New audio poems - octopuses, insects and John Clare!

It's been a week of audio poems for me this week - first, I was a guest on the octopus-themed episode of Radio 3's The Verb last Friday, where I had the enormous thrill of reading four poems inspired by Peter Godfrey-Smith's book, 'Other Minds: The Octopus and The Evolution of Intelligent life - in front of Peter himself! I have been told I don't come across as a completely hysterical fan girl, but you can judge for yourself, it's a really fun programme hosted brilliantly, as ever, by Ian McMillan, and with the excellent Kate Fox and Matthew Welton. There was a lot of giggling, something very necessary right now. You can listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k3dl

And from octopuses to insects...I love being asked/commissioned to write new work, especially when it's inspired by something completely unknown to me. I didn't know the poet John Clare's work at all, so really enjoyed it when I was given free rein to respond to his poems with my own poem for the new Thunder Mutters podcast. I discovered John and I share a fascination for insects; I have a poem in my collection about the fire ant. So I decided to talk to John about it... through poetry.

"Dear John...
I am interested
in your choice of insect
names: tiny
loiterers, happy units.."

It's at 10 mins 28s but do listen to the whole, magical Thunder Mutters podcast!

Octopuses on The Verb

I'm a guest on this week's thrilling octopus-themed The Verb on Radio 3, reading some of my new octopus poems - from my collection-in progress, 'Still Life With Octopus' -  inspired by Peter Godfrey-Smith's book, 'Other Minds: Octopuses and the Evolution of Intelligent Life' - and chatting with Peter himself, as well as the fantastic Kate Fox and Matthew Welton! You can listen to the programme here

Who will call me beloved - Radio 4

The day has arrived! The arts documentary that Faith Lawrence and I have made about me being writer-in-residence in a cemetery and contemplating the language of memorials and how I - as a single woman with no children - might want to be remembered, will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 4pm, and will be available online after that: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b4r1

If you're outside the UK the programme is going out on the World Service on Friday Nov 15th, in their Heart and Soul slot! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct03by

I'd love to hear what you think - I've never done anything like this before! The Radio Times has it as a featured selection, in which they call me "something that baffles much of society: the deliberately single woman ", and a review on New Statesman said I sound "unpompous" and "untortured", all of which makes me laugh!

There's No-One In the Lab But Mice - On Radio 4 again!

BBC Radio 4 just re-broadcast my short story from last year, There's No-One In the Lab But Mice (produced by the excellent Sweet Talk Productions) in which I imagine what might happen when all scientists go on strike... And they allowed me to read it myself, for the first time! It's now available on iPlayer for those of you in the right regions to get that sort of thing - until Oct 22nd.

"Truth" & Science on The Verb

I was one of the guests on the wonderful Radio 3 programme about language and literature, The Verb, which aired last night - they commissioned me to write a new story using "found scientific language" to fit with the programme's theme of "truth" - alongside Simon Armitage on truth and poetry, Jude Rogers on truth and pop music (there's a Spandau Ballet theme!) and Richard Gameson on truth and medieval scribes! You can listen to us discussing it all here - it's available til May 20th, I believe!

New Science-Inspired Story on Radio 4 This Sunday

It's been one of the greatest thrills of my writing life, having my short stories read on the radio. This is how it all started for me, my first "published" short story was actually a broadcast, in 2003, on the Afternoon Reading on Radio 4. There have been quite a few more since then, and I have written especially for radio a number of times - and now I have a brand new story on Radio 4 this Sunday night, Aug 28th, which for the first time they have allowed me to read! It's produced by the excellent Jeremy Osborne for Sweet Talk Productions. It's called "There's No-One In The Lab But Mice", and you can hear it live at 7.45pm and it will be available on Listen Again for 28 days after that, I believe. I hope you enjoy it, I had a lot of fun writing it!

Some soundcloud recordings...

I do love reading my own work, and have recently discovered the delights of SoundCloud, where you can upload recordings... I've just added 3 new ones, including two poems that have just been published in Shearsman magazine, here they are below, in case you fancy a quick listen, and my SoundCloud Page has a load more!

The Verb - Tonight!

I'm delighted to be one of the guests on tonight's episode of The Verb - Radio 3's Cabaret of the Word! They phoned on Monday and asked whether I could write  a piece of flash fiction inspired by... gasometers! No, I didn't know what they were either.

I wrote it on Tuesday, read it to them on Wednesday, and yesterday went along to the BBC and recorded the program. We had such a laugh! The other guests on the program are Boo Hewerdine, who wrote a song inspired by Susannah Hislop's gorgeous book on the constellations, which Susannah read from, and Chris Prendergast and Paul Georgiou, co-authors of a wonderful grammatical adventure story! It's on BBC Radio 3 tonight at 10pm and then available as a podcast... As the host, Ian McMillan says, it may be a world first for gasometer-inspired-flash fiction ... !

Yes It's All Me Me Me... new poem & new short story

Sorry for the trumpet-blowing, but here it
is - first, I have a new poem in Issue 6, published today, of the delightful Poems in Which, entitled Poem in Which I Learn That Some People Are Better At This Than I Am. It is entirely autobiographical! Check out the whole issue, it's wonderful. 

I also have a new SoundCloud page where you can listen to me reading some of my stories & poems. Any requests?

