tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-166081802009-07-16T08:30:14.235+01:00Jane Holland is an award-winning British poet, novelist & editorJane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.comBlogger391125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-28412306765329105052009-07-04T11:31:00.003+01:002009-07-04T19:51:28.989+01:00

From the classic Tin Cup.Due to a combination of ill-health, over-work and a general desire to sunbathe rather than spend time on my computer, I have decided to temporarily suspend blogging on Raw Light. Normal service should resume after the summer. Unless I have some really important news to blog about, which is unlikely.Have a great summer, and I'll see you all later!Jane x

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-62896661298642334642009-06-24T00:58:00.007+01:002009-07-04T11:41:44.307+01:00

I just found a groovy short review of my Heaventree-published pamphlet translation of the Anglo-Saxon classic, The Wanderer, on the Happenstance website.Thanks to Matt Merritt for that. Not sure how long it's been there, but it's a great review and much appreciated. All those rather painful months of work on The Wanderer ... and now I can be sure at least one person enjoyed it!P.S: Yet More

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-19799243916466946062009-06-14T10:44:00.004+01:002009-06-24T01:03:57.827+01:00

But he is not silent for long.The dream recedes.Back in the light,            just-recalled-where-he-is, a nipto the air, and a cry in the still-dark corridorsof Hautdesert.... the rest of this poem has now been eaten, to allow it to be published elsewhere - if anyone ever wants it, which is doubtful.

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-12546514235133787622009-06-07T00:46:00.001+01:002009-06-07T01:32:57.678+01:00

Loved, and shining with it, tin cup champion,you step out, stand hardin winter gleam, sunshine. Armed with your lance, ice-tipped, you’ll drive forth along the motorways of Britain, Coldplay cast on for company, the blow that awaits you hidden;still loved, unlost, a lily.

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-59689389512161134302009-06-06T00:30:00.005+01:002009-06-06T00:43:20.799+01:00

Ought to flag this new development up in between poems from the Gawain sequence. Feminists, and proto-feminists, follow this link. Anti-feminists, best not to. As if I didn't have enough to do these days ... Poetic Justice

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-17456375406990767732009-06-04T11:23:00.003+01:002009-06-04T14:45:41.525+01:00

The scaly dragon, surprised,seizing one metal-gold thigh in his teeth ... Sorry, folks, but a few hours after posting this poem, I received an email reminding me that it was about to be published in Trespass Magazine. I had somehow forgotten to note that acceptance down in my files, and thought the poem was okay to post up. Apologies to Trespass, I've removed it now. Ho-hum. I'll find a

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-40106452319352362822009-06-01T00:21:00.005+01:002009-06-09T14:35:55.352+01:00

There was a violent mind in the mud                       knee-high, thigh-highand his horse sank to the flanksjewelled with gorse-seed                       sinew and bone, rawunder the downpour. The rest of this poem has now been removed. Thanks for reading!

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-46240173670767824692009-05-31T11:30:00.020+01:002009-06-07T01:29:36.403+01:00

Sithen the sege and the assaut                was sesed at Troye                  – that citya heap of half-burnt timbers and ashes, smoking still –This poem has now been removed to allow later publication elsewhere. Many thanks for all comments!

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-55187274374546319122009-05-28T11:05:00.004+01:002009-05-28T11:30:07.184+01:00

My exams are finally over and I can return to writing the historical novel that I was entangled with before revision began in earnest. This summer will be given over, by and large, to writing prose. The thought gives me pause, and no little emotional anguish. I'm beginning to realise that I simply can't afford to write poetry. It doesn't pay well enough - if anything at all, in the majority of

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-52680181481494888142009-05-22T09:44:00.005+01:002009-05-22T09:57:56.307+01:00

Sorry about the sidebar overlap. Just click PLAY and the sidebar will be covered. "Please go to www.saltpublishing.com and buy ONE BOOK today. Because we don't want to say goodbye to SALT PUBLISHING forever."

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-50002093976855699652009-05-20T17:11:00.004+01:002009-05-20T17:22:57.544+01:00

My own publishers, Salt Publishing, as some of you may know, has hit some very hard times recently, due in part to discontinued grants from the Arts Council. This has happened to a number of publishers, both small and large, across the Uk, and probably worldwide too. Earlier today Salt Publishing announced that all their forthcoming 2009 titles were to be axed, and only backlist titles would be

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-60833256640780077502009-05-20T09:52:00.011+01:002009-05-20T10:53:55.750+01:00

Okay, found a poem to while away the hours. Brighton Pilgrimage is a longish poem about someone I used to know, whom I admired very much and whose early life fascinated me. And that's all I have to say about that. The most interesting thing about this particular poem for me is that I am the pilgrim of the title, I am the one driving the car at the opening of the poem, and yet the narratorial

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-52904078244082998452009-05-18T18:06:00.005+01:002009-05-18T18:10:29.856+01:00

Move into prose!In eight days' time, my exams will be over and I'll be free at last to carry on with the historical novel I'd been joyfully writing before the need for revision caught up with me. I still plan to post up a poem a day for a month this summer or maybe autumn - all depends on how much time is available to me when not novel-writing - but for the foreseeable future, I shall be

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-38704178511911487442009-05-12T17:15:00.014+01:002009-05-12T22:32:01.439+01:00

The Titanic Cafe closes its doors and hits the rocks or: Knife, fork and bulldozer ultra modern retail outlet complex development scenario with flowers is the latest pamphlet out from intrepid new Midlands poetry publishers, Nine Arches Press. This shiny new offering is from David Hart, so well-known on the Midlands poetry scene that he almost requires no introduction, but for those readers

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-90832042782108300752009-05-11T00:30:00.003+01:002009-05-11T00:40:51.654+01:00

I only wish I could find my Lament of the Wanderer online somewhere. Maybe when I do, I'll add that. And Brief History, which is also absent but surely deserves a place in this cheesy Holland hall of fame. I love these gadgets!

