Summer already.
My hollyhocks are blossoming; the courgettes flowering. Cate is making jars of perfume; Gruff mainly beating me at one-a-side games of football, with watering-can goalposts. They eat rocket lollies on the loungers after school. The cuddly toys have picnics. We had a lovely long weekend in the South Downs recently, visiting Ditchling and the Seven Sisters, and sleeping in a campsite with a firepit (Cate’s one take-home anecdote being that she put her foot in a melted marshmallow). The steam fair came to the common, and Cate rode her first galloper; Gruff his first ghost train. At the school’s summer fair last week, Gruff jumped on the bouncy castle in a narrow sliver of shade; a crocodile stole Punch’s sausages; and I was a complete winner at the bookstall (Ha Ha Bonk and Cops and Robbers by the Ahlbergs, Fungus the Bogeyman, some Shirley Hughes books I didn’t have).
Workwise, I have written my first poem since Incarnation was finished at least three years ago. It’s a long poem called ‘The Lives of the Female Poets’ and I’m thrilled Bad Betty Press will be publishing it in the autumn as part of their limited edition Shots series (it’s my first pamphlet, bizarrely, despite over 20 years in poetry…) Work on Anna Szabo’s translations continues. The first copies of the summer issue of MPT have arrived, with their beautiful cover by Moroccan illustrator Merieme Mesfioui. It has a Maghreb focus, begun in Tunisia last year, and some truly gorgeous translations – look out for our mini-tour in September.
An actual hardback of Fierce Bad Rabbits arrived in the post too last week, and I was stunned by how beautiful it is (my first hardback). It’s really helpful if you pre-order apparently, and if you’re trying to break your Amazon habit Hive is offering it for a very reasonable £11.35, and offer free home delivery or your can collect from your local bookshop. I have been recording the audio book for Penguin, and was slightly startled when they said it would be at least seven hours long (I’ve never listened to audio books, and tend to gulp down books much more quickly than that). It’s been fun though, apart from anxiety about how to say ‘Babar’.
Now festival season is beginning, and I have a few dates I thought I should put on the website.
Firstly if you’re in Ledbury for the poetry festival this weekend (July 6th-7th) I’m involved in three events. There’s a dramatic monologue workshop that I think might be full, but also a Modern Poetry in Translation Duel on Saturday morning (Burgage Hall, 11am) with German poet Odile Kennel translated by both Jen Calleja and Annie Rutherford. It’s a very sensuous, sticky sort of poem and it’s going to be great fun. Do bring your coffee and join us to wake up your weekend. I’m also chairing a very important event on Rohingya Poetry (Burgage Hall, 5pm), with Shehzar Doja and James Bryne launching their new anthology for Arc, ‘I am a Rohingya’. And I’m looking forward to so much other stuff too – Hannah Sullivan, Yu Yoyo and A.K. Blakemore, and Ilya Kaminsky and Sandeep Parmar all sound highlights.
And then I also have three events coming up for Fierce Bad Rabbits:
Saturday 13th of July – Idler Festival – I’ll be doing a lecture on the picture book trope of ‘animals in clothes’, and also – in my capacity as Idler poetry editor, introducing Will Harris, AK Blakemore and Amy Key reading spell poems. And Louis Theroux headlines! Day tickets available.
Sunday August 4th – A Wilde Weekend – on the week of my official publication date, I’ll be talking about Wilde’s children’s stories and Fierce Bad Rabbits with Sheena Wilkinson (Enniskillen Royal Grammar (i.e. Portora), Fermanagh, 12.30pm)
Thursday August 15th – HOLD THE DATE – I will be having a London launch of FBR at the Review Bookshop, Peckham, more details to follow.
Finally, on Saturday 17th of August I also have a rare reading of my own poetry as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, at an event on the poetry of motherhood with Janette Ayachi, Liz Berry, Toria Garbutt
That’s all for now, I think! Enjoy your summer…
clarepollard 