Books
New poem
‘A bird i catch || to eat’
Second prize in the Mslexia Poetry Contest,
Read it in the print version of
Mslexia, no.93.
‘Language flies around the page … and
finally lands as a small bird.’
— Judge Pascale Petit
On Instagram
Wonderful launch of Kakanui artist Peter Cleverley’s exhibition, Zeitgeist, at the Forrester Gallery in Oamaru this evening. Early paintings I hadn’t seen, and glorious new work. A must-see. @pipc9 @oasisoamaru @malpixo @southerncrossforge @smith_and_peony @heather_machin #nzart #nzartist #oamaru #tourismwaitaki
Field work: typing some notes about horse behaviour in a paddock at Springbank Farm, Palmerston, for my upcoming creative-critical PhD. My supervisor is a bay gelding called Matthew. #phd #amwriting #horses #palmerston #otago @malpixo @lizziesheat @sophiepoetry @uealdc @livandthemoon @ohomatopoeia @andreahollandpoet @uealdc
The photo of a tweet here is a great start to 2023 - Ellora Sutton is the most exciting poet I have read in the last 12 months, so my tenuous and undeserved mention is pleasing. But a terrible year for geopolitics, yeah, which my poetic practice has yet to reflect. Must it do so? I am still processing my own micro/macro deaths and lives, the world has to enter through that lens, that is the reality.
In terms of that fraught word 'outcomes': So, runner-up in a national UK poetry contest, the Mslexia, @mslexia for 'A bird i catch || to eat,' informed by a dear Filipina friend. Good to share the £500 prize money with her. My poem ‘Chickadee’ in a dream publication, @bathmagg. Longlisted fiction and poetry in the @thedillydounreview contest, @retreatwest, the Letter Review. An MA with Distinction in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia @uealdc and now I am about to start a creative-critical PhD there part-time, supervised by the incredible @sophiepoetry . A pamphlet/chapbook, 'a voiding / A VOIDING', coming out with Muscaliet Press UK this year.
Conversations with wonderful poets including @bebravemycaptain and @expressing_through_salummy.
Then on NYE, a chance encounter in my remote base of Kakanui with Kerry Donovan Brown, an extraordinary young writer, whose book Lamplighter @wellington_uni is a must-read. To talk craftwork with them in the house of late friend Dave Neilson, as the sun set over the river valley - and on 2022 - seemed fitting.
Thanks also to Loss Adjustment publisher @ethosbooks for opportunities to engage on mental health issues across a wide social spectrum, from wonderful readers of the book, to corporates including Paramount Films and Nomura financial services.
Reviews coming out in 23 in the Uk & NZ of Sign Language for the Death of Reason.
Of course, I still feel a failure. #lossadjustment
Our late daughter Victoria McLeod would have turned 26 today, Dec 27. She loved flowers, especially pastel and lavender hues. Thanks Jess Murray and Laura McKnight @smith_and_peony for these Kakanui blooms; and to UK poet @bebravemycaptain for the beautiful kingfisher card. The tablecloth and table are from Vic's late grandmother, Sheila McLeod. RIP dear souls. The other photo is Vic at 15. @malpixo @shazzm #suicideprevention #lossadjustment #signlanguageforthedeathofreason #poetry
Double delight in the inbox: I've been longlisted for the Retreat West flash fiction contest in the UK; and was also highly commended in the Letter Review Poetry Contest in Oz.
The contests aren't that well-known but the cash prizes are good and so they get flooded with entries.
I am super-pleased about the longlisting as I struggle with flash fiction.
My longlisted flash piece was first workshopped online as a poem titled Beach pick-up with a writers group I belong to in Singapore. You know who you are, and thanks! I sat on the helpful feedback for a long time, then two months ago it hit me this was a feeling in the moment linear narrative and would be better in the form of ff.
The piece now goes forward to the shortlisting which will be decided in January. However, the subject matter is risky - gender, race, cultural stereotyping, and sex - so I am not holding out much hope. #poetry #flashfiction #hybridwriting @bebravemycaptain @expressing_through_salummy @malpixo @eneidaescribe @alaa.khaldun @kashmatt9 @sarahhudadiaries
Dave Nielson,social justice advocate, neo-marxism lecturer, and all round decent person had the most interesting mind of anyone I have read met. This is a good tribute (below, in link, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand) to a remarkable person whom I was lucky enough to know through his visits with family to my base in Kakanui.
He died suddenly the week I got back to NZ.
Christmas won't be the same without his generous nature, deep conversations about the state of humanity, and lethal top-spin serve on the tennis court.
Condolences to @melissahackell , his children, and friends who miss him dearly. @malpixo @smith_and_peony #socialjusticewarrior #unionmovement #socialism @universityofwaikatotauranga
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-opinion/media/2022/farewell-to-change-maker-dr-david-nielson?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=feed&utm_content=2023_david_nielson_death_facebook&utm_campaign=2021_organic_content&fbclid=IwAR15JGXQyCSFOJ5xUd7qv9DF9_aNcshtCKyKndU6BZ3oXdxWbpMg3YbCENo
Orifical email came today: passed a Masters in Creative Writing (Poetry) with Distinction at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Thanks to friends poets readers husband novelists teachers professors casual acquaintances spoken-word-slot-givers publishers journal editors journal-interns the newspaper & drink-buying strangers who supported me. Love you all. #poetry #Signlanguageforthedeathofreason #LossAdjustment #norwich @sophiepoetry @uealdc @vivkemp @bebravemycaptain @thebookhive @ethosbooks @nzsocietyofauthors @thesocietyofauthors @thepoetrysociety @patrickwiddess @eneidaescribe
Happy birthday to dear friend Shirley. Us with Hannah and Thelma one summer. #horses #poetry #prosepoems
I made the longlist of The Dillydoun Review fiction contest in the US! And I am more of a poet and nonfiction writer. !!?
