Firstly, I should introduce myself. I’m Meirion Jordan, and I’ve just joined Gatehouse as one of the team of editors for a really amazing new literary project – on which some more details below. I’ve worked as a poet for a fair few years now, with my first poetry collection published back in 2008 and shortlisted for a Forward Prize for Best First Collection. At present I’m in the last year of a PhD at the University of East Anglia here in Norwich, and with my second full collection of poetry, Regeneration, published earlier this year, I’m really looking forward to being able to spend some time not just promoting my own work, or sitting at home doing my own writing, but actually helping to make a difference to other people’s writing careers, bringing something new and interesting to UK poetry. Poetry has always mattered to me, and I’d like to think that Gatehouse has given me a rare opportunity to make a contribution that extends beyond the limits of my own writing.

I’ve worked with Gatehouse before, as they published my pamphlet Strangers Hall as part of the Norfolk Commission in 2009 – and I have to say I’m rather fired up to get a chance to work with Gatehouse again, this time helping to publish a new literary magazine dedicated to  finding and publishing new writing. Hopefully as we start to collect our editorial team together there will be more introductions here on the blog, and indeed we’re hoping that the website will start to buzz with activity as the days grow longer and warmer. As we gather momentum on the magazine, we’ll be talking about it in more and more detail, but we’ll also be able to start talking about where we think it leads. Discovering new writing is only part of the story, and we want to be able to bring that writing to our readers in all sorts of new ways.

In my academic work, I’m very concerned about how books shape the way we read. We don’t just judge books by their covers – we judge them by their blurbs, their spines, their bindings and their typefaces too. But the ways we read are changing all the time; webpages, social media and portable electronics are all helping to shape not just new generations of readers, but whole new genres. We like to think of poetry as being eternal, or timeless, but actually poetry is always here, in the now of our reading. Poetry doesn’t just belong on the bookshelf, it belongs in the auditorium, in the kitchen, in the street and in the palm of your hand. And it doesn’t just belong to rather academic, bookish people like me either: poetry has something to say to everyone. Exploring just how to get people and poetry into the same space, reading, listening and enjoying, is a serious business for me.

Don’t get me wrong – I love books. I adore the smell of secondhand bookshops, just as I love the crispness of a new paperback or the weight of a yellowing hardback under my fingers. But at the end of the day I love the poem more than the page it’s printed on, and I love the sound that great poetry makes in my head more than I like the sight of it on my bookshelf. Not that we can ever quite prise the two apart – but part of the excitement of this opportunity for me lies in discovering the new ways we can make poems happen, and how we can bring them to new readers. In the coming months we’re going to be doing a lot of new things here at Gatehouse, and I for one am absolutely bursting with enthusiasm for what we might find out, for the surprises that we might have in store. There will be lots of hard work to come too – we are still at a very early stage, so early I feel I’m almost letting the cat out of the bag saying there will even be a magazine at all! But we’ll be talking about the process here on the blog, and talking a little bit too about our ideas, why we feel that we should be making a new poetry magazine, and why we feel that we should be focusing on new writing in particular. Each of our new team of editors will have a different slant on things, a different philosophy to share, a different palette with which to colour a new view of the literary landscape. A landscape which, from my perspective at least, is just about bursting into leaf.

As part of our support for local writing, Gatehouse Press has regularly provided courses and workshops aimed at developing writers.  These sessions have taken place in schools, adult education centres, and at the Norwich Writers’ Centre.  In this way, Gatehouse Press has published or tutored around 300 different writers.

Currently Gatehouse runs workshops every Thursday for writing groups at the Writers’ Centre Norwich.  In order to respect the experience and approach of existing groups, membership of the groups is by invitation.  But new writers are always welcome, and you are asked to make yourselves known to us via our contact page, or call us on 07831 364 021.

It would help if you could say something about  your experience as a writer.

The cost for a term of 10 sessions (each of 2.5 hours) is £100, but the workshops are not intended to be a profit-making enterprise.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Electric Landscape brought together readings by Peter Scupham and Heidi Williamson, both committed to seeing the world through poet’s eyes.  “Electric” isn’t perhaps the right word to describe the contemplative attention which each of these Norfolk poets gives to place, person, incident.  Scupham makes words work, not by any forced stretching, but with subtly arresting conjunction.  Williamson brings the listener/reader into her world by similar gentle paths of recognition.  Seek them out!

