There’s now an updated version (Nov 2020) of Robin Houghton’s 2018 guide for poets looking to get their work published in poetry magazines. Visit apoetsguide.co.uk for information, testimonials and to buy – just £6 (free postage within the UK).
TRUTHS …our Anthology has launched
After what felt like more rounds of editing than I thought possible (I just don’t have the eagle eye I thought I had!), some last minute panics and a day-of-launch book delivery, Peter Kenny, Sarah Barnsley and myself were thrilled to finally launch TRUTHS on April 25th 2018.
TRUTHS is the anthology we’d been planning since last year. We had invited contributions from poets who had read with us at Telltale & Friends events since 2014, plus a few of our most dedicated supporters. This was an opportunity to explore what ‘truth’ means to each of us in a world where post-truth and surreality seem to have taken root.
Many of the contributors were at the launch and it was wonderful to witness the breadth of interpretation and fine poetry. Having read all the poems many times over in the editing of the book, I was especially interested to find how hearing them read aloud by the poets themselves added a new layer of comprehension and/or emotion for me.
Perhaps also realising that this was our last Telltale Press event made it more poignant. More about that in a follow-up post.
Read Peter Kenny’s blog post about the event here.
I took some photos, although wasn’t able to catch all the poets, apologies to those I missed.
Sarah Barnsley
Marion Tracy
Louise Tondeur
John McCullough
Peter Kenny
Jeremy Page
Clare Best
Judy Brown
Charlotte Gann
Abigail Parry
Catherine Smith
Guest poet Abigail Parry joins us for our autumn event
Fantastic news – we’ve persuaded the multiple award-winning poet Abigail Parry to read with us at the new-look Poetry Cafe in London on November 1st for our autumn Telltale Press & Friends.
Last year Abigail won two of the biggest prizes out there – the Ballymaloe and the Troubadour. Her long-awaited debut collection Jinx is out with Bloodaxe next year. Abby gives excellent poetry readings – another great reason to come along on 1st November.
Joining Abby are Telltale founder members Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny, and our marvellous Associate Editor and mentor Catherine Smith – also known for her compelling readings … it’s going to be a great night.
As ever, entry is FREE, although donations are always welcome! Just buy a drink upstairs and come on down to the newly refurbished basement room.
Here’s the flyer, and here’s the Facebook event page – please share with your friends, and thank you!
We’re looking forward to seeing you there.
What’s next for Telltale Press…?
We’ve been a bit quiet on here, and the reason for that is simply that we’ve all been busy – with work, family, pamphlets, plays and more…
Good news though – we now have a date for our next Telltale Press & Friends, and we’ve booked our Special Guest reader – but more to follow on this once we have the CONFIRMED booking from our London venue.
Also on the cards is a Telltale anthology, which should make its way into the world next Spring.
Thanks for keeping up with Telltale. We’ll soon be enticing you to our next event. Hope you can come.
A warm night at the Lewes Arms
Warm in the sense of friendly I mean – although we did also need to open windows. I’m of course talking about last Friday and our latest Telltale Poets & Friends readings at the Lewes Arms. It’s a delightfully intimate pub, no longer with an actual stage upstairs but still a great venue for poetry readings. Plus it’s sort of become our mothership.
Sorry, no pics this time – except the ‘before’ photo of the room, so that I could see how the tables needed to go back before we moved them all – so you just have to imagine how our readers looked, especially Katrina in her beautiful vintage frock.
Telltale’s Siegfried Baber and Sarah Barnsley gave us storming sets with many new poems, and it was a pleasure to welcome Marion Tracy and Katrina Naomi as our guest poets. It’s just occurred to me that they have something in common, in that they have surnames that could be first names – spooky! I’m glad I didn’t think of that before the intros, or I would have certainly said “Please welcome Tracy Marion!” or something equally daft. Katrina, who had journeyed up from Penzance, mesmerised us with her witty and moving poetry. She had to contend with noisy blokes outside AND the sudden dramatic collapse of our roller banner, but she carried on like a true pro. Marion’s reading was excellent as always – surreal and joyously unpredictable poems.
