Poem of the Week: Dylan Thomas ‘In My Craft or Sullen Art’

Kindle Is the Only Fruit

Andrew Oldham, Director of Incwriters, has started a debate on his own website that we wish to highlight. It is the backlash that has come from Jeanette Winterson’s ill conceived comment on The Review Show on BBC2 on last Friday night. Join the debate here.

The Rules

In primary school, creative writing had two rules. Firstly, our stories were simply not allowed to end with the dreaded “…and then she woke up.” Secondly, you were only reading someone’s work properly if you could “read between the lines”. At eight years old, I found both ideas unsettling, but stuck to them religiously. At [...]

The Unknown Space

At the moment I am very preoccupied with ‘process.’ I am clear that it is most probably because I have spent the majority of the year writing my first full collection. Process is an integral part of writing and of life. There is a process to everything and it begins with the unknown.  It is [...]

Patience, Patience

As someone who’s been at both ends of the editorial process at flipped eye, having released two collections of poetry before being taken on as an editor, I’ve learnt that patience is the greatest virtue in our game. I’ve known how it feels to be on the verge of releasing that first collection, the insatiable [...]

Poem of the Week: Robert Graves ‘Man in the Mirror’

Why I Write Poetry

Sometimes I wonder to myself why it is that I write poetry. I mean I’ve made more money from a single song I released than I’ve made during 15 years of actively writing poetry. But yet I pursue writing poetry over prose, theatre and music. I can only guess that poetry allows me to open [...]

And, Chapters 17-24

“It was too hot. She was struck by an unusual heaving. A sense of irritation gathered round the doors and windows. Margaret reached the small side-entrance. The porter’s answer to the bell. The keen sharp pressure of the knife. She went across and up. Click of machinery.” Continuing the abridged version of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North [...]

Shape of a Story

I am working on ‘Family’, a short story from my collection set in Cuba. My mind is casting about for how to give this story shape. I feel as if I have forgotten where stories come from, looking at long-forgotten books on how to be a writer, picking up short stories I loved and modelled [...]

Me? Busy?

I came across Joey Roth’s poster a few days ago via one of the blogs I subscribe to (Swiss Miss, avid reader here), and it’s stuck in my mind ever since as an excellent graphic representation of the “say vs do” scale. As the managing editor of a website and mailing list that were dedicated [...]