Mags
Got a great mag (newspaper, really) from USA: The American Poetry Review. Good stuff in there by Stephen Dunn and others. Also, an American 'mag' which is a book-length artefact called 'Pleiades' (the seven sisters constellation, don't cha know). A wee bit experimental, but kinda mainstream. Great novel extract on the 'lost books of the Odyssey', by Zachary Mason. You can read the reviews section of Pleiades online. http://www.cmsu.edu/englphil/pleiades/Pleiadesindex.html

Books
August: trying out some Jorie Graham. She kept getting mentioned in a book of essays by James Longenbach (whose book I loved, 'The Resistance to Poetry'). The Lancs library has provided Jorie's 'Overlord' and a book of essays about her writing! THe difficulty is that the essays refer to previous collections.... 'Overlord' is long poems addressing aspects of war and culture. Not got far yet, but very mind-expanding. The essays seem to describe a development in her work where each collection almost critiques the previous collection (and her philosophical position....) I seem to be having a good time with American and Canadian poets. Anne Carson is a favourite (I've read three: fave 'The Autobiography of Red'). And I bought an Anne Michaels in NY. Saving it up till I'm through the Jorie Graham. It will be my last bit of reading from the NY trip...

May: there's a great article on www.tls.timesonline.co.uk about elizabeth bishop. go to poetry and then the article. it's a review of a recent book of her unpublished work,drafts, scarps, etc. which the reviewer remarks is not that great. But what he does find fascinating are the early drafts of her published work. So, for example (near the end of the article if you just want to shoot to this), the first version of the villanelle 'One Art' reads almost like a diary entry, speculating on all the things she's managed to lose over the years (houses, keys, etc.). And not the published line 'The art of losing isn't hard to master'. But the big one for me was seeing the earlier final line: originally it was quite sentimental and sorry-for-itself, but the one she eventually chose is really tough and quite brilliant.

December: I have been borrowing lots of books from Lancaster University Library. Currnetly reading 'writers on writers' type stuff. Peter Levi: The Noise Made by Poems, and Glennis Byron (great name , huh?): Dramatic Monologues (in respect of Browning, Tennyson, and lit-crit revision to include female writers - Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, etc.) Stretches my brain, but great fun, too!

October: I am re-reading Ann Gray's The Man I was Promised by Headland (2004) 1 recently enjoyed Frances Wilson's Rearranging the Sky by Rockingham Press (2004)

JUDGING CREDITS
In 2004 I was one of the judges in the Walk the Plank/ Radio Merseyside poetry competition, Marirhymes (groan) In 2005 and 2006 1 was one of the judges in the BBC Big Screen competition . Nothing Rhymes with Poets. And I also judged SM Dykes Flick Lit competition (erotic fiction. non-fiction and poetry by women).