Talking of listening, this Friday, Dec 5th, I am thrilled to have a brand new short story on BBC Radio 4, About Time - which may or may not be a time-travel-themed romp, but will be read deliciously straight into your ear by the wonderful Stephen Hogan! I went to hear him record it, and he utterly captured the voice I had heard in my head as I wrote it. This is the joy of radio - your characters, who've been rattling around only in your own brain, are suddenly alive and out there, because you can hear them! I hope you like it. Do check out the other two stories on the theme of Slow Rides in Fast Machines, by the amazing Adam Marek and Toby Litt, very different takes! In a thrilling development, all the stories are now available for 30 days after broadcast, thank you BBC.

I will be available to answer technical questions on time travel after the broadcast, should you have any. My pleasure. (Or before the broadcast, of course, if you've already got the hang of it.)

The Verb - Tonight!

The episode of Radio 3's The Verb that was recorded at the BBC's Freethinking Festival last Saturday night - and on which I am reading two brand new flash stories on the subject of editing - will be broadcast on Radio 3 tonight, at 10pm UK time. It will also be available online through the iPlayer for 7 days afterwards. I think it was a fantastic programme - with poets Don Paterson and Tony Harrison, Granta editor Laura Barber, and music from The Lakeside Poets! Do tune in, let me know whether my "editing" stories chime with your experiences ;) More information here.

On BBC Radio Bristol!

I was interviewed by the delightful Steve Yabsley - a fellow short story writer, it turns out! - on his show on BBC Radio Bristol yesterday. You can Listen Again to us chatting about short stories and me reading two from my collection on the show for another 6 days, til Friday 21st, here. I arrive 32 minutes in. Thanks to Steve for having me!

Higgs Bosons, The Verb, and ShortStoryVille

It's been a very busy week - a wonderful event at the West Meon Festival on Sunday, talking short stories with Zoe Fairbairns, whose excellent new book, Write Short Stories and Get Them Published, is now available. Then Monday, interviewed on the Love & Science show on BCFM (see previous post).

Then a call, on Monday, from Radio 3's The Verb. Would I be able to write a Higgs-boson and quantum-physics inspired flash story by Wednesday morning to read and chat about on this week's show? Would I? Oh yes! I did, (and the very tight deadline definitely brought out something new, something I'd never done before) and then yesterday morning at the BBC here in Bristol I was recorded reading it and chatting to the fantastic host of the show, Ian McMillan, about physics & fiction, flash fiction and the wonderful words of science. It will be broadcast tomorrow night, Friday 13th, at 10pm UK time, and should be available as a podcast for 7 days after that. Find out more here>> 


As well as all that excitement, Tues and Wednesday I was running two school writing workshops at Fairfield High School in honour of ShortStoryVille, which is Bristol's short story festival, taking place here this Saturday, at Arnolfini! The first event, at 12pm, will be me introducing some of the Fairfield pupils reading their stories, I can't wait! Here, to whet our appetite, is the ShortStoryVille trailer, made by my partner, James, and his team:





The events of the day include discussions about Angela Carter's short stories, about digital publishing and readings from several of Bloomsbury's newly-published short story authors - as well, of course, as the awarding, in the evening, of the Bristol Short Story Prize! Find out how to book tickets here.

Hope to see you there. And for me, next week is looking, well, a little quieter... but then again, who knows what might come up?!

Love & Science

Just a quick note to say that I will be live on the Love & Science show on BCFM Bristol Community radio 93.2fm this evening, 5-6pm, talking about science... and fiction etc...and perhaps reading one of the fictions from my new book. You can listen online too.

I am really looking forward to meeting the host, Malcolm Love, and my fellow guest, Tim Kindberg, who sounds really fascinating! Should be available as a podcast afterwards, I will post the link here.

Addendum: Podcast here. It was a very interesting hour, I thought!

First acceptance of 2011

I had one day in December when I got 4 rejections in 24 hours. That wasn't much fun. I can handle them one by one, but that was a bit like being whacked... and then whacked again, and again! Well, 2011 is off to a better start with the first acceptance, sneaking in just before January ended: my poem, Moss, will be published in the next issue of Alba: A Journal of Short Poetry. So, my 5th published poem, what does this mean?

I've been reading the excellent Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry and feeling very inspired about poems that look a little like prose but aren't. Then J and I went to the TS Eliot prize shortlistees reading and I was blown away by Simon Armitage's odd and darkly humourous pieces from Seeing Stars, and Sam Willett's poems from New Light for the Old Dark (neither of whom, sadly, won). And then I bought Jo Shapcott's Costa-winning collection, Of Mutability, which is astonishing, and which suddenly taught me something about line breaks, the power of the word chosen to end a line, the word chosen to begin the next. Wow.

So I am being beautifully bombarded (by choice) on all sides by poetry, perhaps it's no surprise when sometimes that's what comes out when I write. I am remembering that as a kid it was always easy for me to makes up rhymes to impress classmates (it was the only thing I did that did impress them - my maths skills weren't really very cool). Maybe I am tapping into something that was always there? Whatever it is, I am enjoying playing around with other forms, all other forms. I am going on an Arvon Foundation course in Writing for Radio in the summer - another form that really appeals to me - and one of the tutors is Simon Armitage, so I am very excited about that! The other is Sue Roberts, executive producer for BBC Radio Drama in the North, I am really looking forward to meeting her too.

And on that note - yes, the wonderful Sarah Salway and I are teaching an Arvon Foundation course on the short story in May, and booking is now open! We'd love to meet you...!