Words Unlimited

Be Brave – I Dare You …

Why not read more poetry? Go on, it’s good for you.

I don’t mean that to sound medicinal – really – or like some old English teacher who may long ago have put you off the stuff for life. If you find yourself shying away from reading poetry why not try one of the collections on the shortlist for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize, announced yesterday?

Poetry is so portable. Why not slip one of those ten volumes into your jacket pocket or work bag? Forget the morning rush hour, lose yourself in a poem or two, it’s likely to make you feel less grumpy than reading the paper and no nasty print on your fingers.

There’s something for everyone on this year’s T S Eliot list whether you’re coming to poetry for the first time, are a seasoned reader or are writing poetry – the list is a great resource.

For starters try Alice Oswald’s startling and somewhat subversive remake of the ‘nature’ poem or Sharon Olds’s sequence of war poems that, whilst excavating her own memories of the Second World War speak subtly of Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.

For poetry watchers Simon Armitage’s [Chair of the Judges] reported remarks make interesting reading. Sharp intakes of breath as Forward prizewinner, Don Paterson, didn’t make the final cut. Armitage says there were many excellent books under consideration but what the judges looked for was bravery. Apparently they felt that too many poets were “in a holding pattern.” The chosen books each reveal a poet pushing their craft to the next level – something all writer’s need to do – keep challenging themselves.

Talking as I was, yesterday, about reading to write, no matter what genre you aspire to work in, reading poetry is the most wonderful way to sharpen your awareness of language and the ways in which it works on us.

So newcomers - still not feeling brave enough? Why not rope in a few friends?

I set up a poetry reading group – The PRG – and I’ve written about it for the Poetry Book Society’s website. Click here and you can read the article and then follow the links to find out more about the books.

Go on, I dare you.

Short Story Masterclasses

How do you write an effective short story?

How are you going to grab your reader with the first sentence and keep them hooked to the end?

How do you write something accessible and engaging but with much more going on underneath – a story that will live on in the reader’s imagination?

How do you get to write something strong enough to be published in The New Yorker?

To create effective fiction you need to immerse yourself in the effects created by the best practitioners. This means reading as writer not as a literary critic – there is a difference. Reading as a writer you’re always asking – How did they do that? Why did that work?

Better than any ‘How To’ book is simply to read widely and read as a writer.

Here, in no particular order, are a few authors that every would-be short story writer might want to dip into: Anton Chekhov, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Flannery O’Connor; and more recently William Trevor, Grace Paley, Amy Bloom, Joyce Carol Oates, Rose Tremain, Haruki Murakami, Tim Winton, David Foster Wallace, Ali Smith, Lorrie Moore, Jayne Anne Phillips, Richard Ford, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Donald Barthelme, William Gass, Alice Munro, George Saunders, A. M. Homes.

So it’s wonderful to come across The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, the backlist of which contains several writers on my roll call. Each month a leading fiction writer selects a short story – previously published in The New Yorker – they read it and then talk to NY fiction editor Deborah Treisman.

I’ve just listened to Joshua Ferris reading George Saunders’s story “Adams” – afterwards he talked about how Saunders had voiced the piece and more.

Each month a new author/story is added, and, its FREE.

I’ve just subscribed and have the entire backlist in iTunes – quite a library. I’m off to find a hard copy of the Saunders’s story. I can’t wait to read it on the page.

Heroes & Heroines

was the theme for this year’s National Poetry Day, and they turned out in many guises at the Royal Festival Hall last Thursday to celebrate the day and the Centenary of The Poetry Society

 

Poetry Slammers, Mr Gee and Joelle Taylor heroically held together a packed programme of live readings, interactivity – including the beach ball haiku – and archive footage of past poets. The old Post Office film, voiced over with Auden’s ‘Night Mail,’ proved a touchy choice on the day postal workers voted for a national strike – and yet, Auden’s rapping rhythms were in keeping with the mood of the afternoon.

By the end of this extravagant, wide-raging event it was clear why poetry heroine Carol Ann Duffy had to be the new poet laureate. Who else could nonchalantly extend a bridge between Mr Gee and Mr T. S. E other than Ms C Ann D?

 

Following archive footage of T. S. Eliot – newly announced as the nation’s favourite poet – Duffy made an effortless, dead pan link to the great man by reading her very different take on the ancient world, ‘Mrs Tiresias,’ from The World’s Wife.  She then performed ‘Mrs Faust’ – the rhythms and humour couldn’t fail to connect to the many school students present.

 

Having captured the entire audience’s full attention, she ended on a more serious note and a nod to the future with her wonderful new eco-poem, commissioned specially for the day, 'Atlas' - a timely reminder of the earth’s fine balance and fragility.  Read ‘Atlas,’ and hear Carol Ann Duffy read it, here.

 

And, there were the hundreds of unsung heroines who helped to mark the Poetry Society’s Centenary with the largest ever knitted poem. Dylan Thomas’s 'In My Craft or Sullen Art' was a great choice for this inclusive project – a wonderful reminder of why anyone writes poetry in the first place.

 

Want to give poetry a try? Collect ‘found’ poetry and contribute to Lemn Sissay’s Global Poetry Systems or try Caroline Bird’s video workshop, here.

Rain

On Wednesday in London it poured.

 

Poetry watchers should have guessed the weather was trying to tell us that, yes,

Don Paterson would win the Forward Prize for best collection with his new book, Rain.

Paterson received the award on Wednesday evening in a cool classical reception room at Somerset House, with a balcony overlooking the Thames where guests, waiting to hear the announcement, marvelled at the sheer quantity of water falling from the sky.

One of the reasons Paterson was selected was for his use of rhythm and rhyme. A judge reports:

Without wanting to get into a debate as to "what is poetry", there was too much that was too close to chopped up prose. Of course this approach can be satisfying and interesting. But you should be aware what a blessed relief it is, after being confronted by book after book of flatly efficient – and less efficient - poems, to come across sprung lines, rhythm and, even the odd rhyme. On a related point, if you are going to use fancy line breaks or spacing or layout on the page, have a damn good reason for doing it.

I can hear 'flatly efficient' poets in workshops up and down the country revisiting the 'chopped up prose' debate. Meanwhile, hear Paterson talk about Rain.