Writers need to Read and Get Out More

Let’s take two people who have decided to become writers and, for sake of convenience, let’s call them A and B.

Wannabee writer A writes poetry, attends the local open mic night and is often seen on the periphery of local literary events, networking with organisers, literature development networkers and arts administrators.  Writer A’s bookshelves are crammed with how-to write and other books on creative writing techniques along with writers’ autobiographies, but there are no poetry collections, no novels, no short story collections.  Writer A’s poetry is entirely written in first person, set in a contemporary urban landscape and often about writing or failing to write.  At the open mic events writer A rehearses reading their own poems and, if you asked, couldn’t tell you who else read.  Writer A never shies away from approach other writers asking for feedback, however, it’s rarely given because other writers notice that writer A never buys a copy of their book and never asks about them or thanks them for reading.  Stuck on a bus, Writer A notices an elderly man is talking apparently to himself.  Writer A suddenly finds an article in the free newspaper incredibly interesting.  Writer A self-publishes a poetry collection and sends it off for review.

Wannabee writer B also writes poetry and joins a couple of local writing groups workshopping their own writing and giving feedback on writing by other group members.  Writer B’s bookshelves are crammed with an eclectic mix of poetry collections, novels and short story collections.  There are no how to write books.  Writer B also uses first person when writing poems but adopts different personas, experiments with writing in different historical periods as well as contemporary times, can take a walk through urban or country landscapes and rarely writes about writing.  At open mic events writer B doesn’t always read and listens to other performers.  Writer B doesn’t shy away from asking for feedback but tries to buy a copy of the other writer’s book or at least thanks them for reading and makes a comment to show they were listening first.  Stuck on a bus, writer B notices an elderly man is talking apparently to himself.  Writer B leans forward to eavesdrop.  Writer B self-publishes a poetry pamphlet and sends it off for review.

You are that reviewer.  Which collection would you look forward to reviewing?

Without even looking at either of the hypothetical collections, I know Writer A’s collection would be introspective, technically well-executed but rather boring.  Writer B’s collection will be varied and will probably take risks, not all of which will pay off, but it won’t be a boring read.

Which writer are you?  What are your thoughts?

Related Articles:-

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How real life does poetry have to be?

You are not owed a reading by a professional writer

How Real Life does Poetry have to be?

Last year a competition asked for poems in response to photos showing the immediate aftermath of a disaster and again after four years of re-building work.  One of the poets involved commented that they had hesitated before writing their poem because they hadn’t been there or known anyone directly involved.  They felt awkward and worried about the authenticity of their poem.  There have also been discussions at Magma Poetry about how poets can make it real despite not directly experiencing events and whether we should let our knowledge of writers’ biographies influence our reading of their poems.  Does it matter?

No one expects crime writers to have committed the crimes they are writing about.  Readers expect crime writers to have done their research and create empathetic characters so the readers can ‘experience’ the crime alongside the victims and try and figure out who the murderer was before the end of the book.  Generally novelists are not expected to write autobiography although there is an understanding that some events or characters that end up in novels may have roots in the writer’s life.

Poetry is also fiction.  So why should poetry have to be real?  Why does the question of “how do poets make an event they have not experienced authentic” even arise?

Most contemporary poetry is written in first person, whereas novels are generally written in third person.  There are exceptions, but most poems use an “I did/ felt/ saw/ dreamt/ experienced…” narrative and it is easy for readers to therefore assume that the poem’s “I” is the poet.  The assumption then becomes that the poet is writing directly from autobiography and poetry is no longer fiction.

This creates two problems.  Firstly it can create misunderstandings.  I know of someone who read Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” as taking place in the aftermath of a suicide attempt because he knew the poet had attempted suicide.  What he didn’t know was that “Tulips” was written after a routine operation to remove an appendix, which puts the poem in a completely different light. 

