I have two launch events coming up for my new pamphlet, The Professor of Transformation:
Online – Thursday 28th May, 7pm, jointly with poet Hilary Menos, hosted by New Walk Editions.
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eBz7YjsFSKyqHPz8Uc6R4A
In person – Thursday 4th June, 7pm, at Holy Trinity Church, Skipton. No need to book, please come along!
Copies of my pamphlet are now available to buy at https://newwalkmagazine.bigcartel.com/
I’m delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of my poetry pamphlet, The Professor of Transformation, with New Walk Editions. I’ve been delighted to work with Rory Waterman on the edits, and it is now near the end of the journey. Here is the beautiful cover, designed by Alix Dreiling. There will be an online launch on 28 May – I’ll post details nearer the time.
I’ll be reading from the pamphlet at the University of Leeds Poetry’s Environments Conference in June, so if you’re coming, I’ll see you there!
In the meantime, my travel memoir, Heligoland, has been touring North and West Yorkshire, with a lovely launch at Qworkery co-working space in Skipton and a reading at the friendly Rhubarb at the Triangle poetry night in Shipley, where I did a joint prose and poetry performance. It has been wonderful to share my work at live events.
I’ve had a thoughtful review of Heligoland by Hannah Stone in the current issue of Dream Catcher magazine, which also has a few of my poems. Hannah also reviews Kristina Diprose’s new pamphlet, Thin Spells, published by Black Cat, which I can also highly recommend.
My involvement last year in the wonderful Leeds Song Poets & Composers Forum had another lease of life recently, as I was invited to join a group of past poet participants to join a panel discussion on Chapel FM. I enjoyed reliving that unique experience, and hearing recordings of some of those magnificent performances played again.
I hope you are all enjoying spring, and poetry.
I am thrilled to announce that my travel/nature memoir, Heligoland, is finally published! It is now a small, beautifully designed book, published by Muscaliet Press, who have incredible design, typesetting and editorial standards which makes the book a real thrill to hold. You can buy it here . I am very proud that this project has made it into the world, ten years after the first version was runner-up in the New Welsh Writing Awards for nature writing.
I’m also very pleased to have three poems in Issue 51 of Dream Catcher magazine this month. It feels like a welcome from the Leeds-based publisher, Stairwell Books, to my new home. In this bumper issue there’s work from local poets I know, including Kristina Diprose, Tom Ratcliffe and Lauren K. Nixon, and other names from further afield, as well as a searching interview by Hannah Stone with Ralph Dartford. I am looking forward to diving in. You can buy a copy or subscribe here.
I’m very proud to have been shortlisted this year for the Northern Debut Award for Poetry by New Writing North, judged by Kathleen Jamie and Alycia Pirmohamed. You can read about the winners here – many congratulations to them all.
Since my last post, my poem ‘City of God’ has been published in Gutter magazine, a journal of Scottish and international writing which was new to me – poetry, non-fiction, short stories and reviews, which is well worth checking out. I’m also pleased to have ‘Take the collared dove’ published in Atrium, and you can read it here. I am somewhat tickled to note that the poem has also been picked up by a subreddit, ‘Stupid dove nests‘ (which has a fantastic collection of photos of dove nests in extraordinary places) and also turned into a prompt exercise by Leanne Hunt.
I hope you are all enjoying the summer.
I had the privilege of taking part in this wonderful event as part of Leeds Song (formerly Leeds Lieder Festival) earlier this month. In a previous post I described how the poets and composers were matched together and then set out to collaborate on creating 10 new songs celebrating the people of Leeds.
I found the collaboration process very stimulating and I clicked immediately with my allocated composer, Lottie Sadd. We met up for a couple of coffees in Leeds in December and talked over our ideas. I chose as the subject of my poem the first female Master Tailor, Kathryn Sargent and was getting rather excited over my research into the history of the textile and tailoring industry in Leeds. Lottie was interested in the relationship between the words ‘text’ and ‘textile’ and we discussed the possibility of representing the weaving process in the poem/song. Lottie also introduced me to the concept of text scores, ways of representing music on paper that don’t involve conventional classical notation.
I wrote the first couple of drafts of the poem over the Christmas break and sent them to Lottie. I was open to making changes but she was fine with the poem as it was, and it was a thrill to receive from her a sound clip of the song in process!
In the New Year we were matched with our talented young performers, soprano Katja Maderer and pianist Amadeus Wiesensee, based in Munich, and had a short Zoom meet up just before the song was finished. Katja and Amadeus were to travel to Leeds as part of the Leeds Song Young Artists’ Programme and our event was just one in an extremely busy week for them of workshops, masterclasses and performances.
On 8th and 9th April we had two days of workshopping and rehearsing the songs. Each song was worked on for 45 minutes, usually starting with a run through from the performers and then comments and questions, and sometimes changes or clarifications. At this point the process was mainly composer/performer led although the poets had the opportunity to input as well. It was an incredible moment to hear our song performed for the first time. I was so pleased by the result – Lottie’s skilful progression of movement towards the climax of the poem, the way she subtly incorporated the melody of the work song, ‘Factory Girl’, and Katja and Amadeus’ sensitive interpretation. It was also fascinating to see how the young musicians tackled these newly commissioned pieces, and the range of musical styles and moods. The two days culminated in a showcase performance at the Clothworkers Hall at the University of Leeds campus.
The performance was live-streamed and you can watch the recording on Youtube at the link below. Mine and Lottie’s song starts at 1:03:16.
