Welcome to Leicester, a poem by Ambrose Musiyiwa

Welcome to Leicester
this city,
a place of exits
and arrivals,
welcomes you
as you leave


Note
This poem was first published in the poetry anthology Welcome to Leicester that Ambrose Musiyiwa co-edited with Emma Lee, published by Dahlia Publishing in 2016. Taking inspiration from the city of Leicester, the anthology brings together poems which celebrate the city. Like a much-loved family member, Leicester’s faults are acknowledged but tempered with a great deal of affection. As one of the most plural and diverse cities in the world, this book explores the story of the city, as it is seen through the eyes of the people who know it best.See http://www.dahliapublishing.co.uk/2016/09/welcome-to-leicester/. You can also read reviews of the anthology on Everybody's Reviewing here and here. 

Ambrose Musiyiwa is the author of the poetry pamphlet, The Gospel According to Bobba. His poems have been featured in poetry anthologies that include Over Land, Over Sea: Poems for Those Seeking Refuge (Five Leaves Publications, 2015), Do Something (Factor Fiction, 2016), and Write to be Counted (The Book Mill, 2017).

Two Poems from "The Book of Smaller," by rob mclennan

Photo by Matthew Holmes

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2017. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. His most recent titles include the poetry collection A perimeter (New Star Books, 2016), and the forthcoming How the alphabet was made (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) and Household items (Salmon Poetry, 2018). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Christine McNair), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He is “Interviews Editor” at Queen Mob’s Teahouse, a former contributor to the Ploughshares blog, editor of my (small press) writing day, and an editor/managing editor of many gendered mothers. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com. Here are two poems by him:


from The Book of Smaller


The book of smaller

Everything had to be broken. First, snow-people duel with hair dryers. East through the mouth. I am windowless. Echo. Repeat. The children, asleep. I’ve stew in the slow cooker. Focus now on what crumbles. Aleppo. You are history. It is painful to be so dismissed. A conversation on beauty. The fresh breath of airports, unsealed. The connection one has with the body. Look east, and kneel. The girls are still missing. What doesn’t, instead. I hate this. Boil down into nothing. Mother-of-pearl. The smallest space I can fathom.


Forty-seventh birthday

Along the horizon, a hole opens. How does the line move? The sentence? A jet-liner, manifest. To fence in a heartbeat. To barricade. What does lava protect? What is hidden. A history of volcanos on Mars. They accumulate. Swim so far upstream. Galloping. I would stroll home in the pitch. A hummingbird touches her hair. I would stumble. They banter, they bicker, they argue. Such dark is impossible. I want to surpass myself: sleep.

Two Poems by Melissa Studdard

Melissa Studdard’s books include the poetry collection I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and the novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. A short film of the title poem from I Ate the Cosmos for was an official selection for the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. Other poems of hers have been made into car magnets, telepoem booth recordings, and Houston City Banners. Her writings have appeared in a wide range of publications, such as The Guardian, Poets & Writers, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, and Psychology Today. She is the executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, president of the women's caucus for Associated Writing Programs, and an editor for American Microreviews and Interviews. These two poems, both based on the myth of Icarus, have never been paired before, as “You Were a Bird; You Are the Sea” was collected in I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, while “Stomp the Ground” was written later and appeared in Southern Humanities Review.

Stomp the Ground

So Daedalus turned his mind to subtle craft,

An unknown art that seemed to outwit nature:

He placed a row of feathers in neat orders

—Ovid

If they tell you build it,

stomp the ground, dancer,

stomp the ground.

And swirl, you,

like wine in a gyrating glass,

while clasping Ariadne’s

hand, holding life close,

and inventing honey

beneath your tongue.

And if they tell you

come now, trail string

through whorls of memory

to find your way out,

back in again,

and around,

charming ants

into choreography

behind you,

across dance floors

and over the membranes

of time. Nautilus,

spirula,

unicursal man,

with a seashell to one ear

and the other to the ground,

listen when they say

stay there,

and fly, you,

dreamer, round

the tower

of mind.

