New Website

 I now have a website with a proper domain name. You can find that website here: https://www.zoebrookspoet.co.uk/

At the moment I will continue to blog occasionally here.

Looking for Readings

Anna Saunders and I both spend a lot of time giving opportunities for poets to read their work, whether online or at the in-Cheltenham festival and we were thinking that it is about time we did something to promote our own poetry. So we are looking for places and events at which we can read either together or individually. 

In addition to reading, we can talk about running a poetry festival or the art and trials of writing poetic sequences. We can also offer a workshop with our reading. 

We are both experienced readers at online events and in-person. I started my poetry reading career with Michael Horovitz and Poetry Olympics back in the 1990s! You will find a list of some of the places I have read on my performing poetry page .  Anna's website is here https://annasaunderswriter.co.uk/

Can you help? Do you run an event that would be suitable? Do you belong to an organization that gives reading slots? Or can you introduce us? If you can, my email is zoe.brooks@googlemail.com

We are happy to travel. We don't even need paying (although it would be nice) - as organisers ourselves we are very aware of the financial pressures organisations are under. 

Thanks 

Zoe

Birthday Special Offer On Owl Unbound

 

To celebrate the book's birthday, I am offering Owl Unbound for £5 including postage from my online shop at https://zoebrookspoetry.bigcartel.com/

That is £4.50 off and beats Amazon's price. If you want, I can sign it for you. This sale is for a limited period (ends 30th November). The Owl Unbound/Fool's Paradise bundle price is also reduced. 

So it's "Happy Birthday" to Owl Unbound and to you too. 

Readings Coming Up

I have a couple of readings coming up to share with you - one on Zoom and one live. 

7pm - 8pm  25th May 

The first reading is on Zoom at Finding the Words organized by Explore York Libraries and Archives. I will be reading alongside Bethany Rivers and Emma Storr.

To find out more and book a ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finding-the-words-with-zoe-brooks-bethany-rivers-and-emma-storr-tickets-574624506367 

8pm 9th June

I will be the headline reader at Reading's Poetry Cafe, 21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU. The event is run by the Reading Stanza. In addition to my reading there will be am open mic. Tickets are available here: https://whatsonreading.com/venues/south-street/whats-on/poets-cafe-2023 or on the door. They cost £5, £4 for open mics. 

Hope to see you at one of these events. 

Animating Fool's Paradise

I have joined forces with animator John L Wilkinson to create this: the first of a series of short videos of sections of Fool's Paradise. The other artist involved is my dead Czech friend Hannah Kodicek, who as I was writing the poem created a series of dynamic prints in response to my words and images. The videos are designed to work on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), hence the portrait format. More videos in the series will follow.

John also has a line in graphics about folklore etc. See https://johnnygreenteeth.com/ for more

 

“Can you tell me how you get invited to read at festivals please?”

A few days ago Helen Ivory posted this question on Facebook. There was a flurry of responses, none from a festival, nearly all saying they didn’t know the answer.

I wondered about replying as I am one of the three members on the Cheltenham Poetry Festival (CPF) management team, but I decided to write this blog post instead as I can give a longer and more considered reply.

The first thing to say is that this post is my personal take on the question and is limited to one poetry festival.

Considerations in booking poets

We book poets, who will be attractive to our audience or should I say audiences. We have a 10-day event this September in Cheltenham. The audience for this is different from that for the year-round online festival we run. We can be more adventurous with the online festival. But with both in-Cheltenham and online festivals we are looking for poets who can read their poetry in a way that reaches out and engages our audience.

There are other considerations when we book poets. The first is financial and of course is related to ticket sales. We don’t have a large budget and we have to make it balance at the end of the year/festival. It means we can’t book all the poets we would like. Sadly issues such as the size of the fee, costs of travel and accommodation, all play a part.

Does the poet’s work fit with the programme? We want our programme to be diverse, in all sorts of ways, in subject matter, poetry style and form, ethnicity, poet’s age etc. We usually have a minimum of two poets reading per event, do they complement each other, maybe they are dealing with the same theme but in different ways?