My story, Whales in Brooklyn, was written in January this year and was first workshopped at the UK's National Centre for Writing with Ian Nettleton.
After that, I was awarded a StartWrite mentorship with the New Zealand Society of Authors, and received the guidance of the incomparable Michelle Elvy (judge of numerous contests including Bath Fiction in 2016; and who has a Singapore connection, teaching at La Salle).
A thank you also to Singapore short story writer @bubblevicious who gave a short story workshop through #singlit two years ago and who put me on this road. @thedillydounreview @nzsocietyofauthors @writerscentre @malpixo @devotionworkshop @uealdc #fiction #fictioncommunity https://thedillydounreview.com/
Visiting your university where you did your first Creative Writing MA five years ago and seeing a book of yours on the bookshop shelf as you have a thank-you coffee with your tutor #dreamscometrue
Sign Language for the Death of Reason in all its pink and blue. A strange feeling of, me and my daughter Victoria did that?! At the aptly named @vicbooks . @victoriauniversitywellington , and its International Institute of Modern Letters. #poetry And also my #memoir #LossAdjustment published in NZ by @awapress
At last, after 18 months, a decent coffee. Wellington, NZ.
Beyond thrilled with this wonderful review (link below) of Sign Language for the Death of Reason by Jasmine Goh in the latest issue of QLRS (Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore). Grateful to be thoroughly read by this reviewer, and their honouring of Victoria. #poetry Buy it in Norwich, UK, @thebookhive, in Singapore @kinokuniya_singapore, in New Zealand @timarubooksellers, or PM me. Thanks @QLRS @yongshuhoong @uealdc @bebravemycaptain @nzpoetrysociety - and thanks to @ethosbooks for #lossadjustment
http://www.qlrs.com/critique.asp?id=1761&fbclid=IwAR2ItxlEox7F9wlKx86PCjaYJAt7xvAkH5jDMh2Zgtnha3PtTuVZtvqOoD8
Grateful to be on this global mental health panel on inclusivity for Paramount Pictures. Thanks to wonderful moderator @sylvesterchauke & amazing speakers @hauwa_ojeifo & Rob Stephenson of @formscore.today #LossAdjustment Thanks to Singapore publisher @ethosbooks for making a difference. #mentalhealth #suicideprevention @paramountpics @paramountnetworkasia #PleaseStay.movement
Had an amazing chat with Chuck Myong, Nomura co-head of global markets sales at Asia ex-Japan, about mental health in the workplace, my journey of grief, and writing Loss Adjustment, for World Mental Health Day. The event in Singapore was livestreamed to regional employees. Kudos to Nomura for furthering the conversation on mental health and for creating a safe space to do so. Thanks to Chuck for moderating the discussion with such heartfelt warmth. @ethosbooks #nomurasingapore #nomura #worldmentalhealthday #worldmentalhealthday2022 #mentalhealth #samaritansofsingapore #lossadjustment #nonfiction
Burmese poet Ko Ko Thett becomes a human scroll during our performance at a collaborative event celebrating the Japanese UK Poetry Exchange (JUPE) at the National Writers Centre. I read my tanka sequence, Forging, off the scroll, & he then sat on the stage & nailed it with I don’t want to be a Samurai.
Other poets included UEA poetry professor Tiffany Atkinson and lit critic Jeremy Noel-Todd, & stunning Japanese poets Fukudapero & Kyoko Yoshida. Organiser: poet, avant-grade artist & Euro Poetry Festival founder Steven J. Fowler. #poetry #tanka #flowerslikebluegrass @fukudapero @colinjherd @jntod @writerscentre @thettsusan @uealdc @stevenjfowler
I'm in this on Friday with Burmese poet Ko Ko Thett. It's a UK-Japan collaboration in Norwich at the National Writers Centre. Just found out that fellow readers include my UEA MA poetry professors Tiffany Atkinson and Jeremy Noel-Todd. #no pressure. Arghh. Luckily Ko is published by the same Singapore publisher as me, @ethosbooks, & is very chill. I'm reading a new tenka sequence about a know-maker & Ko responds with his poem, I don't want to be a samurai. @writerscentre #poetry @uealdc
If you are in Norwich, UK, and seek amusement this afternoon, shelter from muggy weather, or urgent info on the end of the world, pop by Oxfam. #poetry
Saying goodbye to fellow MA Poetry students Salma Yusuf @expressing_through_salummy of Kenya, and Olivia Tuck @bebravemycaptain of Swindon, with a picnic in the park. We hand in our dissertations by Sep 1. #norwich #poetry
Happy to say that I've got a poem, 'chickadee', in the next issue of bath magg (described by The Writers' Compass as home to the UK's best new writing).
bath magg!!
Thanks, you amazing editorial team of Issue 10.
The online launch on Sept 1, 7pm British Summer Time (Singapore, sept 2 2am; NZ, 6am sept 2).
Hear poets in the issue including Chen Chen, (yes!) and 19-year-old rising star, Eric Yip of Hongkong.
And fellow Poetry MA scholar @wordsbyperla is in there, too! Super-pleased for Perla.
@bebravemycaptain @uealdc @thepoetrysociety @thebookhive @thesocietyofauthors @nzsocietyofauthors
#poetry #norwich #LossAdjustment
Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bath-magg-issue-10-launch-tickets-401516997147?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb
Made it to the top of Dorset’s highest point today,279m Lewesdon Hill. Magnificent beech trees give shade all the way on a hot summer’s day. It was once an lron Age fort and was the site of one of the Armada beacons in 1588.
I love Thomas Hardy country. #wessex #farfromthemaddingcrowd #poetry #dorset