Secondly it shifts the focus from the poem to the poet and encourages the view that poems about, say, the war in Iraq are only authentic if the poet has served a tour of duty.  Or that knowing a poet has served a tour of duty in Iraq makes that poet’s poem more authentic than a poem written by someone who’s never been to Iraq but done their research.  This takes us backward to the view that crime writers should have committed the crimes they write about, which has already been dismissed.  Surely the poem matters?

Poems need to be able to stand on their own merit.  It doesn’t matter whether the poet has direct or indirect experience of what they are writing poems about.  What matters is whether the poem is any good or not.  Good poems can come from indirect, researched experience and bad poems can come from direct experience and vice versa.  Incomplete research will show, but poets with a distance from the event they are writing about have the advantage of being able to put the event in context and focus on making the poem.  The key focus has to be on the poem, not the poet, doesn’t it?

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Why I won’t be joining the British Fantasy Society (again)

Been laid low by a viral infection, am starting to get over the post-viral fatigue and initially put down two stories, concerning a film director and the British Fantasy Society, to feverish delusions, but, no, apparently they’re real.  One is easy to deal with: Roman Polanski is a highly respected film director, he’s had more than his fair share of tragedy, but he also raped a thirteen year old girl for which he avoided serving time.  He should not have done, neither should it reflect on his film making abilities.  I’ve no idea what “rape-rape” is, but, as a rose is a rose is a rose, so rape is rape is rape, and those who signed this petition should have reflected more first.

On and off over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of joining the British Fantasy Society.  But hesitated.  I don’t have a problem with the British Fantasy Society having a mostly male membership or that most of them proudly boast they don’t read poetry or even when occasionally one or two of them own up to reading my stories and admit “I really enjoyed this story, against all my initial expectations.”  Not a problem at all.  Despite recent fevers I’m not delusional enough to believe the British Fantasy Society cares whether I’m a member or not.  The only benefits I’d bring are one extra subscription, extra votes for the awards, oh, and a few short stories… 

But this really made me hesitate (again): at FantasyCon held towards the end of September, the British Fantasy Society launched a new book, “Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror.” 

This book is not an anthology of stories.  For that I would expect:-

• A call for submissions from all British Fantasy Society Members,
• An editor or editorial team to pick the best stories (preferably anonymously),
• The best stories to be published in the anthology with author biographies,
• No double checking that the requisite gender (or other equality criteria) balance had been achieved, just the best stories submitted,
• And that’s it.

I would expect the best stories submitted to be published because this is a story anthology not an anthology about writers, therefore, who had written the stories isn’t as important as the stories themselves.  And such an anthology will feature fewer female writers simply because fewer women tend to send submissions to editors.  That’s not just true of genre fiction but also applies to non genre fiction and poetry.  Most women seem to prefer the anonymity and distance of submitting to a competition rather than a named editor or editorial team.  Why, I can’t answer as I’m always submitting work to editors.

However, “Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror” is not a story anthology.  It’s a series of the best bits of interviews with writers.  Therefore the focus is on the writers.  Therefore it matters who gets picked.  Because the selected writers are, by implication of the launch happening at FantasyCon, writers whom the British Fantasy Society holds in high regard otherwise they wouldn’t be publishing the book.

But all the writers are male.  Not one female writer is included in “Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror”.

To their credit the British Fantasy Society did apologise for the omission, tellingly mentioning that, “It is disgustingly simple for a man not to notice these things, a blindness to the importance of correct gender representation that I feel embarrassed to have fallen into.”

In his own apology, editor James Cooper says “The criteria for inclusion was simple: I wanted writers who I admired and who had influenced me in some way in the last 20 – 25 years.”  He goes on to say, “A female perspective, of course, would have offered a keen contrast to that presented by many of the male writers…I’d like to finish by adding that I am well aware of most of the female writers working in the field of horror fiction and intended no slight to any of them, though I can easily see how my negligence could be misconstrued.”

This female writer isn’t buying it.  In fact, I’m not joining the British Fantasy Society again.  Not that the British Fantasy Society should care: one lost subscription is nothing.