So how do we find poets?

Poets are constantly approaching us, far more poets than we have slots. A polite email is the best option, rather than messaging us. Do read any information we have on the website about when and how to apply.

We are also proactive in looking for poets. We read poetry books and magazines, go to poetry events especially online ones. If we find someone who excites us and fits what we are looking for, we may approach them or keep them in mind until we can.

The open mic slots at our online events are really important to us. Open mics is a way of performing at the Festival that is open to everyone, not just for newbies but also established published poets. We do sometimes offer a headline slot to someone, who has come to our attention via the open mc.

So what can you do to get a headline slot?

• Have a published poetry book (not self-published)
• Attend CPF events, it may not be possible to attend the in-Cheltenham Festival, but if you are interested in performing with CPF attend some of our online events
• Learn how to communicate your poetry to an audience (open mics are great for this)
• Take part in online events.
• Talk to your publisher – CPF sometimes has publisher showcases, where a number of poets from one publisher read together.
• By all means send us a polite enquiry email
• Remember we are three volunteers with limited time, running a festival because we love poetry. Poets who give us hassle and/or extra work aren’t likely to be booked, or if booked won’t be booked again.

In conclusion

I hope this post helps. As a fellow poet I know how hard finding readings can be. Good luck.  

UPDATE
Cheltenham Poetry Festival website now has a "Take Part" page and  a dedicated contact form for poets to join a special mailing list. The page is here https://cheltenhampoetryfestival.co.uk/take-part/

Publication Nerves

 

It's the publication date for Fool's Paradise. I'm sending the preorders out this am and feeling horribly nervous as I do so.

This book means a lot to me for a number of reasons, not least because my late friend, Hannah, loved it so much. It's her artwork on the cover. We talked about publishing a limited edition of the poem illustrated by her prints, but she died before it could happen.

When I worry over the book and wondering whether I should have changed this word or whatever, I should remind myself that she believed in it and me. I should remind myself of Alison Brackenbury's and Fiona Sampson's words of approval on the back cover. Plus my publisher's excitement about the book. My insecurity is the reason I didn't publish anything for years, it's the reason I have such problems promoting my work and I must overcome it and I will.

Fool's Paradise coming out 19th May

 

I'm delighted to announce that my new poetry book Fool's Paradise will be published by Black Eyes Publishing on 19th May. 

I'm rubbish at bigging up my poetry, so I will let two great poets do it for me:

This is an extraordinary piece of writing: truly compelling.   Alison Brackenbury.

Fool’s Paradise is a dive into the uncanny: into that rich heritage of myth in which we find ourselves both far from home, and simultaneously at home.   Fiona Sampson

There's two special offers on the book at my bookshop https://zoebrookspoetry.bigcartel.com  I am offering the book £2.50 off for preorders. Plus if you are interested in also getting Owl Unbound you can buy the two books at £20 (£2 off) plus free p&p. Or you can get the same deal on Fool's Paradise from my publishers Black Eyes Publishing. 

Fool's Paradise will be launched online at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival on 24th May at 7pm when I will be joined by Angela France, Ben Ray and Adam Horovitz. Get your free tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheltenhampoetryfestival/t-yaqqjme

Isabelle Kenyon - Promoting A Book

 

Isabelle Kenyon

I do not find self promotion very easy. In fact I cringe and procrastinate everytime I have to do it. Yes, I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the first more so than the others, but it is not enough. And my publishers have a right to expect me to do some book promo, afterall they have invested time and money into making my book a success and so should I (time at least).  So about six months ago I decided I would invest in some book promotion. 

I turned to Isabelle Kenyon to act as publicist for me, on the recommendation on Anna Saunders. Over 3 months Isabelle got me 7 reviews with more hopefully on the way, a spoken word event, a blog interview,  youtube feature, 2 radio appearances and a podcast appearance. 

I was delighted with Isabelle's hard work. Of course Isabelle has a great list of contacts, which would take me ages to achieve and then I would need the temerity to approach them. But Isabelle also gave me the confidence to relax and focus on what I was good at - reading at open mics and giving readings. 

