Gosh, it's been a busy time at Poetry on Loan since our new period started on 11th April.
The poetry competition has been launched. It's free to enter, for anyone living, working or studying in the West Midlands, and there are good prizes - including one for someone who has never won a poetry competition or had a poem published before. Why not give it a try? You can find full details here.
Commissions have gone out for the poems for our poetry postcards, and the final eight have been selected - a tough choice! They will soon be with our designer, Gregory Fisk, and in a couple of months will, like magic, become postcards of great beauty. I don't know how Greg makes this transformation, but he always does.
Events have taken place - workshops for young people and for those a little older, community poems, more workshops...
And we have recruited my replacement as Co-ordinator. Actually, two replacements.- the best application we had was a joint one from Emma Purshouse and Steve Pottinger. Emma and Steve are already well known, as fine poets, to Poetry on Loan audiences, and their experience in running events and managing spreadsheets (and poets) means that they are ideally suited to the job. It's going to be a gradual handover, and I won't have to be dragged away until October. Now all I have to do is write a manual giving details of everything that I do...
One thing I try to do is read a poetry book now and then. Most recently, I've been reading Instructions for outlaws, by Ash Dickinson. Ash's poems are always full of imagination and humour, and his latest collection is no exception. Highly recommended!
What have you been reading?