You are not owed a reading by a published writer

Josh Olson in Village Voice has successfully polarised opinion between new writers who feel that professional writers shouldn’t pull the ladder up behind them but help them on to the next rung of their writing career and professionals who recognised the wannabe demanding a professional reading on a manuscript he knew wanted re-drafting.

Whilst all new writers would love it if a professional writer would look over their manuscript, here are a few things to bear in mind:-

• Writers are busy: very few writers earn enough to live on by writing alone so are already writing around secondary jobs that pay the bills. Finding time to look at a manuscript, particularly if time is unpaid, is going to be hard.
• Approaching a busy writer at a festival or one of their own readings, signing or workshop is like approaching an actor who is in character and on set: the writer’s attention is on the task in hand and distractions are likely to be greeted abruptly.
• Being a successful writer won’t necessarily translate into being a successful teacher.
• Most writers have been approached by someone who thinks they’ve got a great idea. But great ideas are only ideas. A concept is worthless unless it’s written out on paper. Writers are too busy writing to bother talking about writing (unless they’re getting paid to do so). Set yourself a timetable, join a class and write. Otherwise the writer may take your concept and write their version of it (remember there’s no copyright on ideas).
• Most writers have experience of someone thrusting a wodge of paper in their direction and demanding an opinion on where to get it published. But writers need time to consider and respond otherwise you’ll get a deserved knee-jerk reaction that won’t be what you want to hear.

So how do you approach a writer?

• Research – check their blog/website and if it say they don’t read manuscripts, don’t bother them. You are not owed a living, you are not owed a reading.
• If you can’t find out whether or not they read manuscripts, track down some contact details.
• Query first: tell the writer why you like their work and are approaching them, ask if they can spare some time and include a couple of sample poems or the first 500 words of a story/novel and enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope if using the post. Writers like to be read: it’s the whole point of their existence after all. Writers also like proof you read because if you don’t, you’re not a writer and they are wasting their time.
• Wait. Understand you’re not a priority.
• Don’t send your manuscript unless asked. Meanwhile, work on it. Triple check spelling and grammar and present it professionally. Then start work on a new project.
• Remember to thank the writer for their time. You may need to ask them for a blurb later.

Personally I don’t think writers should pull the ladder up after them, but neither do I think newbies should assume they are owed a reading. Getting help from published writers – like getting published – is not a right.

Not all established writers got help when starting. Some did it the hard way: read, wrote, read more, joined a writers’ group, read, kept writing, submitted manuscripts to editors or literary agents, read, kept writing, collected rejection slips, kept writing, submitted new manuscripts, kept writing and worked their way up.

Why Writers need Best Readers

You’ve drafted your latest piece of writing, edited it, polished it, re-edited it and, several drafts and sleepless nights later, arrived at your final draft (for now).  It’s your latest masterpiece and it’s brilliant, best thing you’ve ever written.  You’ve got a market in mind for it that’s a dead cert for an acceptance… Now stop.  Don’t send it anywhere.

Before you submit it to an editor, you need your best reader, sometimes called trusted reader or beta reader, to read it and not just for proofing either.

What’s a Best Reader?

You may have more than one.  Essentially a best reader loves your work but isn’t blind to your faults and isn’t hesitant about pointing them out either.  A best reader will point out the flaws in your masterpiece and constructively make suggestions for improvements.  A best reader may also proof-read, but their primary job is to constructively comment on anything you write with the aim of making genuine improvements to it.  That is improvements the writing actually needs rather than improvements that pander to their own individual prejudices or tame your piece so it’s exactly the same as the last piece you wrote.  A best reader gives your work the final polish before an editor sees it and prevents you rushing off your latest magnum opus to certain rejection because you inadvertently overlooked the fatal flaw in the second stanza.  Sometimes you don’t get a second chance with an editor so the best reader’s comments are necessary. 

