NORMAL TOWN POET
Ever felt down in the dumps? That the world not recognising your talents..that fame will always elude you? Fear not Mark Z and crew have the perfect solutionJUST ASK META!You will be surprised what comes back…. Shaun Belcher Poet? Shaun Belcher is indeed a poet, but I couldn’t find much information about him. Can you…
Poems written in London and Oxfordshire. Published in early 1990s in Last Gasp pamphlets. Last Gasp was a poetry open mic I helped run with poets Giles Goodland and Bridget Kursheed in Oxford. From 1986 I was heavily influenced by Raymond Carver and especially his book FIRES. Indeed I attended his memorial readings event in…
My first ever short story. Originally published online January 2015 as part of a failed M.A. in Creative Writing at NTU that I walked away from. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw…
In 1986 or thereabout I bought the Carver stories above from a shop in Plymouth whilst visiting my sister. It was the start of my obsession with all things ‘Americana’. I moved on via Granta’s Dirty Realism collection to a whole series of American authors including Lorrie Moore, Bobbie Anne Mason and then backwards towards…
The self-portrait and the state official version.. http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/study-sessions-women-writers-us-south The first session in Nottingham Contemporary’s season of Southern Writers organised by Graham Caveney was excellent and not only was it a pleasure listening to Richard H. King speak about Southern Writing but there was the added pleasure of meeting the crime novelist John Harvey and his…
My favourite Carver photo on Russian River 1972 As I mentioned in last post the last three years have been difficult…that an understatement. After my Fine Art M.A. I tried to disengage with art school research and politics and reset my compass entirely to reconnect with my writing past. I was lucky enough to be…
Part of my new found ‘freedom’ is the ability to find bargains ( both cost me 50p which at 25p each makes it the cheapest pair of books I bought all week) and secondly having the time to actually read the damn things… So not only are they like buses but I have read both…
OK so this is news that stays news as they say… In 1963-4 Raymond Carver left the Iowa Writers Workshop..he drove to Sacramento. I have just metaphorically done the same only I don’t have a car and cannot drive (his was a battered Chevrolet not a Cadillac by the way). I hinted at this news in…
My first ever short story. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw hand. Across the river the lights of the car factory flickered and bounced in the water and she finally let go….
My poetry bookshelves..about half the collection built up over 25 years…. I am really struggling with the simplest thing. The first assignment for Creative Writing M.A. is straightforward enough : Identify one writer whose work has been in some way influential to the development of your own creative writing practice. Discuss one or…