In reviewing myself, as well as reading many other reviews (mostly online), I have many dull opinions on how book reviews should be undertaken, including the following points, which are too often neglected:
Reviews
There are 49 posts filed in Reviews ( this is page 5 of 7).
Review of Christopher Salvesen’s Crossing the Border
I have noticed that my review of Christopher Salvesen’s pamphlet, Crossing the Border, is now up on Sphinx. The other reviews by Kirsten Irvine — does Nell Nelson mean Kirsten Irving? — and Matt Merritt are good too. It was a hard pamphlet to write about in a small space. I have also noticed how great it is to see a review of mine alongside reviews by such good poets (assuming it is Kirsten Irving).
‘All the Rooms of Uncle’s Head’ by Tony Williams
John Kinsella’s ‘Armour’ & Scale
I was lucky enough to be sent John Kinsella’s Armour by Mark Antony Owen, back when the kerfuffle over the TS Eliot Prize still seemed like it might be something important. It has been reviewed quite comprehensively (see links at the bottom of this post), but I wanted to use it to put down some thoughts about scale, within the space of a poem & within the space of the collection. I fear that much of this is going to seem negative, when I think Kinsella to be a very talented & thoughtful poet, & Armour is an accomplished & rewarding collection. Nevertheless, it provides some interesting examples for language, metaphor, & the space of the collection.
Review of Megan Fernandes’ Organ Speech
Sarah Dawson’s ‘Anatomically Incorrect Sketches of Marine Animals’: Review, & Some Notes on Poetry on Kindle
Sarah Dawson / Anatomically Incorrect Sketches of Marine Animals
£1.14 / Self-published on Amazon
Matt Kirkham’s ‘Aged Fourteen My Grandfather Runs Away To Sea’: A Brief Review
Matt Kirkham / Aged Fourteen My Grandfather Runs Away To Sea
Anon Issue 8: Brief Notes
The first & most remarkable thing about the eighth issue of Anon, the “anonymous submissions magazine”, is how much is packed into such a little magazine. (It is smaller than A5.) Poetry readers are accustomed to white space, as such is poetry’s luxury. But the ninety-six pages of Anon 8 are positively crammed, with fifty poems & three articles, & the generosity is invigorating. It is extraordinary value for money in a poetry magazine, even before considering the high quality of said poems & articles. & they are all very good, making the volume of material almost overwhelming.
(The only names I recognised were Caroline Crew & Jane Commane, but I suppose that’s part of the point. Although, admittedly, my knowledge of poets is patchy at best.)
The magazine is ideally suited for reading in fits & bursts — it will fit in your pocket — as reading it from cover-to-cover, as I’ve done more than once, can be a bit dizzying. I wonder a little about this scattered cacophony, especially as it seems some poets have multiple poems together, whilst others have theirs split up. Other than a cluster of items about Middle Eastern poetry & translation in the middle, the logic of the magazine’s order isn’t necessarily clear. Not that there need to be any obvious order, of course, but I have a feeling that the magazine’s move towards loose themes in future issues will improve it further still, assuming that it can attract enough on-topic submissions of the same impeccable standard. Based on issue eight, I can’t see any reason why this won’t be the case.
I was going to write down some ideas about anonymous submission, but these articles on the Anon website do a much better job than I could.