ABC Wednesday:M is for Mabel

I recently came across this photograph taken in November 1982.

Left to right are Loris Essary, Christine England, Mabel Ferrett, Mabel McGowan and Fred Schofield.

Loris was editor at the time of the US magazine "Interstate" and called on us during a visit to Europe. We held a small meeting of the Pennine Poets at our house and Fred Schofield from Leeds brought over the two Mabels for the evening.

Fred Schofield founded the Yorkshire/Lancashire haiku group in 1995, and is presently the haibun editor for Presence.

I published a collection of poems by Mabel McGowan, "Testament to a Life" which includes the poem Circle.

Read my account of Mabel Ferrett's life on Ackworth born, gone West and an obituary by Pauline Kirk in The Guardian.

This second photograph was taken in 1986 and shows Mabel Ferrett in the garden of her house on Vernon Road, Heckmondwike.

Read her poem about and my photographs of Hartshead Church.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

The Purple Hours & Lisa Conesa

On my Collected Works site I've just posted The Experiment which was first published in The Purple Hours, an anthology edited by Lisa Conesa.

Steve Sneyd mentions this anthology in an article on the The Science Fiction Poetry of Robert Calver from the out of print Hilltop Press publication Gnawing Medusa's Flesh archived on the Aural Innovations website.


He writes

The one UK genre anthology of any real scope since 1969 was produced for a special purpose. Lisa Conesa, herself a poet and editor of the notable fanzine Zimri in the early and mid 70s, persuaded the organisers of the 1974 Tynecon convention to include a poetry reading - she called it a Poetry Soiree - in the program. Prior to the event, she approached a variety of writers, including SF professionals who wrote poetry, SF fans ditto, and little magazine poets, for work to include in an anthology to mark the soiree.

Handsomely designed and produced by Harry Turner, the 44-page book, entitled The Purple Hours, includes work by a roll call of British SF names - Aldiss, Ballard, Brunner, Moorcock.

It also includes four poems by Robert Calvert - "The Clone's Poem", "The Gremlin", "The First Landing On Medusa", and "The Starfarer's Despatch". Calvert was also among those who read at the poetry soiree itself, along with Brian Aldiss, and South African-born poet Jeni Couzeyn, who wrote a series of poems inspired by Aldiss stories, although she did not appear in The Purple Hours.

My Collected Poetical Works site is intended to be a complete collection of my poetry and will eventually include all my published poems and a selection of unpublished work. I suspect it will take three years before we get to pieces written after the millennium!

Pennine Platform #63

The latest issue of Pennine Platform is #63.

It contains 59 poems on a variety of subjects by some 35 poets, the majority of them excellent writers who have appeared in small press magazines for many years.

This issue also marks the start of a new venture with publication of the first two titles by the new independent poetry publisher Graft Poetry. The poets to be published, in the first instance at least, are ones who have not previously published poetry collections but who seem to the publishers to deserve to be better known in book form. The first two are

• Without a dog by Julia Deakin
• Reader, help me by Andrew Boobier.

Pennine Platform
Nicholas Bielby
Frizingley Hall
Frizinghall Road
Bradford
BD9 4LD
UK

ISSN 0303-140X
£4.50
Subscriptions: 2 issues £8.50 [Europe £10; RoW £12]

visit the website of Pennine Platform

Read reviews of earlier issues.

...

Smith/Doorstop & The Poetry Business on the move.

Smith/Doorstop & The Poetry Business are on the move.

The Poetry Business was founded in 1986 by Peter Sansom. In 1989 Janet Fisher joined as co-editor and co-publisher. In 1991 they became a Limited Company. Now they have moved from Huddersfield to Sheffield; Janet has retired and Ann Sansom has become co-director and co-editor.

Their new address is

The Poetry Business
Bank Street Arts
32-40 Bank Street
SHEFFIELD
S1 2DS
UK

website: http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/

NHI Review continues to carry reviews of some 21 titles published by Smith/Doorstop the publishing imprint of The Poetry Business.

