Poets to Check Out - Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney reads "Left" She recently won the National Book award for her new collection

Dinky Poetry Book Launch in Dublin

Come to my Dublin launch of this year's most sought after fashion accessory.

My Dinky Poetry Book, Some Poems from moth editions

Wednesday 30th November 2011, 6:30pm
The lovely Winding Stair bookshop (on the quays near Ha'penny bridge)
Ted McCarthy from Monaghan, one of the other 3 poets will also be reading from his book.
All welcome.

This is what your handbag needs

or your mother/sister/friend/cousin/aunt/boss/teacher

Your laptop bag needs this

and your jeans' pocket needs this

someone's jacket pocket needs this

 

And did I mention? Only 4 Euro. The ideal stocking filler

How to publish women writers

An interesting blogpost here with suggestions on how to ensure women are better represented in publishing. As in being published (and reviewed)

women are not published nearly as much as men in most venues in the literary world

The usual excuses are:

• what we publish is representational of the submissions. Apparently about 75% of the slushpiles are usually from men though I would imagine each slushpile varies greatly.
• women's submissions are less likely to meet our standards
• we do publish women (but not very loudly)
• we consider sexist allusions to be witty and acceptable.

The blogger, Annie Fisch suggestions include:

• Actively solicit contributions from women. i.e. invite them specifically to submit (Call me, email me, tweet me)
• Educate yourself on what women like to read and write (OK not so sure about that one as not every women has the same boxes to tick)
• Read with double awareness (if the writer you are reading is of a different gender, race, class, background, country be self aware of your responses) That's a good suggestion. But I would hope that they are doing it already or am I deluded? 

The writer then goes out to suggest that some women write about small, trivial subjects. That's in the eye of the beholder though.Then she suggests the editors should ask themselves if they publish writing that reads like women's writing. And I'm not talking about childbirth, menstruation and shopping.

• Next the exercise for the blushing editor is to put on a rampant, angry feminist hat (I have a few in my wardrobe you can borrow if you like) and read through stuff you've published. Look at the featured artists, the cover names, the reviewees. Are you mollified or are you an angry moll?

Here are the stats. Quite shocking really. I wonder what it would look like in Irish publications. 

Here's an interesting (actually worringly, off putting) piece about women's writing.

A Creative Writing workshop with Dave Lordan

Kickstart your imagination with Dave Lordan in Hotspot Cafe, Greystones
Friday Dec 2nd. 7.30 to 9pm

10 euro, including admission to the fabulous Speakeasy Cabaret later on that evening.

Where do stories and creative ideas come from?
How can we make creative use of our own vast store of stories and experiences?
How can we jump-start our imaginations when we just aren't feeling up to it?
How do we draw inspiration from our every day lives?
How do we make time in our busy lives for inspiration and creativity?

All are welcome to take part in this fun, informative and stimulating workshop with Dave Lordan. 

Booking is advised. To book a place phone Dave on 087 0921117, or email

Dave Lordan is a multi-award winning poet, playwright and fiction writer as well as a popular reviewer on RTE Radio 1's flagship Arena Arts show. He is the current holder of the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award. He is also once of Ireland's leading creative writing teachers and currently teaches on the MA in Poetry Studies in Mater Dei Institute and for Co Wicklow VEC, 

as well as to numerous school and community groups.

Read more about Dave at his website

The Nobel Prize for Literature Balance

Or lack of balance. There's a surprise.

Of the 107 laureates since 1901, only 12 have been women. They are getting slightly closer together than earlier years but there's not a lot of equality there.

Who are they?

2009
Herta Müller

Romanian living in Germany

Prize motivation: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"

 2007
Doris Lessing

Born in Persia, living in England.

Prize motivation: "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"

2004

Elfriede Jelinek

  Austrian

 Prize motivation: "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"

1996
Wislawa Szymborska

Polish

Prize motivation: "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"

1993
Toni Morrison

America

Prize motivation: "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"

1991
Nadine Gordimer

South African

Prize motivation: "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"

1966
Nelly Sachs

Born in Germany, lived in Sweden

Prize motivation: "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength" 

1945
Gabriela Mistral

Chilean

Prize motivation: "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"

1938
Pearl Buck

American

Prize motivation: "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"

1928
Sigrid Undset

Born in Denmark, lived in Norway

Prize motivation: "principially for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"

1926
Grazia Deledda

Italian (Sardinian)

Prize motivation: "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general"

1909
Selma Lagerlöf
Swedish
Prize motivation: "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings" 

Soundings for Simon

Soundings for Simon 

Where: Badass Café, Temple Bar, Dublin

When: Monday, November 28th at 7pm. 

An evening of poetry old and new, with readings from Paula Meehan, Iggy McGovern, Maggie O'Dwyer, Tom Conaty and Louise C. Callaghan. 

Admission is €12 which includes drinks and finger food. 

All proceeds will go to the Dublin Simon Community.

The Sonnet

A well known poetic form. Have you tried to write in this form? Give it a go. It's infectious. It has inspired poets from Dante to Shakespeare, Spenser, Rilke, Auden, Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop

The Basics - layout

14 lines
usually iambic pentameter
See previous post here on rhyme and rhythm

Petrachian Sonnet, the earlier version.
Rhymes:

• Octave (8 lines) (abba abba) or (abab cdcd)
• Sestet (six lines) (cdc cdc) or (cde cde)

Shakespearean

• Three quatrains & a final couplet (or all 14 lines in one stanza)
• Rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg)
• Final rhyming couplet is defining feature

Both forms usually contain a volta, which is a sort of shift in tone after the first 8 lines.

Shakespeare's Sonnet No 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

i.e. first half,.
You are lovely like the summer
volta
BUT summer passes and you are forever

How about this one?

Maundy Thursday 
by Wilfred Owen

Between the brown hands of a server-lad
The silver cross was offered to be kissed.
The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,
And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.
(And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)
Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had,
(And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.)
Young children came, with eager lips and glad.
(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)
Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte.
Above the crucifix I bent my head:
The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead:
And yet I bowed, yea, kissed - my lips did cling.
(I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.)