Animals and our relationship with them has long been a fruitful theme in creative writing and poetry. This workshop will include reading and discussion of texts such as Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Orwell’s Animal Farm, DH Lawrence’s The Snake and Tobias Wolff’s short story Her Dog . There will be plenty of writing exercises to get your imagination working and the chance to read out work and get some feedback. It’s suitable both for beginners and more experienced writers. All participants will leave the workshop with a new work in progress. To book contact rochellescholar@yahoo.co.uk  mendham-writers.com

Here is a petition I hope you might be willing to sign: http://bit.ly/q7vpBd

Please forgive the group email, and especially if you have already signed this, but you might have noticed the story of events at the National Poetry Society, a story badly distorted and caricatured by an irresponsible press fed, it seems most likely, by Colman Getty. A full and truthful account of events is obtainable here. http://thepoetrysocietyuk.wordpress.com/

Essentially the story of a director being pressured to resign in what is generally recognized as constructive dismissal. The director had just won the Poetry Society a much increased grant and within days the trustees assured that she was out on her ear in a completely unconstitutional manner, The Poetry Society Board of Trustees, recognising their vulnerability, immediately sent out to expensive lawyers without consulting the members, without their consent and at the members’ expense though they could have got free advice. They also took on Colman Getty at members’ expense. The terms of the editorship and the job descriptions of a number of people were changed without consent, procedure or consulting members. All this has resulted in the Arts Council not only suspending the awarded raise but stopping its support altogether until this mess is sorted out.

Never mind the fact that this is a society for those interested in poetry. It could have been any industry or charity and the board of trustees is comprised of people from all walks of life who should have known better.

I am being active in this because I think it is a disgraceful state of affairs, a gross injustice, and because, as a poet, I feel obliged to. Hence my name at the head of the petition, which is supported by some of the major figures in UK poetry.

Please do sign soon as we are up against time (see the petition). If you have any questions that are not addressed by the poetrysocietyuk site above, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

With best wishes,

George

ps Latest News via the Finance Director, Paul Ransford (his words in italics), who was one of the five major resignations following the Director’s departure:

It turns out The Society holds insurance against legal costs up to £250,000 arising out of:

“…the defence of any Legal Proceedings brought in an employment tribunal arising from a dispute with an Employee or ex-Employee relating to … the contract of employment”

In other words, the Society already held insurance which would have covered all the Harbottle and Lewis fees for the whole dispute, and more, providing, that is, the Society had -

sought and followed advice from Our Legal Assistance Advice service… before materially changing or attempting to change the particulars of an Employee’s contract of employment…

Which of course they didn’t. The Board didn’t consult anyone before materially changing the Director’s contract: not the staff, not the Arts Council, and not the Director herself, who set up the Insurance Policy and tried to tell them about it. In fact, if they’d listened to her ‘threats’, they might have realised they weren’t threats at all, but clear warnings that the Trustees were straying onto territory where they should have paused, and taken the professional and legal advice freely available.

So now we all have to pay.

Just why the bill was so high, without any action being taken by the Director, is clear from Anne-Marie Fyfe’s horrifying statement yesterday. If the law is being twisted, and used to intimidate and bully, then it will be more expensive than when it is being used in just defence. What did it cost the Society, those knots tied round a private email to silence a distinguished Director and former Chair about matters of just and public concern? £15,000? £20,000? And what must have been the personal costs to Judith Palmer and Anne-Marie Fyfe of such a gross invasion of their lives?

George Szirtes

It’s been heartening to witness the rise of a new kind of poetry pamphlet in recent years, one which, rather than simply showcasing a poet’s ability, constitutes an entire, fully-realised micro-collection, where the shorter page count acts as concentrating lens, focusing the poet’s powers on a specific strategy. Angus Sinclair’s debut consists exclusively of poems about professional wrestling. His skills as a poet are already well-developed and it’s apparent from early on in the collection that capturing crisp, emotionally resonant details with the sting of authenticity isn’t much of a problem for him. As well as the ring, poems take place before and after bouts, documenting the preparation and aftermath.

Read this review in full on the Hand + Star website.

Another Use of Canvas is Angus’ pamphlet-length debut poetry collection which inducts the reader into the bizarre world of professional wrestling.

“The dusty, melancholy, savage, masque of professional wrestling is the subject here. The writer is himself a wrestler, but unlike most wrestlers, he is also a poet: a unique thing then, the wrestler-poet, furthermore an English wrestler-poet, writing about the body and about England in terms of wrestling, focusing on the ordinary inside the glamorous, the bruise inside the myth. The poems are elegant tributes to that part of the imagination where justice and retribution play themselves out on the skin. Muscle memory is folk memory here, a full, strange-yet-familiar, compelling world.”
– George Szirtes

Bell time: 6.30pm

Refreshments provided.

Another Use of Canvas is the result of the Cafe Writers Norfolk Commission 2010, made possible with the kind support of Kate and Dominic Christian and published by Gatehouse Press Ltd.

Over the years the design has changed with the times, keeping fresh but ultimately keeping the same brand colour of green and very little change to the logo.

Today, Gatehouse Press has launched a brand new, bigger website, which showcases the work of its writers. The website contains more information about its books, making purchases becomes easier and there are new features to help you stay connected to Gatehouse Press.

An extension of the Gatehouse Press website is available via social networking websites

Norwich Designer created this website, they are also developing a version of the Gatehouse Press website specifically for iPhone and mobile users, this will make it even easier to stay connected with Gatehouse Press on the go. More news soon!