The Basil Bunting Poetry Award 2016

Time to have a rustle through your available poems before the 7th March closing date.

This competition is run by Newcastle University and named after the Northumbrian modernist poet Basil Bunting. First prize £1000 and judged this year by Don Share of Poetry.

More details available here http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla/competitions/bunting

#residentgeeks

A programme funded by the Australia Council for the Arts: a Geek in Residence is installed to deliver dynamic digital initiatives across an organisation and its community.

The idea being that the techies provide the "skills, information and connections needed to succeed in the digital era". The project appears to be in abeyance currently but I wonder why. It is funny how everyone has become a geek these days so maybe that is it.

But I am still waiting to see some of the really useful filtering/predictive text - multi-thread poetry, Boolean verse, 3D structural holographic towers of words and I wonder who is actually working on this stuff now. Rather than just getting scored up on a really good tweet - of course that is fun too - but...

The old news story is here http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/news/media-centre/media-releases/new-geeks-in-residence-for-arts-organisations/

And yes there is still just a really small part of me that would be happy if I could open my front door electronically at the press of a button...

New Causeway/Cabhsair @CausewayMag

Couldn't agree more with Brian Johnstone.

"Good to receive my copy of the latest Causeway/Cabhsair in the post the other day. Two poems of mine in here, in the excellent company of Christopher Whyte, Bridget Khursheed, Seth Crook, James Robertson, Sheena Blackhall & Derrick McClure. Look forward to a good read over the weekend."

Causeway/Cabhsair publish new writing by Irish and Scottish writers in all the languages of both countries. And publish both new and established writers in all of issues. C/C also reviews new publications.

You can find more about Causeway/Cabhsair and how to subscribe here http://causewaymagazine.co.uk

Fosseway Writers Poetry Competition 2016

Poems on the theme of solitude - I wandered lonely as a cloud etc. If you can do better, try the annual Fosseway Writers competition judged this year by John Irving Clark.

40 lines max on poems; £25 first prize; deadline is 3rd March 2016. £3 for first poem, £2 each for further poems. This is a snail mail competition so send your entry to The Competition Secretary, 34 Wright Street, Newark, Notts NG24 1PJ England.  Cheques made payable to Fosseway Writers.

Contact brendamillhouse at hotmail.com for further guidance. More on the Fosseway Writers here http://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/fossewaywriters/

Tickets for StAnza on sale now

I have been buying my tickets.

Looking forward very much to seeing Lemn Sissay and Don Patterson on Friday night but I am also loving the German strand with events like Anna Crowe, Michael Donhauser, Odile Kennel, and Don Paterson again in a VERSschmuggel (verse smuggling) reading. I thought this would be the time I would get to hear Sean O'Brien but I have a very strong commitment to being in a forest on Sunday so that is not to be. Excellent line-up all through the festival and that is not to mention the open mics and of course just rubbing shoulders with everyone in St Andrews.

I will be reading myself alongside the fabulous Lindsay Macgregor, Em Strang and Samuel Tongue http://stanzapoetry.org/festival/events/new-writers-showcase.

Tickets available and all the interesting stuff you could possibly need here http://stanzapoetry.org/

Top tip: Oxfam on South Street do a fabulous spread of all their poetry books. Impossible to resist....

Big Syria Gig 30th January Stow, Scotland

Come along and help support Unicef's work in Syria. Acts giving their time for free. 100% of the profits will go to Unicef.

Tickets now on sale and full details here https://www.facebook.com/stowedoutfestival/?fref=ts

SpokenWord Paris, France

A little taste of poetry when you are in Paris for the price of one small Euro. This claims to the city's biggest and longest-running English open mic night, started in 2006. However all langues welcome.

You will need  to sign up 8pm to 9.30pm in the bar if you want to read. Every Monday Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes.

Find out more here http://spokenwordparis.org/