CloudNine

Future Arcola, coming soon... In January 2011 London's brilliant and eclectic Arcola Theatre will be moving to Ashwin St, opposite Dalston Junction Station. The theatre team are currently converting a beautiful 19th Century factory. It is the former home of Reeves - makers of paint for the likes of Turner - and appropriately named Colourworks . I am happy to announce that I have been commissioned to write a short play to be staged at the new Arcola space in March 2011.   Will keep you posted.

Liverpool Lennon Poet 2010 Paper Poet  Jaki McCarrick The Beatles Story are proud to announce that the Liverpool Lennon Poet 2010 was a fantastic success. Jaki McCarrick was declared as the first ever winner of the Liverpool Lennon Paper Poetry competition by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The glittering ceremony was held on Saturday the 6th of November in the Sir Paul McCartney Auditorium at Lipa (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.) May I personally thank everybody who supported the event and encouraged such an amazing rersponse. I enclose a copy of Jaki McCarick's deservedly winning poem Roger Cliffe-Thompson Competition organizer eventpoets.co.uk "In my poem ‘The Selkie of Dorinish,’ I imagine John and Yoko living on the island of Dorinish in Clew Bay, Co. Mayo. Lennon purchased this island in the '60s. I imagine an unusual arrangement for the couple in which John is a shape-changing seal. I rarely enter poetry competitions but I got a strong fe...

For various reasons I did not attend the Lennon Poetry prize-winning ceremony at LIPA in Liverpool this weekend. This of course meant I did not get to meet the wonderful and brilliant Carol Ann Duffy, whose work I have long admired and been influenced by. Nonetheless, it seems I have won the 'paper poet' section of the competition with my poem, The Selkie of Dorinish , in which I imagine John and Yoko living on the island of Dorinish in Clew Bay, Co. Mayo. Lennon purchased this island in the '60s. I imagine an unusual arrangement for the couple in which John is a shape-changing seal. I rarely enter poetry competitions - to be honest I can't afford them - but I got a strong feeling for this poem after coming across an article on Mayo by Tamasin Day-Lewis in Cara , the Aer Lingus magazine. Like a lot of writers, I am often at my most creative when travelling about. Anyway. Here's what The Liverpool Echo says: THE FIRST winner of the Liverpool Lennon Poetry competit...

I'm posting details here of an interview with my good friend (and director of The Mushroom Pickers ), director and play translator, Svetlana Dimcovic. Here she talks about the subtle art of translation - and what she has to say might just as equally be applied to translating poetry. The interview is by Jo Caird. http://www.ideastap.com/magazine/knowledge/theatre-translator-interview

Yep. It's out. 142 new poems, one of them by yours truly. Published by Limerick City Council, The Stony Thursday Book is available via the usual poetry outlets.