Year in Review 2023

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).

(Photo: Guy Towlson)

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.