Wednesday, January 10, 2007

My Plan

Over the next while, I plan to write short pieces on this blog on poetry chapbooks I’ve read – not reviews exactly, but more responses and reflections. I’ll try to give a flavour of what a given chapbook is like, quote a few sections from poems, and say what I think.

Here’s a list of chapbooks I plan to comment on (in no particular order), although this may change if I read more:

A Secret History of Rhubarb – Anna Crowe (Mariscat)
Pillars of Salt – Judy Brown (Templar)
High Auchensale – Jim Carruth (Ludovic)
Landing on Eros – Tony Lawrence (Tiplaw)
Twenty-Three Poems – Michael Mackmin (HappenStance)
Under the Threshold - Dorothy Lawrenson (Perjink)
Under the Clock – Tony Harrison (Penguin)
Stephanie Green – Glass Works (Cat’s Pyjamas)
Eftirs/Afters – Donny O’Rourke and Richard Price (Au Quai)
The Theory of Everything – James Wood (HappenStance)
The Boy who Came Ashore – Alan Gay (Dreadful Night)
Peeling Onions – Anna K. Dickie (Tyne and Esk Writers)
The Small Hours – Tom Duddy (HappenStance)
The Faithful City: Visual Poems – Stephen Nelson (afterlight)
Light Up Lanarkshire – Gerry Cambridge
Uncertain Days – Gill McEvoy (HappenStance)
Demon – Edwin Morgan (Mariscat)

and that should keep me going until June at least…

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good for you Rob - I'll be looking out for these, to help broaden my contemporary collection. What you say may influence my buying... ;)

Seriously though, there's nothing like giving support through actually buying the work. A bit like going to a gig and buying the band's CD. If more poetry was supported this way there'd be less of the 'struggling' included in the poets' handbook of cliches...

I must dig out yours for review one of these days! I thought it very good when I got it last year.

Laura said...

You'll be busy.

Rob said...

Cheers, folks. I've read about three-quarters of these chapbooks already, but this will be a way of organising my thoughts about them.

I should have a post up on my first selected chapbook over the next few days. I will include details of how people can purchase them.

Anonymous said...

Look forward to your piece on 'Under the clock' as Harrison is my favourite living poet.

Rob said...

I've been feeling guilty for ages about not doing this, but I've now hopefully found a way. It will be mini-reviews, less than 230 words - not ideal, but the only possibility given time constraints.