A few new arrivals from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social, that I've been meaning to read for a while: Megan Pattie's Bertha Comes Down, Steve Ely @steveeely.bsky.social and Michael Faint's @ansolasoir.com Orasaigh, and Ricky Momahan Brown's @rickyballboy.bsky.social Drawer of Letters.

Bought a present for myself this week: The Poems of Sylvia Plath from @faberbooks.bsky.social. It is massive!

I read the translated edition of Julijana Velichkovska's collection of prose poems, Reißverschluss, from Struga Poetry Evenings recently. I particularly enjoyed the section 'unfairy tales', feminist rewritings of stories like the little mermaid & Cinderella. Great to hear her read at the event too!

Thanks very much to Andrew Duncan for this review of my debut @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social poetry collection New Famous Phrases in Litter Magazine! 'He is what you would call a formalist – the leading features are intelligence and creativity'. Link to the full review below.

I read two translated books of poetry on the journey back from the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival. Gaia Giovagnoli's witchy Babajaga poems have a nicely realised creepy atmosphere. Alen Bešić's poems feature precise character sketches of artistically disaffected men.

My subscriber copy of The Poetry Review from the @poetrysociety.org.uk has arrived. Particularly looking forward to reading the conversation between Major Jackson and Nick Makoha, two poets whose work I admire. I was fortunate to hear Major Jackson read at Newcastle Uni a few years ago.

Me and twin in Macedonia.

A reading from New Famous Phrases outside the historic St. Mary Peribleptos church in Ohrid. I've never needed sunglasses for a poetry reading before! I've never even needed sunglasses in Newcastle before!

Pictured with Pàdraig MacAoidh, the Makar of Scotland. Peter has thought really deeply about languages, their survival, interactions, and translation and it was a joy to hear him read. He is also a really amusing, great guy! I'll be seeking out more of his poems to read.

Fantastic to share a stage with the President of Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, this week for a televised reading from New Famous Phrases. Great to see poetry being given such a high profile platform and national attention in Macedonia.

Reading and discussing New Famous Phrases at Europe House in Struga with Gorjan Kostovski who translated the book into Macedonian.

Back from the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival after receiving the UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award for best debut poetry collection for my @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social book New Famous Phrases, & having a new Macedonian language edition of the book published. Lots more pictures incoming!

Thanks to Asymptote Journal for this article on my @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social collection New Famous Phrases winning the UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award for a debut collection. Looking forward to attending the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival!

Thrilled to announce that I have won the UNESCO international Bridges of Struga Award for a debut poetry book from Struga Poetry Evenings for my collection New Famous Phrases published by @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social. Thanks so much to all of the judges for their kind words about the book!

Really enjoyed attending a poetry reading by John Challis & Linda Anderson this week at the @litandphil.bsky.social, reading from new books published by @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social & @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social. I'm a big fan of John's work, so have been really looking forward to his new collection!

A new arrival today from the Poetry Book Society, Martina Evans's Drunken Driving, published by @carcanet.bsky.social.

There is also an interview about my poetry collection forthcoming in the next @tedhughessociety.bsky.social issue of Ted Hughes Studies. This is something of a dream come true for me, as I devoured all the issues of the journal when I was writing my undergraduate disseration on Ted Hughes!

Delighted to have 3 poems from my debut @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social collection in the latest issue of Recklings, the @tedhughessociety.bsky.social publication. Alongside the poems there are explanations of how Ted Hughes has influenced and inspired my poetry.

Bought a new copy of Ted Hughes's Difficulties of a Bridegroom as my old copy from my student days was ex-library and in pretty poor condition. One of my favourite short story collections! The structure of this book is really important to any understanding of Hughes's goddess quest.

Thanks very much to Confluence Magazine for this lovely review of my debut @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social poetry collection New Famous Phrases. Link to the full review below.

I read Ted Hughes's Meet My Folks for the first time in April. Interesting to see how early he established himself as a children's author. I particularly enjoyed the last poem 'My Own True Family' which, like much of his work, has a characteristically strong ecological theme.

Delighted to have my poem Acedia published in this magazine. Love the cute sloth illustration too!

I attended Max Porter's @englishpen.bsky.social lecture this week. Given the experimental forms of his books it was no surprise it was delivered in poetic style with musical accompaniment! @newwritingnorth.bsky.social @nclanews.bsky.social @pretitaneja.bsky.social @dnlgorman.bsky.social

Had no idea this new Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath was on the way. Exciting news!

Finished reading Max Porter's Shy. I think this is Porter's best book yet. The narrative is really propulsive and compelling and he seems completely at ease in the form he uses to tell it. Just Lanny still to read!

Read The Death of Francis Bacon yesterday. I don't know very much about Francis Bacon, so am probably not the most insightful commentator! But you can see how Porter's writing has developed, there is a greater level of complexity here and the text leans more towards a modernist style.

Reread Max Porter's Grief Is the Thing with Feathers today. I think the most impressive achievement of this book is structural - sustaining a clear narrative in a poetic form like this can be challenging. The voice of The Boys is where the book shines most for me.

I've been reading/rereading Max Porter's books in preparation for attending his upcoming PEN lecture at Newcastle University. Really looking forward to the event! @newcastleuni.bsky.social @englishpen.bsky.social @newwritingnorth.bsky.social @nclanews.bsky.social

I read Ted Hughes's How the Whale Became and Other Stories for the first time this week. They are very much in the vein of Aesop's Fables and Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, animal stories with depth. There are some continuities with the creation stories in Crow too.

I read The Iron Woman this week, the sequel to The Iron Man. I don't think I had read this before; I certainly knew the plot, but likely from researching my Undergraduate dissertation on Ted Hughes. It is more of a novella than the 1st & strongly foregrounds the ecological themes.