It felt like all our friends and supporters were there, as well as a good number of people we didn’t know but many of whom came up afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it, and that really made for a super evening. Thank you everyone who came, bought books and donated generously the Telltale funds (there’s a new banner to buy after all!)
Our cosy room, before we moved the tables and everyone arrived – !
Launch of Jess Mookherjee’s pamphlet
It’s gone to print and we’re getting excited about launching ‘The Swell’, the debut pamphlet from our newest member Jessica Mookherjee.
The official launch event will be on Wednesday 5th October, 7.15pm, at the Pitcher & Piano, Tunbridge Wells. Do come and hear Jess reading from her pamphlet, plus guest readers and who knows, maybe a Telltale-style surprise or two…
And if you’re going to be at the Poetry Book Fair Free Verse on Saturday 17th September, please say hello to the Telltale Poets – not only will be sharing a table with our good friends The Frogmore Press, but some of us will also be reading in the evening at the Square Pig & Pen. Hope to see you there!
Another great night at the Poetry Cafe
Sarah Barnsley, John McCullough, Jess Mookherjee & Peter Kenny
Despite the best efforts of Southern Rail to derail our evening in London last week (derail! See what I did there?) it was another lovely/lively night at the Poetry Cafe.
Sadly, Siegfried Baber was poorly which meant he was unable to read, but Peter Kenny stepped in and joined Sarah Barnsley, Jess Mookherjee and John McCullough. All strong readings and a particular pleasure to hear Jess in her first reading as a Telltale poet, with a sneak preview of some of the poems in her pamphlet which we’re working on now and planning to launch in October. Exciting!
Huge thanks also to John McCullough, who’s been a friend of Telltale from the start, having read at our Brighton launch in 2014. John’s latest collection is Spacecraft (Penned in the Margins), a fine book which unsurprisingly sold well on the night.
Thank you to everyone who came, bought poetry, donated to the press and made the evening so much fun.
Here’s footage of Peter reading:
Poet Peter Kenny reads ‘Postcard from Ithaca’ from Telltale Press on Vimeo.
A good night of readings in Lewes
The upstairs room at the Lewes Arms is great for poetry readings – intimate, so need for a mic, but with a small stage. It’s also pretty quiet, unless the windows are open, in which case there’s inevitably a bit of noise from outside. If there are 30 people there it’s packed.
Anyway, the point is we had a super-relaxed Telltale Press & Friends night there on Wednesday, with a full room and attentive audience. Great to see so many poet friends and supporters.
The poets reading were Telltales Sarah Barnsley and Robin Houghton, newcomer Rebecca White and special guest Abegail Morley, with Siegfried Baber doing the introductions.
Thank you to everyone who came, and see you at the next one – date and venue tbc but probably in the summer – make sure you join our mailing list if you’re not already on it, and we’ll keep you posted.
Robin Houghton, Rebecca White, Sarah Barnsley and Abegail Morley after their readings.
Video: Peter Kenny & Jack Underwood at the Poetry Cafe
Two short clips from our Telltale Press & Friends night on 7th January 2016:
Great night of readings at the Poetry Cafe
On Thursday we had a full house at the Poetry Cafe in London for our first Telltale Press & Friends night of 2016.
Our guest poets were Jack Underwood and Kitty Coles. Jack’s first full collection Happiness was published last year by Faber & Faber – we heard poems from this plus a number of new poems. Kitty is an up and coming poet from Surrey who’s widely published across a range of magazines. Telltale readers were Peter Kenny and Siegfried Baber. It was an excellent variety of voices and a great way to kick off the New Year.
Thank you to everyone who came along, including Hilaire, Louise Ordish, Rebecca White and a host of lovely people, plus everyone who helped spread the word on social media – you are all stars.
Jack Underwood
Peter Kenny
Kitty Coles
Siegfried Baber