print magazine.

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