“The best reader is crazy about your work but doesn’t love all of it,” W H Auden

How to pick a Best Reader

A best reader is someone who:-

• can constructively criticise without making you feel an inch high,
• can tell you what they love about your work as well,
• you respect and trust,
• knows when to back off because you’re too tired, too involved, too caught up in the initial “hey, I’ve done it!” enthusiasm to listen,
• is supportive of your writing and wants you to succeed.

A best reader is not someone who:-

• unconditionally loves all your work, even pieces you know are flawed, and can only tell you what they love,
• can only tell you what’s wrong with your work and doesn’t care how you feel about what they’re saying,
• is a competitor and could be raising doubts to sabotage your submissions in favour of theirs,
• isn’t supportive of your writing,
• always finds the same flaws – either you’re not improving or the reader is looking for their own prejudices and not closely reading your writing.

Why you may need more than one Best Reader:-

• even Best Readers have prejudices – I have one who thinks my best poems are free verse therefore whenever I write a poem using a rhyming scheme, he dismisses it not because it’s a poor poem but because it rhymes,
• you may write in more than one genre so need a best reader who is specialist in the relevant genre,
• not all Best Readers can proof-read or correct grammar – and some writers are so keen on getting the story or poem on paper, the technical stuff can get in the way,
• your writing’s developed and your best reader hasn’t moved on with you,
• you know what your best reader is going to say about your writing before they’ve read it.

Having more than one Best Reader is an advantage: it enables you to grow and develop your writing, allows you to break free of genre straitjackets and challenges you to keep producing your best work instead of churning in the same old rut.

What if Best Readers are in Conflict?

You’ve shown your new piece to your partner, your favourite writers’ group, your on-line writing forum and a good friend.  Your partner’s usually good at homing in on the weaker parts, your writers’ group is good at constructively suggesting ways of making weaker parts stronger, your on-line writing forum good at listing your strengths and a good friend is a brilliant proof-reader.  But on this new piece, they’ve all got an opinion and all want you to re-write it differently.

• Make a list of their comments and group by elements, eg all comments on stanza one or all comments on character A,
• Look at each element and list the common themes, eg your writers’ group want to reorder line two so it rhymes with line four and your on-line writing forum want to rewrite it to rhyme with line one and your partner thinks it shouldn’t rhyme at all, then the common theme is that line two needs a rewrite,
• Ignore solo comments on one aspect unless it’s a grammar/typo, in which case, correct it.
• Re-read your piece and remember what you were aiming to achieve when writing it, eg “I wrote this poem to highlight this theme.”  Treat this as if it were a mission statement,
• Take the comments on each element in turn and circle the ones that comply with your mission statement, eg if comment 1 wants you to drop your main theme and promote a subtheme, ignore it.  If comment 2 wants you to promote your main theme and drop a subtheme, circle it.
• Now you have a clear plan of action for your rewrite (I’m afraid you can’t escape the rewrite; writing isn’t about getting ideas down on paper, it’s about getting the best words for those ideas in the best order and the real writing is in the rewrite).

How to Choose Poems to Read at a Poetry Reading

You’ve been invited to read your poems: fantastic.  Now ensure you get invited back… especially if you’re being paid to read. 

If you’re organising your own reading, the following tips are still worth bearing in mind.

Where is your poetry reading and who is your audience?

An open-microphone event in a bar will have a different audience to a poetry group meeting in a library.  An audience at a magazine launch will expect to hear the poems in the magazine.  A literature or local festival may have a theme to it.  Will your audience consist of casual readers or poetry readers, people expecting a performance or people more comfortable with a straightforward reading?

Find out as much about your audience as possible.  Also find out what the format of the reading is – just a reading of the poems you select or a reading with a question and answer session?  Will the audience be able to request you read a certain poem?

How long will your poetry reading be?

If it’s over half an hour allow ten minutes for introductions.  If it’s less than half an hour allow five minutes for introductions.  Of the time left after those five/ten minutes have been taken off, allow a minute for each poem or part of sequence that is 40 lines or less as a rough guide to how many poems you will be reading.

