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Three HappenStance publications, The Under-ripe Banana (Janet Loverseed), Rebuilding a Number 39 (Marilyn Ricci) and Nearly the Happy Hour (D A Prince) are reviewed in depth by Parameter Magazine's editor, Tom Jenks here. Reviews are behind the bright blue button on the home page.
Patricia Ace (author of First Blood, HappenStance 2006) has won third prize in the 5th Mslexia Annual Poetry Competition for her poem 'Ruby Turning Thirteen'.
Judge Carol Ann Duffy says, "[the poem] wears the skills of its construction lightly, while presenting us with a mother/daughter relationship, on the point of change, of aching beauty. As the mother of a 12-year-old girl myself, I was astonished at the effortless truthfulness and warmth of the portrait of the child in this poem. And what a great ear for contemporary speech this writer has!"
Gill McEvoy, whose chapbook collection Uncertain Days is published by HappenStance, has been appointed Artistic Director for the Chester Literature Festival's weekend of celebration of the Spoken Word, Oct. 18th-19th 2008.
Andrew Philip, whose chapbook collection Tonguefire is published by HappenStance, will have his first full length collection published by Salt. More from the Salt website.
HappenStance poets at the Troubadour
Nine HappenStance poets will read in the famous Troubadour basement (www.troubadour.co.uk), London's liveliest & best-loved poetry venue, on Monday May 26th from 8 to 10pm.
The reading is one of a series organised by Ann-Marie Fyfe of Coffee-House Poetry, and you can contact her on CoffPoetry@aol.com for more information or to book tickets (£6; £5 concessions). The line up for the evening is: Tom Duddy, Martin Cook, Rob A Mackenzie, Eleanor Livingstone, Gregory Leadbetter, Michael Mackmin, D A Prince, Andrew Philip and HappenStance publisher Helena Nelson.
30/04/08
First full-length collection from HappenStance
Up to now, HappenStance has been primarily a poetry chapbook publisher. D.A. Prince's Nearly the Happy Hour is the first full-length collection to break the mould and burst into book form. So this is a debut for both poet and publisher. For further details, click here...
The National Library of Scotland has announced the shortlist for the 2008 Callum Macdonald Memorial Award (CMMA) for poetry pamphlet publishing in Scotland. The short listed entries are:
- If Ah Could Talk Tae The Artists by Hugh Bryden, published in Dumfries by Roncadora Press.
- Treeds by Laureen Johnson, published in Edinburgh by Hansel Cooperative Press.
- One Light Burning by Donny O’Rourke, published in Glasgow by Bonny Day Books.
- The Currying Shop by Hazel Cameron, published in Yorkshire by Imago Media.
- The Oboist’s Bedside Book by Margaret Christie, published in Glenrothes by Happenstance .
- Edinburgh Poems by Duncan Glen, published in Kirkcaldy by Akros Publications
The winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the National Library of Scotland’s Causewayside building on Wednesday 7 May at 6pm, when all the entries will be on display.
Mimesis e-chapbook competition
To celebrate the launch of Mimesis's new website (www.mimesispoetry.com), there is a miniature electronic chapbook competition. Details are as follows:
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A maximum of 15 poems or (reasonably sized) pages, whichever is shorter. Minimum of 10. (Contents pages etc don't count towards this number).
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Entries should be in PDF format. If pressed, .DOC accepted as well.
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You're invited to lay out your chapbook however you choose. Be creative! You can include illustrations, formatting -- anything you like, really.
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Material previously published in journals is acceptable. Poems must not have appeared in books or pamphlets, however (except anthologies).
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Entries should be emailed to chapbooks@mimesispoetry.com by midnight GMT on 30th of June 2008.
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Entries will be judged by all the Mimesis staff: James Midgley, Janna Layton, Mark Yoxon, Weihui Lu and Todd Swift.
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The best entrant will receive a three-issue subscription to Mimesis. The best five will be published online on the Mimesis site, and extracts will be published in the journal itself (of which the poets will naturally receive contributors copies).
The Scotsman has published this exceptionally enthusiastic review by Robert Nye of Cliff Ashby's A Few Late Flowers:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Poetry-Beauty-in-a-rare.3877533.jp
Matt Merritt collection released
Matt Merritt, author of the HappenStance pamphlet Making the Most of the Light, has just published his first full collection with Arrowhead Press.