If you are interested in using Isabelle's services, I recommend them - you can find out about them here: https://isabellekenyonpoetry.wordpress.com/author-services/ 

For people who are perhaps earlier in their writing journey and are experiencing financial difficulties there are still a few free places on a workshop Isabelle is leading for the Cheltenham Poetry Festival next Tuesday available here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheltenhampoetryfestival/t-axarox

Performing Poems from Owl Unbound

I thought I'd bring you up-to-date with what I have been doing and what is coming up. In these pandemic days I have been busy performing poems from my collection Owl Unbound online. 

The video above of my poem The Gypsies in the Room is one which featured in the Dialect - Supporting Rural Writers Women's Day events

Most recently I read at the Gloucestershire Poetry Society's Crafty Crows alongside the wonderful Adam Horovitz. GPS have now posted a film of the event (shared above) on their Youtube channel. My reading starts at 24.18. 

 

I also took part in Raised Voices, the GPS's International Women's Day event, which they have also posted on their channel. The event featured 16 Gloucestershire poets, including Angela France, Sharon Larkin, Maria Stadnicka, Tish Camp, and Belinda Rimmer. But mostly I have been enjoying reading at Open Mics at a wide variety of poetry events which have taken me to the Netherlands, Scotland, Wales and all places in between.

I was delighted to take part in Damien Donnelly's excellent poetry podcast Eat the Storms 

Readings Coming Up

12th May at 7pm at the Evesham Festival of Words I will be reading poems on the theme of Home and Away alongside Anna Saunders and Ben Ray.

16th June at 7.30 at Fenspeak, I will be reading a personal selection of my poems

7th July at 7pm  at the Wirral Festival of Firsts I will be reading with Anna Saunders (again) and Simon Griffiths on the theme of  The Wild and the Urban.

20th July at 7.30pm at Poetry Teignmouth at the Mill

10th August at 7.30pm at Flight of the Dragonflies 

18th October at 7pm at the Gloucester Poetry Festival I will be reading alongside Josephine Lay and Stuart Carswell

And there's more, but I am not yet allowed to go public about them yet!

Buying books in this time of COVID

Here in England bookshops have been categorised by the UK government as "non-essential". Some people, myself included, would disagree with that categorisation, but that's how it is. The impact of the categorisation has been that when we were in lockdown physical bookshops had to close, leaving the way open to Amazon.  

Now the restrictions have lifted and some (but not all) local bookshops have opened. I know many of you will be heading to your local bookshop to buy your books and in so doing support the shopowner. That is not an option for all of us however. So what else can we do?

In the first instance if you want to help your local bookshop, but can't get there for some reason, you could phone or email them and see if they will supply your books directly to you. That way they get all the profit from the sale. Some bookshops have a website of their own (check Google for details). 

My local bookshop has remained closed, due to the owner having to shield a vulnerable family member. Early on in the pandemic I tried to order books from her, but she was unable to supply them. She recommended using Hive https://www.hive.co.uk/  - an online bookstore where you can nominate your local bookshop to receive a minimum 10% if bought online (UK standard postage is free). So I did and have done so several times since. However Hive does not stock everything, only what their wholesaler, Gardners, supplies. 

The same is true of Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org, which arrived this year with a great fanfare. With the stated aim of "supporting local bookshops", Bookshop.org offers two ways of supporting bookshops: a) your local bookshop might have a shop page or b) you can nominate your bookshop as you would on Hive. However when I looked at my local bookshop's page, there were only 31 books to choose from. There has been a lot of excitement about this "alternative to Amazon".  But more recently there have been some critical voices, suggesting that this gifthorse needs to have its teeth examined. 

Remember neither Bookshop.org nor Hive will supply every book that is published - my collection is not supplied by Gardners and so it is one such book. But you don't just have a choice between the Amazon big bad wolf and Bookshop or Hive. 

For many of us Waterstones is our local bookshop and it has an excellent online presence https://www.waterstones.com. I would say that - they stock my book! As does Foyles https://www.foyles.co.uk/.  Blackwells also has an online website https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/.

