I am so very thrilled! My second book of poetry is rolling off the press. Here is a preview of the cover design for “Emily’s Poems for Modern Boys”. The image is another beautiful work by Norfolk-based artist, Nicola Slattery.
Archives for posts with tag: book
A year ago I shared my first post. This is #53.
From about this time last year, I knuckled down to the collation, editing and typesetting of my first volume of poetry. It is now available for preview and purchase via blurb.co.za
Since June last year, my work has been published in the poetry journals PIYE and Carapace.
Since 15th June last year, I have participated in writing groups, poetry workshops and a few poetry readings.
This time a year ago, I was quite ill. Now I am stronger, fitter and grateful for each day during which my body carries me.
At this time in 2012, I didn’t know what the next year would hold or how I would ‘manage it.’ A year later, I am still writing and trying to stay true to my vision of being A Writer.
A heartfelt thank you to all my readers for following, commenting and sharing. To all the friends, family and community who continue to buoy me, a thank you is also due.
Where will things be at in 2014? I do wonder and dream.
Warning!
Deep Water
Green weed coats the pond.
Catkins tiptoe past the curtain leaves
here in the conservation area near the tennis courts.
“Should you see
anything particularly exciting
please tell us about it.,“
requests the London Borough of Camden, Nature Conservation Section.
“Well, I didn’t notice much
except,”
he turns,
“You,
delightful thing.”
(he bent down to kiss her)
Ah! Water deep
(she kissed him back)
2011
—
Many readers really enjoy this poem, primarily because they believe it provides some insight about the poet (i.e. me). I suppose they make this leap because – at 1,47m – I am quite small, like a little human huckleberry. As readers, we also like to overlay the narrator’s voice with that of the creator. I shall leave the fact to fiction ratio up to your imagination. At the end of the day, it is my hope that the poem works in capturing a moment in poetic form.
You can own this poem – and 19 others – when you purchase a copy of my first volume of selected work: SHINING IN BRIGHTNESS. Two explanatory essays accompany the poems. The beautifully formatted book is available through blurb.co.uk.
I am on Twitter as @BeadedQuill. I tweet about poetry, my ambles in London’s green spaces and at the moment, my online dating experiences. (I also tweet quite a bit about martial arts.)
Our twenties is a time filled with firsts. According to research it is the decade we remember most vividly. Many of us document our experiences, often with the intention of doing something with those journals and emails about our gap years and unrequited crushes. Writer Annwen Elizabeth Evans, now nearing 32, has done just this and distilled her experiences into a first volume of poetry.
Shining in Brightness presents 20 poems written by Evans between the ages of 18 and 30. Evans declares these twelve years, ‘a stretched decade, a mystical decade.’
During this time she travelled, studied and worked abroad. ‘I grew up in a leafy Cape Town suburb. On scholarships I studied in the USA, UK. Then I worked in Europe, Latin America, the Eastern Cape (a province of South Africa). I now live in leafy North London.’
It is an international experience of ‘quiet suburbia’ that Evans finds particular inspiration. ‘It’s a mileu, the world over, that produced similar versions of me. I don’t think my life is unique. My poems could have been written by any young woman of similar means and opportunity. We went to university. We travelled. We loved and lost. Now we find ourselves sort of grown-up, almost back where we started and reconciling what happened in our twenties.’
Shining in Brightness courageously takes on the project of reconciling youthful experience. Early poems, like ‘To whom it may concern,’ echo a creative timidity and self-consciousness. Through the sets, the poet’s voice grows in confidence, inviting us in poems such as ‘Here is something to marvel at’ and ‘Pavement Walker’ to observe the world with her.
Nicola Slattery’s wistful illustration of a girl aloft on the wings of a blackbird echoes beautifully the volume’s whimsical tone and the metaphor of creativity as a journey.
The volume’s title derives from a poem about a restaurant meal. ‘The poem recounts a prosaic moment, that’s also a numinous communion. The objects and the moment between the diners are frozen in time like a still life.’
In the explanatory essay that accompanies the poems, Evans reveals that the other diner is her father. He passed away in 2009 after a battle with colon cancer and it is to his memory that she dedicates the volume.
Eight years passed from the moment of the meal to the poem’s creation. Evans observes, ‘when it comes to creativity and memory, experiences fly as they will backwards and forwards between seasons.’
—
This is a sample press release for my recently published first volume of poetry, SHINING IN BRIGHTNESS. Do you know of a newsletter, community of readers or similar that might be interested in the work? Post your suggestion as a comment or email (beadedquill@gmail.com).
Follow me on Twitter as I share my journey as a fledgling writer and learn about artistic self-promotion. I’m @BeadedQuill.