Troy Town is a beautiful hardback book, only £8.99 post-free direct from Arrowhead and a joy to read.
These are thoughtful, musical, carefully balanced poems which hang around in your head long after you think you've done with them.
Merritt is the man to take on holiday with you and read over and over. A must for birders, or anyone who goes for "a perfect twist of song and air".
Rob A Mackenzie runner-up in NGS competition
Rob A Mackenzie (author of The Clown of Natural Sorrow) was runner up in this year's National Galleries of Scotland competition.
His poem was inspired by this photograph, a section of an crumbling, ancient Roman theatre in which a metalworker has set up a workshop - http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/17127?initial=M&artistId=5781&artistName=Robert%20Macpherson&submit=1
Susie Maguire has been named as judge of this year's HappenStance short story competition, which is now open for entry.
Susie is the author of short story collections, The Short Hello (2000) and Furthemore (2005), and editor of four story anthologies including Little Black Dress (2006). More than twenty of Susie's stories have been broadcast on Radio Scotland and Radio 4. A former actor and comedy performer, she lives in Edinburgh.
The Story competition returns after a very successful first year in 2006, the winners of which can be read in the chapbook anthology Story. Entries of up to 2,500 words are invited, there is no set theme, and the three winners receive cash prizes and publication. More details here.
HappenStance poets scoop BBC awards
BBC Wildlife Magazine has announced the winners of its 2007 wildlife poetry competition, with HappenStance poet Matt Merritt named as Runner-up and Gill McEvoy receiving a Commendation.
Matt's chapbook 'Making the Most of the Light' was published by Happenstance in 2005, and Gill's 'Uncertain Days' in 2006.
Rob A McKenzie's 'The Clown of Natural Sorrow' has been warmly reviewed in the quarterly poetry, short fiction, art and review magazine Ambit.
Jim Burns says:
'I’ll always think of his poem, ‘The Man Who Filled Cans in the Fruit Cocktail Factory’, each time I open a can, and I open them regularly. The poem makes the ordinary seem strange. And ‘The Haunting’ manages to be eerie within a framework that sounds very contemporary and understandable. The ending turns the terror back on the narrator.
Mackenzie can also write effectively about social matters, as in ‘Taxi’, where some unspoken racism is noted and, perhaps, almost accepted out of a need not to rock the boat... It’s gritty stuff and elsewhere the narrator in the poems doesn’t mind admitting that he’s downed eight bottles of lager or that he’s curious about the babysitter’s breasts. These are honest poems with a humane touch that takes them beyond their surface familiarities. A small book but it’s consistently interesting.'
Become a HappenStance subscriber
Pay £7.50 and get Chapter 2 of the HappenStance Story plus one other publication (you choose) free. This will help the whole operation keep going. But what are the benefits to you? We'll send you
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advance notice of each new publication, by post or by email with at least one sample extract;
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warm and appreciative invitations to launches;
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15% off the cover price of each publication;
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the chance to pre-order a signed copy of new publications;
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a chapter of The HappenStance Story each year;
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one free copy per year of a HappenStance chapbook (Book-length collections excluded from this offer though eligible for subscriber discount later) ;
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courteous and (I hope) helpful feedback on your own work if submitted (though chances of publication remain exactly the same as everybody else’s).
Subscribe through the HappenStance shop here
Gill McEvoy's 'Uncertain Days' gets a mention in the latest Poetry Book Society bulletin
"We also enjoyed the poems in Gill McEvoy's Uncertain Days. Here are poems that address death, illness and fear in a manner that is touching and understated. McEvoy creates suggestive, skilful constructions that seem deceptively effortless. In 'Locked Away', a woman wheels a body "from which the you is gone" into the mist where, likewise, "the garden's locked away". And when she turns his coat on Bonfire Night, a wayward button works lose and comes to rest at her foot "begging for amnesty". With admirably calm truthfulness, 'Diagnosis' portrays the horror of the movement when awful news has been relayed, "the air goes on waiting, stupidly/ no one can rescue it."
Patricia Ace competition success
Patricia Ace was placed second in the Perth 'The Word's Out' competition 2006. There's a lovely picture of her, and also her commended poem on the website at: