INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS DK
Freestyle poet and musician DK uses his platform as both performer and workshop facilitator to ensure the voices of marginalised communities are heard, establishing the AccessAbility Arts community to empower people of all abilities and backgrounds. His debut poetry collection, ‘Off the Cuff’, was published in 2023 by Mini Poetry Press. HCE caught up with DK, after he headlined at Fire&Dust online, to ask a few questions…
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS ALISON BINNEY
Alison Binney is a poet and English teacher based in Cambridge. In 2019, she was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition and Highly Commended in the Bridport Prize, and her debut pamphlet Other Women’s Kitchens (Seren, 2021) won the Mslexia Pamphlet Competition. HCE caught up with Alison since her Fire&Dust gig, to ask a few questions…
REVIEW: STANLEY IYANU’S ‘MY ACHILLES’
By Stella Backhouse | Stanley Iyanu’s 2023 pamphlet ‘My Achilles’ (pub. by Burning Eye Books) celebrates popular poetry’s role in both revealing the inner reality of outwardly unremarkable lives and emotions, and situating them within a framework every bit as epic as that chronicled by ancient myth. Documenting the highs and lows of a gay love story, ‘My Achilles’ also draws on imagery of […]
REVIEW: PEN KEASE’S ‘THIS SIDE OF THE SEA’
By Stella Backhouse | “Clearly, fate has not dealt Kease an easy hand. As well as early widowhood, she has also had to face a cancer diagnosis and care of a mother who is living with dementia, all of which are covered in her collection. Inevitably, questions arise about whether we can escape fate and whether we collude in the creation of our own and others’ fate. […]”
REVIEW: ALISON BINNEY’S ‘OTHER WOMEN’S KITCHENS’
By Stella Backhouse | Alison Binney’s 2021 Myslexia Award-winning pamphlet ‘Other Women’s Kitchens’ is a refreshingly relatable description of one woman’s journey from awkward teenage awareness of her ‘difference’ to maturity and a relationship so right, it feels like she and her partner are carved from the same tree. Because the specific impetus for ‘Other Women’s Kitchens’ is lesbian identity, it would make the […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE&DUST MEETS SUJANA CRAWFORD
Sujana Crawford is a multilingual poet, playwright and researcher, currently based in Yorkshire. Her work has been platformed by the BBC and Birmingham Rep, among others, and will be featuring next year at Box of Tricks in Manchester. HCE caught up with Sujana after she headlined for Fire&Dust, to ask a few questions…
REVIEW: MARTIN FIGURA’S ‘THE REMAINING MEN’
By Stella Backhouse | ‘The Remaining Men’ covers a number of different themes, including Figura’s fractured childhood, his army comrades, his life in notable politicians and poems written as poet-in-residence in the post-industrial Durham coalfield and at NHS Salisbury during Covid. What brings them together is Figura’s archaeological approach to the lives of his subjects, delicately stripping back layers of […]
REVIEW: VICTORIA KENNEFICK’S ‘EGG/SHELL’
By Stella Backhouse | “Enduring biological reality? Or only an idea, held together by fragile fragments of social norms?” Literary critic Stella dips into 2024 Carcanet Press collection ‘Egg/Shell’ by award-winning poet Victoria Kennefick…
GODS AND MONSTERS: THE WITCH
Here’s a Halloween special for you – a ‘Gods and Monsters’ blog post all about witches! Eve explores historical facts and folklore surrounding witchcraft, including common tropes, protection methods, literary depictions, and how that all now translates into modern media…
Cork-Coventry Poetry Exchange 2024: Part Two
It’s that time again! The sixteenth annual Cork-Coventry poetry exchange. Two rising stars of the poetry and spoken word scene in Cork (Ireland) – Catherine Ronan and Cédric Bikond Nkoma – have been selected to represent their city for 2024, and will be travelling to Coventry (UK) this month…