Words in Many Forms

An Irishwoman in Paris

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:51:23 +0100

Poets Live is another well known anglophone reading series which takes place every month in the cellar of an old fashioned Irish bar called Carr's, just off Rue de Rivoli, and is run by Rufo Quintavalle. They have three featured readers who read in two separate slots on the night which works really well. I ended reading with two excellent American poets; Pansy Maurer-Alvarez and Deborah Bogen. The atmosphere was brilliant because the cellar is more like a cave really so your voice travels...

100 Poems in 100 Days

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:16:53 +0100

So I said yes. Yep, go ninety, let’s do this.

That was 46 poems ago.

Nearly halfway through.

22 of those poems are mine (I’m down one actually due to a day lost in the midst of teaching and being a grownup) and have been produced since the first of January. They’ve ranged in topic from lost glasses to train stations to old jobs and childhood moments to dialogues I’ve had with some of the teenagers I work with to mishmashed excerpts from dating websites. There’s one about a masseuse. ...

Opening Young Minds to Creative Writing

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:11:36 +0100

Care not for spelling and grammar:

Especially if you’re dealing with a pack of young ‘uns who aren’t into reading. I know you’re probably cringing at the thought. It can be hard to get past if you’ve a teaching background where you’ve got every urge to underscore mistakes in red: but don’t, for their sake, and yours. Fight that temptation!

They’ll be self-conscious about their spelling, ask questions about it, be nervous about handwriting, unsure about g...

New Platforms for Short Stories

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:16 +0100

Most of us, by now, have a shiney device in our pockets that we use to make calls, send texts and check our Facebook and Twitter every five minutes. Did you know that this small device could also be a portable library of short stories that you can tailor to your tastes (and you never have to worry about overdue fines)? As with most questions and problems facing the modern consumer, the answer is, invariably, ‘there is an app for that’. Well, several apps to be precise.

Shor...

Illustrating the Point - Steve McCarthy

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:38:07 +0100

O'Brien Press wanted to have a classic timeless feel, something that could stay with a family through generations, which might seem pretty lofty, but it definitely evoked a style, or look, that I could thread through all the illustrations. I've worked with art directors who are very singled minded and ones who will allow me a free hand, I think both approaches have their merits, and with both I think it comes down to trust. With Sally, the content was cleverly edite...

The Moth Collection, ‘Little Editions'.

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:21:04 +0100

The first of the Moth Little Editions are by poets, Dermot Healy, Ciarán O’Rourke, Kate Dempsey and Ted McCarthy. What better way to celebrate what we all hope will be a regular print-run than to add in here for writing.ie readers a short poem by each writer, courtesy of the moth editors. The books are truly dinky, the four arrived in a standard envelope nestled together, it is true that good things often come in tiny packages. They are printed on beautiful paper with artwork by Vincent S...

Wearing Your Heart on Your Skin

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:39:44 +0100

Most of the traffic that comes to my blog as a result of this post uses the search string Sylvia Plath tattoo. Plath’s introspective but direct style clearly has huge appeal to younger readers and the variety of Plath tattoos on the Contrariwise site is an interesting demonstration of this (see left).

One of the tattoos on display use three lines from Plath’s poem ‘Tulips’: the lines are winding tattooed stems that hold up three scarlet tulip heads. It looks beautiful.

Another yo...

Riding The Poetry Bus

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:16:07 +0100

I was amazed at the various takes on the one theme and also the quality of some of the writing and as time went on I began to think that some of this work deserved to be published and that a magazine was needed. I had no interest in doing a glorified self published anthology, I wanted a proper magazine for these poets, selected on merit and to mix the work of the bloggers with other invited poets and artists to make the thing special. That was issue one of The Poetry Bus Magazine.

Now PB2 and al...

Poetry in Motion

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:48:23 +0100

The idea is simple. Poems are chosen for inclusion on the programme and published onboard the train carriages for a number of months. The result? Commuters can take a minute out of their rush to or from work or school or college and read some poetry. The poems are generally short and relatively simple, straightforward enough to be enjoyed, no matter how short a DART trip. Poems range from the traditional to the contemporary with poets like Emily Dickenson, William Shakespeare, W.H Auden and W.B Y...