Journal

Do we control the language we use, or does the language we use control the way we think? I also talk about this on The Patchword Podcast on Spotify and on YouTube. Many of us — perhaps especially those who call ourselves writers — li...

I used to curate a writers’ resource website that included a modern poetry anthology section and I received all sorts of poetry submissions from visitors to the site. Exercising my sweeping editorial powers, I rejected most of them out-of-hand as the...

Although Rob Mackenzie wrote his 25 rules for editing poems for Magma Poetry over ten years ago, they remain relevant. It’s hard to disagree with anything Mackenzie says, particularly as the list is followed by the rider, “good poets are always ready...

So what is “creative non-fiction”?Last year, I was delighted to be asked to judge a creative non-fiction (CNF) competition for the South Warwickshire Literary Festival (SWLF). But when I came to read the entries, I realised that different people have...

Since I’m launching a new online poetry critique and discussion group, (the Global Online Stanza) it seems a sensible time to revisit the topic of critiquing poetry. I’m not thinking now about formal literary critique, but about the kind of comment a...

Although it’s usually only the author who is credited on the cover, a book is seldom the creation of a single person. I also talk about this on The Patchword Podcast on Spotify and on YouTube. If you look along your bookshelf, unless you own a larg...