Recently got back from seeing a friend who’s currently living near Marseille, and sunburn aside, it was a lovely trip. Lovely because I got to spend lots of time in near thirty degree C weather while it apparently poured it down here in Sheffield, and because the trip became a celebratory one in that I received my provisional degree result the day before I left, which was a first. Lots of time spent relaxing on Marseille’s beaches, then, and wandering around Aix-en-Provence, sitting in the parks and drinking in the evenings.
Back in Blighty now, and the weather leaves a lot to be desired, but my day was brightened this morning when I opened my inbox to find that the editors of the excellent little magazine Brittle Star are accepting a poem of mine, ‘Mowing’, for Issue 17. It’s due out in Summer/Autumn, and I’m especially chuffed in that the magazine is wonderfully produced, and has featured many emerging poets whose work I enjoy. And in other news, the latest issue of the University of Sheffield’s e-journal, Route 57, is up online, and features a variety of literary and creative writing from School of English students, including a couple of poems of mine (only one up currently, the second should be online soon), and a short essay on Holocaust testimony, ‘Memory Drifts and Misremembrances: The Value of Holocaust Testimony’, which I wrote last year. Right, anyway, that’s quite enough of blowing my own trumpet, I’m off to continue reading Mick Imlah’s brilliant collection Birthmarks, which by the way I highly recommend, especially the opening poem, ‘Tusking’.