You can also download the full programme and full song texts and notes below:
I will be spending some time soon replaying the event which seemed to go so fast as it was happening, and enjoying the incredible talent on display. I will also be keeping an eye on the careers of my amazing collaborators, and hope to do more cross-discipline work in the future.
It’s been a year of getting my bearings in a very different physical environment, here in North Yorkshire, from my time in the fens and flatlands of East Anglia. Geology, contours, industrial heritage, weather – it all feels as though I might need a different poetic approach to place, to match the different location.
I’ve been getting to know the local poetry community, in particular at the poetry nights More Song in Bradford (experimental, cool, full of surprises) and Rhubarb at the Triangle in Shipley (friendly, fun, and sometimes has cake).
I was very proud to have a poem, “Showing her round your old school playing fields” published in The Rialto, as well as “Inspector Vortex” in The Interpreter’s House. I also have two more poems accepted for publication in 2025, which is great to look forward to.
A highlight of the year has been my involvement in the Leeds Lieder Poets and Composers Forum, which I’ve written more about in my previous post. I’ve since met up with my matched composer, Lottie Sadd, and had some fascinating conversations about textiles and text scores. I’ve now written a first draft of the commissioned poem and am excited for what the collaboration brings about. More on this in the New Year.
I wish everyone a peaceful and creative 2025.
I am very excited to be on the Poets and Composers Forum for the Leeds Lieder Festival 2025. Ten up and coming composers and ten local poets are being paired together to create poems set to music, celebrating the people of Leeds. These new pieces, composed for performance by single voice and piano, will be performed in April at the festival.
On Saturday 16th November we experienced the first stage of the project, bringing together the composers and poets to be ‘speed dated’ with each other at Leeds University Music Department. Ably conducted by poet Hannah Stone and Professor of Music and Aesthetics Martin Iddon we took turns to introduce ourselves and briefly share some of our work. It was fascinating to hear the varied styles and approaches of the composers. We were encouraged to take notes and consider which we thought would be a suitable match for our own work. The next stage was a mingle and chat over a buffet lunch to find out if any vital spark was ready to ignite! We all had to make a list of our top three choices and hand them in for Hannah and Martin to match us up. It was a very difficult decision to narrow my selection to three, but helped by the fact that I’d have been happy to work with any of the talented composers I’d been chatting to.
Of course, we were all successfully partnered off (phew!) and I was thrilled to be matched with experimental composer and pianist Lottie Sadd. As I think my poetry is moving into a more experimental stage we both felt our styles would work well together.
Next, writing the poem! I hope to be meeting up with Lottie soon in Leeds for coffee and a chat and start to put my ideas together.
The finished poems will be performed at the Leeds Lieder Festival on Wednesday 9th April 2025. Do come along for a unique interdisciplinary feast of poetry and music!
https://leedslieder.org.uk/whats-on/composers-poets-forum-showcase-a-leeds-songbook/
It’s New Year, and time for another annual review. A lot has been going on in 2023.
I have finally finished my move up north, and I am now the proud owner of a house in Skipton, North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Yorkshire dales. I am enjoying the combination of living in a lovely market town and having the moors on my doorstep.
Looking back at 2023, my main achievements were moving house (twice, which is excessive even for me) getting the new placed fettled up, and settling into the friendly local community. I also ran my first half marathon, the Great North Run, raising money for the MPS Society (which is also by day job, though usually from my laptop).
In the final year of my Visiting Fellowship at the University of Essex, I took part in LGBTQ History month, contributing a blog post and giving a virtual poetry reading. I was also delighted to be invited back as a featured poet to Fen Speak, recently celebrating its 10th birthday! It was wonderful to see old friends again and share my work, a mixture of poetry and readings from my forthcoming memoir, Heligoland.
I had two poems published in Issue 10 of The Alchemy Spoon, for which I was also the featured poet. It’s a lovely magazine, with not only poems but interviews, reviews and critical essays. Here’s a recording of me reading and talking about my poems, ‘Herring girls’ and ‘News’.
I was very proud to have a poem in bath magg, ‘Application for the Post of Professor of Transformation, which you can read (and listen to) here, and am also thrilled to have my poem, ‘Showing her round your old school playing field’ forthcoming in The Rialto.
As for 2024, predictions are always risky. I’m hoping for the publication of Heligoland, the development of my poetry pamphlet, and perhaps a new creative project. For anyone reading, I hope all your creative plans come to fruition in the coming year.
2023 finds me in the beautiful town of Skipton in North Yorkshire, which I now call home.
I’m delighted to announce that my travel memoir, Heligoland, will be published by Muscaliet Press later this year. An early version of my literary investigation into these tiny islands with a dramatic history won second prize in the WWF Cymru People and Planet New Welsh Writing Awards in 2015, and has been extensively rewritten before being published in its entirety for the first time. I’m very proud of the result.
Watch this space.
Heligoland in 2014 (Elaine Ewart)
An extraordinary amount has happened since I last blogged here, and somehow, the longer the gap, the harder it is to return. So, I’m easing myself in with a couple of snippets from recent months, rather than attempting to catch up all at once. I hope to come back a bit more frequently with other things I’ve been working on.
A couple of my writing highlights of 2020, in a difficult year, was having my poems “Reading Room” published by The Interpreter’s House and “Oerol 2” by Arc Poetry Magazine.
A great consolation during lockdown has been working on my allotment near my new home in Colchester. It’s been a time to be patient, plant seeds and wait for them to grow…
Hoping you are all well and safe in these challenging times.
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