 As you select poems consider:-

• Is there a theme emerging and it is a theme appropriate to your audience – a younger audience in a bar is not likely to engage with family themed poems, a library-based group may not engage with your space opera sequence.  If you have been asked to read poems based around a theme, do accommodate the theme otherwise you may not be asked back.
• Lighten the load: put a humorous or light poem in amongst a run of more serious ones or vice versa.
• Think about introductions and spread the poems that require longer introductions amongst poems with shorter introductions. 
• As a general rule ensure your introduction is shorter than your poem.  Focus your introduction on giving the audience a handle on the poem rather than the poem’s form (unless the audience need to know the poem’s a sonnet so they get the joke).  If your audience is familiar with your poems, they won’t need much in the way of an introduction.
• Don’t say the poem’s title until you’re ready to read the actual poem.  If you say the title and then introduce the poem before reading it, your audience may think the introduction is part of the poem.
• Tempting though it is, don’t just read already published poems.  Include one or two that you feel are ready for an audience but are unpublished – your audience will appreciate an ‘exclusive’.
• Plan to end on a crowd-pleaser – a poem that goes down well at readings or a poem you’re particularly known for.  It may be tedious repeating a poem that audiences like but you’ve become bored of, but if you leave an appreciative audience wanting more, you’ll be invited back.
• Reading a sequence can be risky if the audience don’t like it.  Try mixing a sequence with other poems or only use a sequence if you’re sure you’ve got the right audience for it.  An audience made mainly of other poets is more likely to tolerate listening to a sequence they don’t like but can appreciate.  A casual audience will be less tolerant.
• If reading at an open microphone event or an event where you are one of a number of poets reading, remember that your audience will consist of others waiting their turn or rehearing their own reading so pick a variety of styles and poems that build towards a punch line rather than quieter poems that will fade quickly.  The more distractions available to your audience, the more compelling your poems and reading have to be.
• If there will be a question and answer session, include a couple of poems that may suggest questions later – such as a poem on a current news topic or a poem about a local person or place or a poem that asks questions.  You can kick off the question and answer session by referring back to it.

Rehearse your Poetry Reading

• First read through the poems and introductions to check your timing – aim to keep within the time rather than be spot on.  Do not run over: not only will you create headaches for the organisers who now have to work out how to keep everything running to time, you won’t be invited back.  Live literature event organisers do talk to each other and poets who gain reputations for being awkward will find that reading opportunities dry up.
• Get a feel for volume – not all venues provide microphones and you need to be heard by the back row.  One way of doing this is to put a tape recorder the distance of room away and tape yourself reading, checking that tape’s picked up your voice and how loud it is.  Then move further and further away from the tape until you’re two rooms away or the length of a small hall.  Get used to reading at that volume.
• Pace yourself – your voice needs to last for the whole reading.
• How comfortable are you with how you’re holding the poems as you read?  Some poets like to hold books or magazines and use numbered book marks.  Other poets prefer holding printed sheets, sometimes adding bullet points or keywords to prompt introductions.  Whichever feels more comfortable, check the poems are printed on matt paper so you’re not trying to squint through reflections from strip lighting as you read.  Bear in mind too that some venues will not offer a lectern or table for you to place books or paper on whilst reading so practice managing without.
• If you want to learn your poems off by heart, it’s still advisable to have a printed version handy.  Even experienced actors use a prompter and it’s reassuring for the audience too.
• If you’re reading your poems from your book or sheet, remember to look at the audience when introducing the poems.  The book or sheet can become a barrier so use eye contact to engage the audience between readings.
• Always signal your last poem.  It helps the audience and any master of ceremonies to know you’re coming to an end.
• Finish by saying “thank you”.  A reading is about your interaction with an audience, not you.

At the Poetry Reading Venue

You’re prepared, rehearsed, got your poems and reached the venue early.  If poetry reading organisers are truly organised you will have been given a name of the person who is responsible for meeting you and they will show you around and ensure you have what you need. 

