Poetry news from Kathryn Anna

Hello everyone! Long time no speak (well, write but you know what I mean). I thought it was time to give an update to what’s going on in my corner of the poetry world. The biggest news may not appear to have anything to do with poetry whatsoever but bear with me. Three weeks ago, my dear puss had a nasty accident. He wandered a little further than usual and ended up with a broken fibula, and damaged tibia joint. It’s complicated to repair, needing pins and plates as well as eight weeks cage rest to allow the bone to heal. This means two things. The first is that I have a sad cat, who is also being incredibly good and patient with the whole thing. I’ve learnt he has two meows – one that means “I’m starving” and another that means “remove this stinky object from my cage right now”. It’s been a steep learning curve for us all but we’ve got a routine and it feels a little less challenging. As I write we have four weeks to go until he can come out of the cage after which he’ll gradually be introduced to the rest of the house for another four weeks. He can go outside after this, but we’re going to take that extremely slowly until we’re sure he has a strong attachment to home. He’s currently snoring, so I think he’s pretty chilled about the situation.

So, what of the poetry connection? Puss needs as much supervision as possible, to make sure he’s safe and that there’s no infection where the pins enter his skin. This means that my raft of birthday celebrations has had to be cancelled. Obviously, this is a little disappointing (we’d booked to go on the Flying Scotsman through my beloved Yorkshire Moors) but the unanticipated benefit is that being bound to the house means I have a huge amount of time and having a huge amount of time means my mind is able to focus on writing. It’s a joy – I’ve no distractions, no need to plan extra rest and recovery to enable me to go places and most importantly I feel relaxed and able to give myself the time I need to immerse myself in my work.

Another poetry decision

The other significant decision is to scale back my bespoke poetry business. I’m still very much open for commissions but in terms of building a business I realised that unravelling the mysteries of Google Ads, analysing website traffic and the changes needed to ensure I appeared on that all-important front [age of google were taking all my time, energy and any money that I could make from writing the poems themselves.

This combination of circumstances has had a huge impact on my creative work. It’s as though my brain has reignited. I’m able to focus my mind without feeling guilty that I’m not spending time on something that will make money. I’m very lucky to be able to do this of course and I’m thankful for our ability to live on one wage, which we’ve learned to do since I fell ill thirteen years ago.

What’s in the poetry pipeline?

To begin with, my next book has transformed. If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll remember I undertook extensive revision and redrafting to help the book find its story and tell it effectively. After this work was complete I approached Olivia Tuck, who I worked with on my second book Dust to see if she still offered her “poem whisperer” service. Olivia’s insight and suggestions men my book has really grown into itself . It’s currently out at publishers and up for judgement in various competitions. I’m really proud of the book it has become and that I’m at the point where I feel it is “right.” This sense of completion means I have space for other projects. My first focus is on creating poems for a competition that couldn’t be more up my street if it tried. I’m so thrilled to have a clear focus and to be working on something that I feel so inspired by. I’m also investigating the possibility of working on a project inspired by the action group This Ends Now who highlight the failures of the press to report violence against women without shifting blame, or diluting reality. I’m not quite sure on the form this will take, but I’ll have more news after my meeting with their CEO on Tuesday. I feel like I’ve found my writer’s groove again. In line with this theme I’ve also had a poem selected to be published in The Written Woman this year’s anthology from UCP. The book will be published later this year - watch this space for when. I’ve sent just three poems out for selection this year, so it’s gratifying to have something chosen for something I’m so proud to be part of.

The final benefit of dear puss’s accident is that I’m reading more. Some of my reading is lightweight, the kind of books that give me comfort when my brain can’t absorb any more worries, some is more hard hitting and demanding, and of course I’m reading more poetry. I’ve adopted a habit of reading to my cat each morning (according to internet wisdom it relaxes them.) At the moment our book of choice is my Dylan Thomas anthology – as you can imagine it’s a joy to read aloud.

Until next time

Kathryn

xx