But there are other places to buy books. For starters you could buy from the publisher or the author. This is especially true of the specialist presses and markets, like poetry. You may not be supporting your local bookshop, but you are supporting the people who create the books. 

When it comes to online bookshops, if you want to avoid buying from Amazon also avoid Abebooks and Bookdepository as both are owned by the American giant. Books etc. https://www.booksetc.co.uk/ on the otherhand is British and has a huge selection of books both new and old and is nearly always cheaper than Amazon. 

There is an online marketplace to rival Amazon: Ebay. You'll usually be dealing with a small bookseller on https://ebay.co.uk, but some of the bigger online booksellers are also there, e.g. World of Books and Wordery. It is always worth looking there, especially if the book you want is hard to find. And yes, my collection is available there - new - from a bookseller who is able to offer it on Ebay in Australia and the US. 

These suggestions are just based on my experience of bookhunting. Do you have any alternative suggestions? What about good booksellers outside of the UK? Please add your comments below. 

Magic Realism: Waiting for Bluebeard by Helen Ivory

My review of an amazing poetry collection is available in full on my Magic Realism Books Blog

Magic Realism: Waiting for Bluebeard by Helen Ivory:   'Waiting for Bluebeard' tries to understand how a girl could grow up to be the woman living in Bluebeard's house. The story be...

My Poetry Collection Owl Unbound

 

My collection Owl Unbound (pub Indigo Dreams Publishing) was launched on the 23rd October at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. And I was joined by three very special poet friends - Fiona Sampson, Anna Saunders, and Adam Horovitz. It was a wonderful night. 

Now comes the business of selling it! You can buy a copy direct from me for £9.50 (postage is free in the UK) by emailing me on zoe.brooks@googlemail.com. If you want I can sign it for you. Alternatively it is available from my publishers Indigo Dreams or most online bookstores.

The launch reminded me how much I love reading to an audience and I actually quite enjoy reading on Zoom, so if there is anyone interested in my reading at a poetry event, please email me on the above email. 

Cover Reveal

Here it is - the cover of my collection Owl Unbound with Indigo Dreams Publishing. I am really pleased with it. The cover very cleverly references several poems in the collection. 

The collection will be published on 1st October with my launch on 23rd October on Zoom (more info to follow). It can be preordered from the publishers here: https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/zoe-brooks/4595048690. or you can order a copy from me (signed if you wish) on zoe.brooks@googlemail.com . 

Update on My Forthcoming Collection

The idea that my poetry collection will be published is becoming more and more real. I have sent off the final copy to Indigo Dreams, together with an information sheet about me and the book, and a head and  shoulders shot (how I hate photos of myself). 

The launch date is set: 23rd October. It will be a zoom event hosted by Cheltenham Poetry Festival. I will miss the party feel of a physical launch, but as I said in my last post a zoom event has the advantage of allowing me to invite people, such as my friends overseas, who would never get to a physical event. A number of poet friends will be joining me in reading at the launch (details tba), so it won't be unadulterated Zoe!  If you fancy coming, do drop me an email or post a comment below. Or just look out for my posts on twitter, facebook or instagram. Alas you will have to bring your own wine. 

Zoom

In my last blog post I talked about the impact of COVID and mentioned that I had been attending a number of online poetry events, usually via Zoom. It looks as though my collection will have to be launched online. so I need to understand what works and doesn't. My diary is now full of online poetry events - on some evenings I have as many as three events to choose from and on weekends I could be all day on Zoom overdosing on poetry.

We all thought this would be a temporary phenomenon, but a lot of people have been enjoying poetry online and realising that the internet allow syou to go to poetry events all over the world. I suspect that even when the live events restart (which may be a long way off) the online poetry scene will continue.

Okay there are downsides, but online poetry events do allow you to go round the world, to hear poets you would never hear otherwise and even to read at open mics there. Importantly online poetry allows people who cannot access in-the-flesh events because of where they live or because of disability to access a world they would be excluded from. Somewhere out there is a poet or poetry event organizer who sees the potential of this brave new digital world, who sees a new path for poetry.