And spin, you,

forever

deeper

into that device,

ignoring the feathers

that brush your windows,

and the winds  

that call you

to distant flight. 

Stay you, father,

until your son learns how to fly.

You Were a Bird; You Are the Sea

—inspired by the John Sokol painting, Icarus Practicing

Stretch them wide

as God’s first breath.

From tip to tip

there is no time.

Just the rumbling

of a tune

in your makeshift

beak, and bright

sky galloping

through the hollow

of bone. Bucket

of air, spine built

from light, boy

full of flutters

and drafts—you

speak mountain

stream, laurel leaf,

rolling cloud—

the dialect of flight.

The world drifts

like a madness

inside you—earth, 

trees, and birds,

feathers, wings,

and night, the start

and end of time

rowing through

blood’s currents,

sailing inside

the freedom

of mind,

now split open

by a whirlwind

of koan, pushed

like air through

sky’s vast lung.

When I go,

let me go

like you, Icarus,

past my own

limits before

I fall. Let me

be a flesh-toned

streak in the sky,

a flash in the blue,

a sunburst

of wonder

rejoining

the ripples

of sea.

Interviews with Writers

MA Creative Writing students Lee Wright and Sandra Pollock have recently been interviewing well-known writers about their work. The interviews, which have been published on Everybody's Reviewing, afford fascinating insights into writers' processes, inspirations, research and experiences. The interviews are part of Everybody's Reviewing ongoing series, and represent an excellent resource for students, writers and readers alike. Below are links to some of them:

Interview with Alison Moore
Interview with Rob Palk
Interview with Hannah Vincent
Interview with Kerry Hadley-Pryce
Interview with Matthew Broughton
Interview with Tony Williams
Interview with Hannah Stevens
Interview with Ray Connolly
Interview with Rod Duncan
Interview with Jonathan Bate
Interview with Siobhan Logan
Interview with Lyndon Mallet

There are other, earlier interviews with writers and artists on the site as well. These include:

Interview with Kim Slater
Interview with Helene Cardona
Interview with Melissa Studdard 
Interview with Natalie Beech
Interview with Jess Green
Interview with Shaindel Beers
Interview with Kershia Field
Interview with Dan Wallbank
Interview with Alex Bliss
Interview with Jonathan Taylor
Interview with Darius Degher
Interview with Robert Richardson
Interview with Karen Stevens

Two Poems by Lauren Foster

Lauren Foster is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester. Her work has appeared in The New Luciad and other anthologies, and she has performed her work at poetry events such as Word! and Lyric Lounge. 

Of You, with Flowers

Of you, with flowers
in your hands

scabious, harebell, gypsy rose
campion, burnet, Bradda weed.

You skip down Micklow Lane
alone, even then,

in meadows
or observing tadpoles

in the glassy water
of the spring fed 

limestone trough
next to the barn 

where you found
the dead sheep,

birthing no joy 
for this ewe.

Chubby, glasses,
friends few

but you knew 
all the names

of the flowers
back then.

Wednesday

Pass the Clock Tower 
to hip hop rap 
about how we know.   
Someone offers the Big Issue: 
decline, walk on.  
Clarinet soars 
over squawk of traffic.  
Not quite blue skies 
speak of things to come.  
In a shop window: 
everything must go.

So You Want to Self-Publish?

By Alicia Christina Saccoh

I am a self-published author. 

I won’t tell you how that came about, because it’s a very long and dramatic story. Kind of like a superhero origin story, except both of my parents are alive, my first love has not betrayed me, and my superpower is making characters kiss—as opposed to super-strength or whatever.

What I will tell you is what it means to self-publish. This isn’t a how-to guide or anything like that; I just want to share the basics of this lesser-known career path. 

So, first things first: what am I actually publishing?

I write romance novels. Of course, romance is a vast genre that includes countless sub-genres and niches—but I won’t go into that, because you either know already or couldn’t care less. 

The important part here is the practical connection between my work’s genre and my actual job. See, when you’re self-published, you’re not just responsible for writing down whatever story is camping out in your head.

