So, I didn’t quite make the Michael Marks Award. That honour rightly goes to Selima Hill for her outstanding Flarestack pamphlet. Any (mild) disappointment was erased by the privilege of hearing an exhilirating, learned and empassioned speech by Ali Smith. She was one of three judges, alongside Jo Shapcott and Richard Price. A speech so good it was republished inContinue reading “A New Kind of Street Ballad”
Tag Archives: newgate
Michael Marks Award
I had some good news of late. My sequence of ‘imagined emails’ The Terrors has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets. Here’s the full shortlist: The Terrors Tom Chivers (Nine Arches Press) The Titanic Café closes its doors and hits the rocks, David Hart (Nine Arches Press) Advice on Wearing Animal Prints, Selima HillContinue reading “Michael Marks Award”
Hack Writing
Tony Williams has reviewed The Terrors on his poetry blog. He describes it as an ‘exuberant, coherent and original pamphlet’. I’m really pleased that readers have responded so positively and creatively to this little sequence – opening up new avenues of thought, responding liberally to the material I set down. I believe Jane at Nine Arches has doneContinue reading “Hack Writing”
The Terrors – OUT NOW
My pamphlet The Terrors was launched last night at The Market Trader, Middlesex Street and is now available to purchase from my terrific publishers Nine Arches Press for £5. (Go, do it now!) The Terrors is a sequence of imagined emails to inmates at Newgate Prison in the eighteenth century. It’s been described by Iain SinclairContinue reading “The Terrors – OUT NOW”
Mad, Bad and Downright Unlucky
Matt Merritt has reviewed The Terrors on Polyolbion. He liked it. This is my first ever review.
Gravestones & duffil coats
The Terrors, my sequence of Newgate e-missives, has been completed and sent to the publisher, Nine Arches. It’ll be launched on March 29th. Artist Emma Robertson (who is, amongst other things, behind Littlest Birds) has created some beautiful line-drawings to illustrate the pamphlet. See above. Also, writer/filmmaker Iain Sinclair has read the sequence and endorses itContinue reading “Gravestones & duffil coats”
Emails to Newgate Gaol (4)
From: Tom Chivers Sent: 2 September 2008 14:20 To: The Waltham Blacks Subject: Re: THEY MUST BE OBEYED To Whom It May Concern Learn me the vulgar science of bruising. Unteach me honesty. Forget Tyburn. Instruct me how to steal a red or fallow deer, to rob a warren like a grave; appear in Death’sContinue reading “Emails to Newgate Gaol (4)”
Emails to Newgate Gaol (3)
From: Tom Chivers Sent: 12 August 2008 19:31 To: Babs_Spencer@yahoo.co.uk Subject: *SPAM* RE: Other Side Babs, is it true? They tied you to a hurdle, hauled you screaming from Newgate to Tyburn? If a woman kills her husband, right, that’s treason. Regal submission writ small, Babs. But you coined a few shillings – fakir, faker,Continue reading “Emails to Newgate Gaol (3)”
Emails to Newgate Gaol (2)
From: Tom Chivers Sent: 10 August 2008 14:08 To: Price, John Subject: Duct/duckedJ, Something reminded me of you. I was in The Viaduct (Newgate overspill) sipping small beer with three wistful maidens. You know the place – carved hardwood; large, curved frontage; beaten copper; Neolithic slab of public house, gin palace. When you were JackContinue reading “Emails to Newgate Gaol (2)”
Emails to Newgate Gaol (1)
From: Tom Chivers Sent: 09 August 2008 01:59 To: John Smith Subject: FW: Questions on Tyburn John, Your triple escape from the triple tree has been bound in a Folio Society Edition. Hardback. Slight soiling. Slip-case. The smell of cut tobacco, of course. I thought you would like to know. That fatal tree looks wellContinue reading “Emails to Newgate Gaol (1)”
Tom Chivers 