My diary posts are the place for a bit of my news, poetry community news, plus my adventures in creativity
Soooooo, happy new year!
I have spent the entirety of this new year so far in Bugsville, a really unpleasant journey, so really hoping that is not going to set a trend for the rest of the year and hoping you are all warm and well.
A bit of context for my readers from the USA and elsewhere on the heating issue- our energy bills have tripled while the U.K. companies Shell and BP are making record profits. Go figure!
The big event here this month is obviously the T.S. Eliots. From the Southbank…
Shortlist Readings live at the Royal Festival Hall
“The celebrated T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 Shortlist Readings, one of poetry’s biggest and most inspiring nights out, is now just days away. The Readings will take place at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 15 January 2023, from 7pm. Ian McMillan will be our genial host and the event will be British Sign Language interpreted throughout. Book tickets for you, your family and all your friends at the SBC box office. We look forward to seeing you.”
The Southbank go on to add, “If you’re not able to attend the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 Shortlist Readings in person, don’t worry! Book to watch the whole event live and online via the Southbank Centre’s YouTube channel in the comfort of your own home. We are always glad to welcome international attendees via our online broadcast. Listen out for all of our Eliot-shortlisted poets reading from their collections on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in the run-up to the Readings on 15 January. Find them on BBC Sounds”
Also COMING UP
Hope to join the open mic at an event featuring Sue Johns and Jacqueline Saphra at the Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2RX 29th January
OUT NOW
Is the entire “bundle offer” of the 2022 T.S. Eliot’s shortlist from the Poetry Book Society here https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/2022-ts-eliot-prize-bundle-offer It might seem a lot to shell out midwinter with food and energy bills soaring but I figure it’s a pretty good deal.
Oh, on the climate crisis, cost of living crisis, I’ll add this brief note. I usually set my thermostat at 21 deg C. Last winter turned that down to 20. This winter, in increments I got it down to 18 and I’m saving a small fortune! My bills are actually less than this time last year.
We all have different needs and accommodations so I’m not suggesting what works for me is going to work for you and I’m not going to say it’s been easy. I spend much of my time in fleece pj’s and a fleece dressing gown, occasionally donning a woolly hat but both the financial reward and the feeling I’m reducing my carbon footprint feels goooooood.
Wishing you all a creative, healthy, joy filled year. Embrace change, embrace challenges. I don’t buy that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” but it can make one wiser. What are we here for unless it’s not to learn and grow and create something better. I’ll leave you with this…
I’m reminded every new year by this quote from Leon Trotsky, written the year of his assassination, which pops up most years in my Facebook memories and I have it on a poster on my kitchen wall.
“Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.” Coyoacán, Mexico City, 1940
We are doing our best Lev! Rest in peace.
Found foto from that place in Coyoacán, the last home of Leon Trotsky. I’ve stood at the window in his office, looked down on the gras. A room reached by a corridor with bullet holes in the wall. Gazed at his desk. He was still working at the time the Stalinist thug put an ice pick in his head. I wondered at the time what the state of the left would have been if he’d finish that article. Found books on the shelves in Russian, German, French, Spanish and English at least.
#amreading two anthologies of eco science fiction the first of these, Nature’s Warnings is edited by Mike Ashby and brings together classic sci-fi tales that date back to the 1920’s and earlier. Also dipping into No More Fairy Tales, edited by DA Baden, which offers a contemporary collection with the purpose “to inspire readers with positive visions of what a contemporary society would look like and how we might get there.”
#amwriting mostly lists and plans and schedules, it is a new year after all, or at least a new quarter, as my new year begins in September, plus the odd tweet about the strikes, the planet, you know that kind of thing…
Do feel free to message me about what you like or don’t like about this blog. I’m currently reflecting on its form and content. For instance do you appreciate such things as writers on writing, writing prompts, writing by others? Would you maybe like to see interviews with writers or something on form and craft? Let me know!
A blog post by Anne Enith Cooper
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