You’re also responsible for all the things a traditional publisher would take care of, such as covers, editing, marketing and promotion, distribution, pricing, and so on. 

You have to be a businessperson as well as a writer, from watching the chequebook to deciding if your story is even worth being published.

That’s right. Self-publishing means rejecting yourself.

It also means learning your market. To self-publish successfully, you must know your genre and ideal audience inside out. You must learn which reviewers your readers trust, what kind of cover catches their eye, and how many lines of promotional text they can read before getting bored. 

You have to know which semantic fields elicit an emotional response in your readers, and which bore or even disgust them. 

Will your reader come over all hot and bothered at the phrase ‘dirty, dominant and demanding’—or will it remind them of the over-familiar creep at their local coffee shop who doesn’t understand the word ‘no’? 

Somehow, you have to figure out the answer to that question. If you don’t, no-one will read your books. And if you don’t receive regular praise and attention, you will shrivel up and die. 

(Only joking. But you will shrivel up and die without food, which costs money, so if you’re interested in self-publishing, pay attention).

As well as marketing, self-published authors handle the technical side of production. I publish my books digitally, via a single store. That keeps things simple; I don’t have to worry about physical copies, or about dealing with multiple websites. 

But I do have to format my books, and use the appropriate metadata, and all that rubbish. I am not a technical sort of person, and that’s putting things mildly. 

For example, I only recently found out that the ‘.doc’ or ‘.jpeg’ written after a file name affects the kind of file it is. Or shows what kind of file it is. Or something. 

Whatever. I never claimed to be an expert.

Despite my ignorance, I get by—because I know what I need to know. And with a career like self-publishing, that is the ultimate key.

Know what you need to know.

Self-publishing demands a diverse range of abilities. A self-published author must be a writer, editor, designer, marketer, publicist, accountant and businessperson all at once. For those of us who enjoy a challenge, that’s fantastic—but it’s still hard. 

So knowing exactly what you need to know—and therefore, what you needn’t bother with—is vital. In fact, you’re interested in self-publishing, that should be your starting point.

That’s right: I wrote a blog post on self-publishing, just to conclude with the fact that you guys need to research self-publishing.

I may be a professional author, but trolling is my passion. 



About the author
Alicia Christina Saccoh is a final year student at the University of Leicester. She is a full-time romance novelist, writing under a pseudonym, as well as a beauty blogger, social media influencer, and public speaker.

3 Guest Speakers in Week 3

By Charis Buckingham

Leicester University welcomed three guest speakers this week to discuss various applications of Creating Writing: journalism, authorship and publishing.

On Monday, we heard from campaigning journalist Emma Howard. A previous graduate of the university, Emma has worked for The Guardian and currently writes for Unearthed, an investigative news platform launched by Greenpeace. Emma directed her talk primarily to those considering journalism, with the aim of providing information she wished she’d known. Topics ranging from on-the-desk stresses, her goal as a journalist and how influential the media can be; she held nothing back. She discussed not only her successes, but her mistakes along the way. It was open, honest, and utterly compelling.

On Tuesday, novelist Mahsuda Snaith gave a guest talk and reading. Mahsuda is a Leicester-based author, whose debut novel, The Things We Thought We Knew, was published in June 2017. She discussed her writing processes, her experience with editors, and, excitingly, read from her novel. Her advice was fascinating – she highlighted the importance of feedback, both online and from writers’ clubs, the necessity of being critical of your work, and assorted editing tips. For anyone looking to write or complete a novel, this talk was a must-see.

Cecilia Bennett from Sweet Cherry Publishing provided a very different insight into the creative world. Rather than being a writer herself, she edits others' books; and as Managing Editor of the company, she helps to decide which books are selected to be published. Much of the talk, therefore, focused on what Sweet Cherry Publishing looks for in books, the roles of the different publishing departments, and the things that authors should think about before submitting their work. Cecilia Bennett did a fantastic job of addressing the many different aspects and stages of publishing, and her passion for working with authors and putting their work into the world really shone through. The talk was a fitting end to a superb week. 


About the writer
Charis Buckingham is an aspiring novelist, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.