If the poetry reading organisers are less organised, assess the actual room/bar/venue you’re reading in:-

• Are you expected to walk “on stage” from the audience or sit in a chair to the side of the stage until you read?  If the former, select a chair next to the aisle.
• Check your path to the stage is free of obstructions – tripping up is not a good way to start a reading.
• Is there a microphone?  If so, has it been switched on and can you do a brief rehearsal?
• Is there a hearing loop? If so use it.
• If you would like a table to put books/poems on, check there is one or improvise with a chair if not.
• Are the audience seated in rows or a horse-shoe shape around the stage?  If in rows, you simply stand at the front.  If a horse-shoe shape, draw an imaginary line between the two points at the ends of the crescent and stand in the middle of it.  If you stand forward of the imaginary line, some of the audience will be behind you and won’t hear you.  If you stand too far back, the audience in the curved section will struggle to hear you.
• Are there any traps that could interfere with the audience’s ability to hear you?  Heavily stocked bookshelves can sometimes create odd echoes.  Noisy air conditioning or heating units can provide distractions.  Low open windows can let in noise.  You may have to compensate for these.
• If you can, stand up to read.  You’ll find it easier to project your voice and the audience will be able to see you.  Avoid sitting behind a table – it might be easier for you but it’ll be harder to project your voice and the table creates a barrier between you and the audience making it harder to engage them.
• If you are one of several poets reading and a poet reading before you has overrun, don’t assume that you will be asked to shorten your reading.  The event organisers should have prevented the poet overrunning and/or should cut back on intervals and breaks to get things back on time and in any case good planning would have included some slack time to allow some flexibility.  You have prepared and rehearsed to the time you have been allocated: it is simply not fair for the organisers to ask you to make sudden last minute changes to accommodate someone else’s overrun and take away a fair distribution of time for every poet reading.  You have been professional and it is reasonable to expect the organisers to be equally professional.

Quick Tips on choosing Poems for a Poetry Reading

• Know the time you have been allocated to read and ensure you keep within it.
• Select poems appropriate to your audience.
• Keep introductions brief and vary poems that need a long introduction with poems that have a shorter introduction.
• Rehearse.
• Ensure you can hold your poems without needing a table to put them on and that the poems are on matt paper so you won’t be squinting through light reflections.
• Use variety: vary the pace and tone of poems.
• If you can, stand up to read and remove any distractions or barriers between you and the audience or compensate if it’s not possible to remove them.
• Rehearse
• Behave professionally and you’ll be invited to further poetry readings.

How Not to use a Press Release

How did a press release titled “Promiscuous men more likely to rape” become a news story, “Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped”?

According to the Daily Telegraph, women who are dressed provocatively, are flirtatious and drunk or a combination of any are more likely to be raped.  Yet the research actually showed that how women dressed and behaved had no statistically significant effect and men were actually more likely to coerce sober women into sex.

Moreover, Sophia Shaw, an MSc student at Leicester University, was surprised to be referred to as an expert scientist in the Daily Telegraph.  The research was towards her dissertation.  She complained to the paper that their version placed all the blame on women which was definitely not her intention at all.

The real story is that 101 men aged between 18 and 70 were asked how they would respond in various scenarios with a woman, varying how the woman was dressed, how sober she was, how assertive she was and how many sexual partners she had had.  The results found that men with more sexual experience were more likely to coerce a woman into sex.  The findings were discussed at an academic conference, where it was clear the research was not finished and the findings were very preliminary.

There are also flaws, which both the Daily Telegraph and the original press release fail to mention, chiefly that 101 men of such a broad age range is a very small, unrepresentative sample.  The survey relied on the men’s replies only and people, especially when surveyed about their love lives, tend to be economical with the truth.  The survey did not take into account that the men may have behaved differently when playing the same scenarios whilst under the influence of drink.

The survey is valid as initial research which indicates further areas to study.  But why did the British Psychological Society see fit to turn unpublished, unfinished research into a press release?  Following up the story, Ben Goldacre, had to personally phone the student because he couldn’t read the research for himself.