I thought I might share with you some of the online poetry event organisers whose work I have enjoyed. I know there are some I have missed out and there are loads more I don't know about.  Please add any you know of in the comments or email them to me and I will add them to this post. 

Book Publishers:
Book launches by Carcanet Press: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/events.shtml
Launches and other readings organised by Seren Books: https://www.serenbooks.com/events
Book launches by Nine Arches Press: https://www.facebook.com/NineArchesPress/

Poetry Festivals
Cheltenham Poetry Festival is offering an amazing programme of readings and workshops: https://cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk/
Ledbury Poetry Festival has a 2-day online festival on 4th and 5th July https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/festival-online-programme-register-for-events/
Gloucester Poetry Festival is also offering some great readings:   https://www.facebook.com/GloucesterPoetryFestival/

Poetry Groups
Gloucestershire Poetry Society's Crafty Crows events offer invited readers and open mics: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thegloucesterpoetrysociety/
Poetry Norwich has a monthly event https://www.facebook.com/VoltaPoetryNorwich/
Swindon's spoken word event Ooh Beehive is also now online: https://www.facebook.com/OoohBeehive/
Dear Listener - in Worcester is also now Digilistener:
 https://www.facebook.com/DearListenerOpenMic/
Cafe Writers in Norwich - invited readers and open mic http://www.cafewriters.co.uk/
Poets Cafe in Reading - nvited readers and open mic: https://www.facebook.com/ReadingStanzaPoetsCafe
York Spoken Word - open mic https://www.facebook.com/YorkSpokenWord

Poetry Magazines
A number of poetry magazines are having online launches including Poetry London, Poetry Ireland, Butcher's Dog, Poetry Review, and Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal.

Other
The Poetry Book Society has events on its Instagram account: @poetrybooksociety
Helen Ivory and Martin Figura have launched Live from the Butchery:  https://www.facebook.com/Live-from-The-Butchery-100380041704407

Writing In the Time Of Covid 19

There is a Czech saying that my friend Hannah regularly quoted at me: "How to make God laugh - tell him your plans". My plans for this year were considerable. With my collection Owl Unbound due out this year, I had plans to build up my reputation at poetry readings, to network, to continue sending out to magazines, and of course to launch the book. God must have found them very amusing.

Even the sending out to magazines is becoming less easy as some print magazines are having problems with their printers. My publishers are having problems with their distributors. However online there is a surge in Zoom, Hangout and similar forms of internet events. I have enjoyed being a member of the audience at some of these. The Cheltenham Poetry Festival is organising a series of online workshops this summer and I am helping out with these.

And yet, online poetry for all its attactions, is not the same as being in a room with people. Technology (especially mine) has a habit of failing at the worst time. The connection falters and sometimes fails altogether, words are mangled, images of poets freeze. Nor is it possible to get the non-verbal feedback one gets when reading.

There has been a flurry of covid poems (some of them brilliant and some awful) and several covid anthologies are calling for poems, including one being produced by the Gloucestershire Poet Laureate, Z.D Dicks. Write Where We Are Now is an initiative by the Manchester Writing School and fronted by Carol Ann Duffy, creating online a living record of the crisis.

Pandemics have been a subject I have been interested in for decades. The threat and reality of the plague appears in my Healer's Shadow trilogy. And in my files I have an unfinished poem cycle about the impact of illness and environmental depredation on the collapse of the Roman Empire.

In the last month I have written two poems that might be termed covid poems. But as is usually the way with what I write they aren't a direct take on the subject. I am cautious about writing about covid now. Everything I write comes from somewhere in my brain where it has been brewing for a while. It is linked to my mental wellbeing.

Never has it been more the case that we write about what we must. For some people that is about virus, for others they need to write about anything but. The current anthologies can only capture a snapshot, and a valid one, but the best work on the subject may well be written in hindsight.

