Fiesta Time (14): Blog Award Nomination

Those who follow this blog know that I don't usually take part in blog awards these days that involve answering a set of questions and then passing the questions on to others. However, this award does not have these requirements, so I am delighted to receive the nomination and grateful to the anonymous person who nominated my Coastcard poetry blog. You can read the message I received below ... 

An article you wrote in 2012 titled Publication Pointer (2): The Book of Forms (4th edition) by Lewis Putnam Turco has earned your blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2012's Most Fascinating Creative Writing Teacher blog. 

The comments posted in response to your post prove that your content not only inspires your audience, but it also creates discussion around your posts, both of which are requirements for the nomination of a Fascination award. 
As a nominee of this award, you have full permission to display the Nominated emblem on your website.

Thank you for your participation!

Matthew Pelletier

Director of Public Relations     

Accelerated Degree Programs

According to Mr Pelletier, 'the Fascination Awards are an annual collection of the web’s most inspirational and thought-provoking blogs. All participants are nominated by our editorial team and voted on by our readers. We know that all blogs are not created equal, so we want to recognize websites that go above and beyond, providing truly engaging content for their visitors. Again, congratulations on your nomination!' 

Event Alert (2): Launch of 'Silver' by Sir Andrew Motion

Bury St Edmunds (Abbey Gardens)

So what happened to Jim Hawkins?

I wonder if you remember turning the pages of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson as a compelling swashbuckling yarn unfolded in your mind's eye. Former Poet Laureate and founder of the remarkable online Poetry Archive, Sir Andrew Motion, held us spellbound in Bury St Edmunds the other night at the launch of his new novel, Silver, a sequel to Stevenson's classic tale. The new book is published by Jonathan Cape.  

The event took place in the Greene Room at the Theatre Royal, the only surviving Regency Playhouse in the UK, now in the care of the National Trust. I won't write about the launch event itself in any detail in the hope that some of you may be planning to attend one of these evenings yourselves. Suffice to say that it was a joy to hear the poet reading his own words, with fascinating snatches of commentary thrown in along the way. We were riveted by prose pieces from Silver, and were also treated to a selection of Motion's recent poems. It was one of those evenings that left you craving more, and I found myself joining a mounting queue of (adult) would-be treasure seekers at the book signing table.   

• The 'Lighthouse' Stevensons
• Review of Silver in The Guardian by Daisy Hay

Anthology Alert (13): A Pocket Full of Spring Fever

I have just received a copy of the second volume of A Pocket Full of Spring Fever, edited by Sue Kendrick, owner of Writelink. The small-format booklet contains the winning entries from the 2011 Spring Fever competition. My poem, 'Observations from the Hide', was awarded second prize and appears on p.14.

Fiesta Time (13): The Olympic Torch on Ipswich Waterfront

16.20 pm ~ I arrived as the stewards were being briefed ...

... there were a few people sitting outside Theta on the UCS forecourt ...

... the water was full of boats ...

... and flags ...

 ... David was busy tweeting ...

... as a float came past ...

... and then a balloon seller ...

... People arrived from nowhere, and soon the Waterfront was hopping ...

... We finally got a brief glimpse of the Olympic torch as it headed on towards Christchurch Park ...

... 18.45 pm, and somebody was still tweeting away in the sunshine! 

There has been much publicity about Poetry Parnassus, running in tandem this year with the Olympic Games. I will throw a link back to this previous post on poetry and Olympia ... here.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Competition Corner (4): Kukai Results ~ Rainbow

Rainbow over Mumbles, Swansea, Wales, UK

My Haiku below was voted 7th in the 3rd International Kukai on Rita Odeh's Catching the Moment site. The kigo was 'rainbow'. There were 145 haiku from 59 haijin, representing 16 countries.

=============================
 7th Place:

a dark day–
my spirit restored
by a rainbow

Caroline Gill, UK
0,2,1=5

=============================

If you would like to take part in the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL KUKAI, you will find details here. According to the Haiku World site, 'a kukai is a peered review poetry contest. A topic is assigned by the secretary, and all poets submit their poems on that topic to the secretary. An 'anonymized' list is then distributed to all participating poets and they are invited to vote. Votes are returned anonymously to the secretary who tallies the votes and re-sends the poems to the participants, this time with names and points revealed.'

Anthology Alert (12): ... and Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow is TEN!

Cover Photo credit: Angelicia 'Bird of Paradise Flower'

Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow, # thirty four

I have been a subscriber to Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow almost from its arrival on the small press poetry scene. A number of my relations lived in Cornwall, and it is a part of the world I have known and loved for as long as I can remember. Presumably like a number of others, one of these relatives felt that she had invented surfing ('belly-boarding') by riding the Atlantic waves on a coffin lid.

Forget the coffins: this is a time for celebration. Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow is riding high on the upward trajectory of its unique wave-crest as it marks this special 10th anniversary year. Thank you, Les, on behalf of so many of us, for a terrific magazine. Thank you for sharing poetry, for publishing our poems and also for including poems in dialect, in Cornish, in other languages and in translation.

This issue contains my piece, 'Moonshine', about the Snowy Owl who landed in the Zennor area of Penwith around Christmas-time in 2008. I had the opportunity to read the poem a few days ago at the IpArt PoetryFest here in Suffolk.

Looking down on Zennor ...

with its Mermaid pew ...

in the lovely church of St Senara.

Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow also marks its milestone anniversary with the publication of a new book, Cornwall - an anthology of poetry and photographs, described as 'an artistic and literary credit to the identity, heritage and culture of a Celtic nation'. The book is compiled by Les Merton and illustrated with photographs by Angelicia. It contains my dragonfly poem, 'Vagrant Emperor', written in a form inspired by Bengali-American poet and editor of Shabdaguchha, Hassanal Abdullah's 'Swatantra Sonnets'.

Thank you, Les, and here's to the next anniversary! 

Poetry Cornwall | Bardhonyeth Kernow # thirty four
ed. Les Merton
ISSN 1476-7007
Price £4.50

Cornwall - an anthology of poetry and photographs
compiled by Les Merton, photography by Angelicia
ISBN 978-1-906845-38-4. 
Price £8 with free p&p.

Both publications are sold by Palores Publications.

Fiesta Time (12): IpArt Short Story Competition Winners Announced in Spiegel Tent

Photo shoot with Second Prize Winner, Ed Broom (3rd from left)

David (Gill) on the left was taking part in the proceedings with UCS colleague, Gill Lowe.

Ed Broom with the Mayor of Ipswich

M.J. Hyland and Georgina Wroe

M.J. Hyland congratulates Ed Broom

Trying out the plush seating inside the Spiegel Tent in Christchurch Park!

Congratulations to winner, Ric Hardacre!

P.S. You can read a feature on the short story as a genre here.