Category Archives: News

Sarah Barnsley joins Telltale

We’re absolutely delighted to welcome our newest member, Sarah Barnsley.

Sarah Barnsley was born in 1974 grew up in the Midlands. She was shortlisted for an Eric Gregory Award (2004), the Bridport Prize (2010), and was joint runner-up in the Poetry School/Pighog Pamphlet Competition (2014). Sarah teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has published poems in a range of magazines, as well as essays on American modernist poetry. Her first book of literary criticism, Mary Barnard, American Imagist, was published by SUNY Press in 2013. Sarah lives in Hove.

We’ll be publishing Sarah’s pamphlet later in the year, so watch out for further news of that. She will also be one of our readers at the next ‘Telltale Poets & Friends’ event at the Poetry Cafe on June 18th.

A small stake in printspace

The Poetry Society’s Spring issue of Poetry News, featured Telltale’s own Robin Houghton writing about blogging. Robin, in fact, is a bit of a blogging boffin and has written three books on the subject, including Blogging for Writers. In her article she quizzed  some of Britain’s best-known bardic bloggers: Sarah Westcott, Abegail Morley, Roy Marshall, Josephine Corcoran, John Field, Anthony Wilson and George Szirtes about what makes their blogs tick, and how this relates to their other writing.

Well worth pilfering a copy of Poetry News if you’ve not seen it.

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Robin Houghton in Poetry News

A great night at the Lewes Arms

Telltale Poets and Friends at the Lewes Arms

Peter Kenny, Siegfried Baber, Helen Fletcher & Martin Malone

Telltale Press & Friends took the Lewes Arms by storm last night, battling a train derailment, a ukulele group next door, and the warmest day of the year so far. . . but the room was full, everybody was happy and it was fantastic to see so many friendly faces.

Unfortunately Ryan Whatley wasn’t able to make it, but Siegfried Baber stepped up with about ten minutes’ notice and read from his new pamphlet, When Love Came To The Cartoon Kid. Although the pamphlet launches officially next month, our Lewes audience got a sneak preview and sales were good.

Peter Kenny was marvellous as the opening reader, performing one long poem from memory to great effect, and in the second half we heard readings from Helen Fletcher and Martin Malone. Helen had come all the way from Carlisle, and Martin from Warwickshire. Both were well received and the evening felt like a wonderful mix of styles and subject matter, not to mention a groovy poet get-together.

In the audience was a fearsome array of poetic talent, including many of the Lewes literati, plus Stephen Bone, a brilliant supporter of the press (read Robin’s review of his collection ‘In the Cinema’), and Roy Marshall who was there partly to get Martin home before the witching hour.

We also announced our latest Telltale Poet – but more about her shortly!

Huge thanks to our helpers & invaluable supporters Lorraine and Nick, and to the folks at the Lewes Arms for their hospitality … we’ll be back!

Announcing our newest member Siegfried Baber

The Telltale collective is expanding! We’re delighted to announce that Siegfried Baber has come on board and we’ll be publishing his pamphlet When Love Came to the Cartoon Kid…

STOP PRESS – pamphlet launch in Bath on May 13th at Topping’s Bookshop!

Siegfried joined us for ‘Telltale Poets and Friends’ at the Poetry Cafe in January and everyone was impressed with his work and the confidence of his reading. Associate Editor Catherine Smith praised his ‘distinct voice and great imagery’ and we’re all very excited. We’ll be looking to have a launch event in Bath, and there’ll be more opportunities to hear Sieg read, so we’ll keep you posted about that.

Siegfried Baber

Siegfried Baber was born in Barnstaple, Devon in 1989. Since graduating from Bath Spa University with a degree in Creative Writing, he lives and works in the city as a freelance writer, and as a barman in Bath’s finest pub, The Star Inn. His poetry has featured in a variety of publications including Under The Radar, The Interpreters House, Butcher’s Dog Magazine, Peleton: 2013 Templar Anthology, and as part of the Bath Literature Festival.

Telltale interviewed at Sphinx

Helena Nelson of HappenStance interviewed Robin Houghton about Telltale Press and publishing collectives on the Sphinx website.

Read the article here…Are publishing co-operatives the answer?

‘The Nightwork’ reviewed in Antiphon and London Grip

Two perceptive and encouraging reviews of Peter Kenny’s ‘The Nightwork’.

The first by Ian Badcoe in Antiphon refers to ‘genuinely engaging moments and a wide variety of worlds to choose between’.  And found ‘a very enjoyable short read and the quality of materials and presentation are a bonus. I am interested to see what author and publisher come up with next.’

Read Ian Badcoe’s full review here.

John Forth in London Grip found ‘Peter Kenny’s work is fun of a serious kind… most of his trips to a hinterland of waking dream in this pamphlet will do his reputation no harm…. But if, as seems likely, this pamphlet begins an invasion of the mainland, it’s a welcome one.’

Find John Forth’s full review here.

Lovely evening of readings at the Poetry Cafe

Readers at the Telltale Press event, Poetry Cafe, 7th Jan 2015

L to R: Robin Houghton, Peter Kenny, Rhona McAdam, Catherine Smith, Siegfried Baber

Last Wednesday we kicked off the New Year with a super evening at the Poetry Cafe  – more about it here on Poetgal. We’re already looking forward to the next one – will keep you posted!

Happy New Year – join us at the Poetry Cafe

First week into the New Year we’re back on the road at the Poetry Cafe, or as Peter Kenny eloquently puts it:

“After the orgy of booze-fuelled ribaldry that is December, why not turn over a new leaf in 2015 and make your first social outing one for the soul? Poetry from the outstanding Canadian poet Rhona McAdam, the frankly steamy Catherine Smith, shining new talent Siegfried Baber, plus the multi-prize winning Robin Houghton and myself in the centre of London.”

Yee-haa! Please come, bring your friends and let’s get started on 2015 with some shiny new poetry. Rhona McAdam is over from Canada, so take this opportunity to hear a brilliant talent… and Catherine Smith’s ‘The New Cockaigne’ is a fantastic, rollicking satirical tale in verse.

Free entry, all welcome … we hope to see you there, and will have news of our plans for 2015 and beyond.

With best wishes for a fantastic Christmas and New Year…

January at the Poetry Cafe

RhonaMcAdam_AuthorPhoto2_CreditAlexisYobbagyWe’re planning another Telltale & Friends reading at the Poetry Cafe on January 7th 2015, when one of our guest readers will be Rhona McAdam, a fine Canadian poet whose sixth full-length poetry collection, Ex-ville, is published by Oolichan Books this month.

Rhona spent some years in London and still returns regularly, so we’re delighted she can join us in January.

Meanwhile we’re also hoping to introduce the next Telltale Poet – exciting!

(Photo: Alexis Yobbagy)

New review of ‘Great Vowel Shift’ on Sabotage

‘The Great Vowel Shift’ has received a wonderful review by Afric McGlinchey on Sabotage Reviews

“Robin Houghton’s chapbook, beautifully produced by Telltale Press, is an engaging collection of amuse-bouches, alternating droll, ‘slant’ narratives with subtle poignancy.”

“…her poems live equally comfortably in rural (riverine) and urban environments, and her diversity, cultural references and lack of self-consciousness are really refreshing.”

Read the review here…