New titles (not reviewed) include:

Michael Laskey: Living by the Sea (ISBN 978 1 902382 94 4)
Elspeth Smith: Wishbone (ISBN 978 1 902382 95 1)
Allison McVety: The Night Trotsky Came to Stay (ISBN 978 1 902382 90 6)
Peter Sansom: The Ice Cream Carpet (ISBN 978 1 902382 78 4)
Catherine Smith: Lip (ISBN 978 1 902382 89 0)

News from The Stinging Fly.

Vol 2 #10, Summer 2008, is now out. There are six new short stories, five long book reviews and a healthy smattering of poems; featured poet is Grace Wells and cover photography is by by Gerry McCloskey. Full details at http://www.stingingfly.org/current.html

The magazine is helping out with the Oxfam Books' Poems for 2009 Competition. The competition is to find six poems for next year's calendar. Closing date is Tuesday July 17th 2008. This year's stellar line-up of guest poets are Moya Cannon, Patrick Deeley, Eamon Grennan, Vona Groarke, Dave Lordan and Eiléan Ní Chuileanáin. The competition judge is Patrick Deeley. Further details, entry form and competition rules are on the Oxfam Ireland website. All funds raised from the competition and from the calendar will go towards funding Oxfam Ireland's various overseas aid projects.

In September they are publishing their second short story anthology, a follow-up to THESE ARE OUR LIVES (2006). The twenty new short stories were chosen from more than 400 stories received late last year. The new book will feature stories by Ragnar Almqvist, Evelyn Conlon, Danny Denton, Damien Doorley, Michael J. Farrell, Mia Gallagher, D. Gleeson, Rosemary Jenkinson, James Lawless, Colm Liddy, Viv McDade, Emer Martin, Gina Moxley, Helena Nolan, Jim O'Donoghue, Donal O'Sullivan, Breda Wall Ryan, Ingo Schulze, Tom Tierney and William Wall.

The Stinging Fly
PO Box 6016
Dublin 8
Ireland
ISSN 1393-5690
€7
visit the website of The Stinging Fly

Read reviews of earlier issues on NHI Review

Bill Griffiths and Lollipop

Bill Griffiths died in September 2007.

The obit in the Newcastle Journal describes him as a poet, Ango-Saxon [sic] scholar and champion of North-East dialects. Nicholas Johnson in the Independent has him down as an experimental poet fascinated by the dialect and history of north-east England. William Rowe in the Guardian describes him as a poet, scholar, translator, pamphleteer and publisher.

The Times Online goes further and tells us that he was not only a gifted poet, publisher and Anglo-Saxon scholar but also an accomplished book designer, small press publisher, biker, houseboat owner, pianist, archivist and social historian.

My own contacts with Bill came about initially through the Association of Little Presses. He was the editor of PALPI, a magazine that listed publications by members of ALP. We exchanged publications, and I reviewed some of his poetry and dialect pamphlets in New Hope International. I also recall meeting him at some of the Small Press Poetry Conventions that were held in the 80s and 90s.

In the late 90s there were problems with ALP and, as I recall, it drifted into oblivion rather than being officially wound-up. Whatever happened, what followed was the creation of the Lollipop: List of Little Press Publications, an internet listing opportunity open to little presses of the U.K., free of charge. It was inaugurated by Bill Griffiths, Bob Trubshaw, and Peter Finch, in March 2000.

Peter Manson has now re-launched Lollipop at http://llpp.ms11.net/ as a tribute to Bill, and will continue his work in support of small press publishing in the UK.

Bill's own website is still accessible. It contains a wealth of material, poetry, art, articles on dialect and social history. It is hoped that the majority of it will find a place somewhere before the plug is pulled on the site.

There is a great deal of information about Bill on Tom Raworth's memorial pages from where these pictures have been taken with permission.

There is also an excellent personal memoir and critique on David Caddy's Poetic Letters From England.

The photograph below is by John Seed and was taken in September 2004