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-58045496415976003452009-05-10T11:15:00.005+01:002009-05-10T11:32:03.557+01:00

Just been watching another poet, well-known to me, on YouTube and wondering why on earth the insidious Poetry Voice is still so widespread amongst our kind, when it so clearly blights and destroys the poetry it touches? I've blogged about this before but it continues to annoy me. It's like a sickness, the overwhelming urge to read aloud in this effeminate, floating, breathy voice that so many

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-74686339061276057072009-05-07T00:56:00.003+01:002009-05-07T01:02:48.606+01:00

I've been writing nothing but prose recently, and have exams coming up at the end of this month, so poetry has been the poor relation this spring. It takes me ages to get back into writing poetry after a few months away from the habit. To counteract that effect, I'd rather like to try a month of poems in June or maybe July: writing one poem a day if possible, or every other day if that's too

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-377734530253148352009-05-04T19:27:00.001+01:002009-05-04T19:29:31.158+01:00

SPOKEN SPRINGPoetry and Open Mic event for Warwick Words. Join host Jane Holland for an evening of petty chit-chat and poetry readings by Warwick Poet Laureate 2009, Catherine Whittaker, Don Barnard, Jane Commane and Jacqui Rowe followed by an Open Mic.Thursday 7 May at 7.30pm Kozi Bar, Market Place Warwick, Warwickshire.Tickets: £5.00 (includes glass of wine/juice on arrival) Free Poetry

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-62875643113003799912009-04-30T18:37:00.004+01:002009-04-30T19:01:41.573+01:00

I was speaking to the poet David Morley yesterday at Warwick University; his wife recently gave birth, and he was telling me how he had been writing furiously ever since the event, poems shooting out of him. I was reminded by his story of my own experience back in 2002 in North Cornwall when, having just given birth to twin boys, I found myself writing a novel some 100,000 words long. I wrote at

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-14890924773431489562009-04-29T10:40:00.002+01:002009-04-29T10:43:32.532+01:00

You are invited to come and join Nine Arches Press in celebrating their first year in business at a special Birthday Shindig!On: Tuesday May 5th 2009 at 7pmAt: The CAPITAL Centre, Milburn House, Milburn Hill Road, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7ALReadings by a fine selection of Midlands poets, so far confirmed are Simon Turner, George Ttoouli, Matt Nunn and Jane Holland. PLUS: Cakes, music

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-86254916988079811162009-04-27T00:55:00.005+01:002009-04-27T01:03:42.421+01:00

He hasn't been the most popular of Laureates, nor the most scintillating. He has been, at times, both too much and too little in the public eye. Some people I've met have had nothing but good things to say about the man and his work. Indeed, I've met the man myself - but only for thirty seconds, before he dashed off, wine glass still in hand, to another gathering of poets somewhere across London.

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-48438221771889465602009-04-22T22:46:00.003+01:002009-04-23T00:22:56.351+01:00

Many apologies to anyone who received a spam email apparently from my email account recently. I have today found many instances of other people online who have suffered with precisely the same spam message coming from their accounts, quite innocently, and why."This is due to a worm virus currently propagating itself through e-mail and instant messaging. The worm sends various messages that entice

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-17736248007001110932009-04-19T12:26:00.008+01:002009-04-19T12:40:18.609+01:00

Just been listening to some Harlequin podcasts (romance series fiction) on the e-Harlequin site, and thought it might be fun to put up some podcasts on this blog. Podcasts are pretty simple to make with an MP3 player or on a laptop - I could probably even manage a short film, via YouTube, if I knew someone with a reasonable camera - and they would certainly ring the changes from text-based

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-5040601417699438102009-04-17T12:31:00.012+01:002009-04-17T13:50:31.070+01:00

Tom Chivers is a poet based in London, who has just published a pamphlet of poem-emails entitled THE TERRORS. To give you a flavour of his content, here's the short preface:What follows is a sequence of imagined emails sent from the author to inmates at London's Newgate Prison incarcerated between roughly 1700 and 1760. All mistakes, typos and anachronisms are deliberate.Tom Chivers promises -

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-31610558925903233122009-04-15T12:18:00.009+01:002009-04-15T12:58:20.772+01:00

Doctor Who and the recent Planet of the Dead episode.Like many people, I'm a fan of Doctor Who and am eagerly looking forward to the last few episodes with David Tennant (stagger, swoon) before he bows off our screens - as Doctor Who - forever. Today it was brought to my attention that Raw Light is now listed on British Blogs, which I promptly visited and found this interesting website on Doctor

Jane Hollandj.holland442@btinternet.com1