There are two major fails here.  Firstly the British Psychological Society should not be issuing press releases of initial research.  Secondly, journalists should not be twisting any such press release into a story that fits their own agenda, especially when that agenda seeks to lay all the blame for rape with women.

Shouldn’t Writers be Creative about Bad Reviews?

Once upon a time Richard Ford picked up a pistol and shot a book by a reviewer, Alice Hoffman, who’d been lukewarm about “The Sportswriter”.

Fast forward 23 years to 2009 and Alice Hoffman tweets another critic’s email and phone number urging fans to give that critic their views on snarky reviews, accusing the critic of being a “moron”.

Within days Alain de Botton posts a comment on Caleb Crain’s blog, “I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make.”  A comment more suited to the playground than someone who turns 40 in December.

He also commented, “You have killed my book in the United States, nothing short of that.  So that’s two years of work down the drain in one miserable 900 word review.”  Really?  Even the New York Times has that much influence?

Apparently Alain de Botton didn’t expect his comments to reach a “large audience”.  “I think a writer should respond to a critic within a relatively private arena.  I don’t believe in writing letters to the newspaper.  I do believe in writing, on occasion, to the critics directly.  I used to believe that posting a message on a writer’s website counted as part of this semi-private communication.”

In other words the writer doesn’t regret what he said, just that it reached a larger audience than he intended.  Anyone following the row over MPs expenses in the UK would find that position eerily familiar: MPs were only too quick to suggest that claims for luxury items were within the rules with the implication that their only regret was to be found out because they hadn’t expected the electorate to react so negatively.

The most disappointing this about both responses is their lack of creatively.  Writers are creative.  At least they are if they are any good as writers.  Imagine if Richard Ford’s wife had videoed him shooting Alice Hoffman’s book and posted on somewhere like YouTube.  Wouldn’t that have gone viral and attracted a greater audience than the original review?  Far better than resorting to playground insults.

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Resources for Writers

Having now written several articles on getting poems published, common faults in short stories, vanity presses, choosing writers’s groups, creative writing courses, etc, I’ve created a Resources for Writers page which lists all writing tips and advice articles with links to make them easier to find.

Please leave a comment if there’s a subject you’d like to see covered or an article I’ve not listed that you would like to see listed.

Oxford Professor of Poetry

It’s a nice job: half a dozen lectures over a couple of years and it’s just been awarded to Ruth Padel, first woman to hold the post.  Coming soon after news of Carol Ann Duffy’s appointment as Poet Laureate, is 2009 a good year for women in poetry? 

Sadly, all isn’t quite as it seems.  Three poets were nominated for the Oxford Professor of Poetry, Derek Walcott, Ruth Padel and Arvind Mehrotra.  However, a dossier containing a alleged sexual harassment complaint made against Derek Walcott in 1982 was distributed amongst eligible voters.  Derek Walcott decided to withdraw.  I don’t know what was in the dossier but discussion on the complaint suggests that a student recorded a personal experience in a poem and Derek Walcott was asking her about how she’d described the situation.  The student become uncomfortable.  Derek Walcott’s choice of words to a naive student who hadn’t realised that once you write and share a poem about a personal experience, it ceases to be personal and becomes a shared, public poem and how you express that experience is important.

Despite Derek Walcott’s withdrawal, Oxford refused to extend the vote deadline or allow an alternative nomination.  Ruth Padel and Arvind Mehrotra did not step down.  There was no suggestion that either poet was involved in the dossier.  It has since been revealed that the distributor was John Walsh, Ruth Padel’s former lover.

Does it matter?  Outside the hallowed halls of academia, not much.  However, Oxford students have learnt that it doesn’t matter about the standard of your writing or your poetic talent, after all Derek Walcott is a Nobel Prize-winner; just how much influence you have.  Does that matter?  I’d suggest it does.

Update: Ruth Padel has since resigned as Oxford Professor of Poetry.