Doors Close, Doors Open

At Piranha Poetry

I was chatting to an old school friend of mine last week and we both commented on how sometimes your life can suddenly change: doors close and new ones open. They certainly have for me over the past year.

My life in the Czech Republic has ended. Out of the blue a buyer came forward with an offer for my house there and I could not refuse. Last month I spent a fortnight in the country getting rid of most of my things and storing a few others, handing in my Czech residency papers, and handing over the keys. The door to my Czech home literally closed.

I am near to closing another literal door. As I said in the a previous post my mother died at the end of June and my life as a carer came to an end. Of course there has been work to do for her since her death. Over the last month I have been clearing one room a week in her house. It will take me another four weeks before the house is in a state ready to be put on the market.

The door that has opened is of course poetry. With my collection with Indigo Dreams (now called Owl Unbound) due out later in the year I have work to do. Firstly there is the editting of the collection prior to sending the finished version to Indigo Dreams, this I think is pretty well done. Then there is the need to get some readings sorted. The best place to sell books is at readings and that means getting my name around ahead of the book launch.

In the last two months I have given readings in Gloucester and Bristol, as well as at the launch of Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal (I had three poems in the magazine) and at open mic's in Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham. I must confess I loved performing my poetry. It gives me such as buzz.

The other poetry work I have been busy with is helping Anna Saunders with her Cheltenham Poetry Festival. As I may have said elsewhere in this blog I have a background in organising community events, so it isn't hard to get back into the swing of working on an event. It is great to be able just to help out, rather than be the director.

There will be more about the Festival in another post, but for now here is the link to the amazing programme Anna has put together: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheltenhampoetryfestival
With performers as diverse as hip-hop legend JPDL and former Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, there really is something for everyone.

Blogging about the Czech Republic

My first venture into blogging was with my Czech blog. I have just posted a post on it about why I blog, here's the link

Adventures in the Czech Republic: Blogging: One wonderful thing about my life in this country has been this blog. I don't think I fully realized its importance to me until ...

Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - some lessons

Last weekend was the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. My husband and I had been planning a trip to Suffolk for over a year and the festival gave the perfect motivation to go. Whilst I was at the Festival primarily as a lover of poetry, I was also there as a member of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival team. Aldeburgh, like Cheltenham, is run by volunteers, so I was making mental notes as to what worked and what didn't.

On the Friday we only went to the evening event a storytelling session led by Martin Shaw, having spent the rest of the day at Thorpeness, Snape and Sutton Hoo (more of that in a future blogpost). Shaw was a revelation, he kept the audience rapt with his retelling of two folktales. On Saturday I dedicated myself to poetry, while my husband visited churches and villages for his English Buildings Blog before rejoining me for the evening reading. On Sunday we went together to two back-to-back readings before heading off to our B and B exhausted.

This is the first time I have so intensively attended a poetry festival and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed it, but it takes some stamina! I listened to four hours of poetry on the Saturday plus taking part in the Paint me a Poem workshop led by the excellent Grace Nichols. When I was to organize training and conferences professionally I learned that the maximum length of time someone can listen in one session was 45 minutes and that was for much younger brains than mine.

The structure of the readings at Aldeburgh helped keep my concentration by having (with the exception of Martin Shaw's storytelling session on Friday more a theatrical experience that a poetry reading) multiple readers for each one-hour session. In the Carcanet 50th anniversary celebration there were six poets, but most sessions there were three. The festival was programmed to allow a 30-minute break between readings, which was good allowing me to stretch my legs, visit the loo and peruse the bookstall, but not enough to allow for buying and drinking a coffee.

But what about the poetry I hear you say. There were usually two readings and a workshop going on at the same time, so inevitably I was unable to get to everything I wanted to, but it was great to be spoiled for choice. The highlights for me were the workshop, Carmen Bugan's amazing poetry, Alison Brackenbury, Martin Shaw, Kaddy Benyon, Sean Hewitt and young poet, Jamie Osborn. The last three were poets whose work I was unfamiliar with.

We drove back on Monday and had the added pleasure of conversing with Alison Brackenbury as we did so.