One Night Stanzas

So yeah, TiLT took a break… I was that lethal combination of sick and busy. Sad trombones. BUT! A ton of lovely stuff happened in the intervening period, so yay! Here is some of it.

Working with wonderful women
I just finished work on part of a creative project with a local women’s community support group. In the interests of confidentiality, can’t get any more specific about it than that, but I can say that I had an incredible, emotional and hugely rewarding time working with these amazing women. When I was initially approached about facilitating this part of the project, I have to admit — I was kind of scared. I’d never worked with participants like these before, and I felt wholly unprepared for what might happen. I also felt extremely excited about the aims of the project, though, and knew that my involvement could potentially be something to be proud of. So I gathered all my courage about me and said yes.
Fast-forward a few months and I am gutted that this part of things is all wrapping up. I’ve had some of the best, most revealing discussions of my adult life over these past few weeks, and learned so much from the incredible women I was teaching! What’s more, I’ve had a whole ton of fun and laughs in the process. In a lovely but rather emotional final session, my wonderful group presented me with the bouquet of flowers above, along with some tasty chocs and a card. The card was filled with sweet messages thanking me for my presence and hard work — although in fact, all the hard work was done by the ladies themselves! Thank you, wonderful women of the world… you know who you are!

Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poems From The UK
HOW FREAKING GORGEOUS IS THIS BOOK? Seriously! It’s been months now since I got the exciting news that I’d be having three (or five? One’s a series of three) poems published within its pages, so I’ve been extremely impatient to get my hands on it for a good while now! Last Thursday night it was finally launched, at a brilliant event at Blackwells, one of my favourite places. Yours truly got up and read some poems (thanks a million billion zillion to the uber-talented Chris Scott for managing to photograph me not wearing my usual pug-chewing-toffee reading face!), alongside a glittering array of great poets — I particularly enjoyed hearing from Pippa Goldschmidt and Andrew J Wilson, Andrew C Ferguson’s poem about John Knox and the fishwife, and Jane McKie’s spellbinding moon poem. They all have several works in this lovely book, which would make a fantastic Christmas present for the geek in your life. I mean it!

Want to read more? Buy the book!

Major props to Russell, the editor, Tom, who runs Penned in the Margins, and the fabby people from Blackwells and beyond who organised the launch. There were sci-fi fairy cakes — here’s young Leon getting extremely interested in one! — and space travel survival kits on every seat! It was a great night, and as you may have gathered by now, it’s a great book! Buy one, buy one — support a great press, a ton of fabulous poets, and this exciting poetic genre!
(PS: I’m extra excited about this book because it’s the first major anthology I’ve ever seen published by an English publisher where Scottish poets make up the majority of contributors. More like this, please!)

Advent!
For some reason, I am extra-super-excited about Christmas this year. I feel like a little kid, counting down the days! I’m hyper-prepared… almost all my Christmas presents are bought, I know exactly what I’m going to bake for the big day (very important), and I’ve even bought myself a festive starry onesie (YES) to wear on Christmas morning for maximum present-opening cosiness. But the cherry on top of the festive prep cake was definitely my fabulous sister rocking up to my house on December 1st, bearing this amazing gift — a hand-made advent calendar! She knows it’s kind of tricky for us vegans to find a chocolate-y advent calendar that’s cruelty-free, so she took the stress out of it by just making one for Lovely Boyfriend and I. Each hand-sewn pouch is stuffed with dairy- and egg-free treats, and as the month goes on, the goodies get increasingly exciting! She is truly the best sister in the whole wide world.

Honourable mentions:
Vegan cooked breakfast a la Lovely Boyfriend // Getting my Christmas shopping SORTED without any stress, largely thanks to Etsy // MY NEW ONESIE. Seriously you guys. So cosy. // Book Week Scotland. I loved their events at the Mitchell Library last weekend. // Cute stuff on Tumblr (you’re welcome). // Balsam tissues. They are a life-saver… or at least, a nose-saver! // Lovely folks on Twitter // People who exclaim to me that my shop contains “the perfect gift!” for someone they know.

What are YOU loving this week?

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You can also visit Read This Press for poetry and typewriter paraphernalia! Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Over at Shakesville, one of my all-time favourite blogs, blogmistress Melissa has this to say about being a blogger and asking for gifts/money:

“Asking for money is incredibly hard for me. I hate doing it. I hate doing it so much, in fact, that there are times I’d actually rather be shit-broke. Part of it is just an innate aversion to asking for anything; part of it is that those threads always end up being extremely upsetting, for reasons that I imagine are evident to anyone who’s read any of them.

[...] Women’s service work, whether it’s mothering, elder care, volunteering, philanthropy, social work, employment in any “pink collar” profession, or social advocacy, is gravely devalued, frequently to the point where it is unpaid work altogether.

And when I don’t ask that my work be valued by the community, I’m feeding that narrative; I’m implicitly saying, “It’s okay to expect this from me. It’s okay to feel entitled to the product of a woman’s work for nothing in return.”—and that makes me feel even worse than asking for money does.”

In the four plus years I’ve run it, I’ve never really asked for money for One Night Stanzas. Sure, in the early days I posted the odd only-half-joking “wishlist”, and until someone tried to steal the image for my painstakingly-designed ‘donate’ button, ONS also had a tip-jar on the sidebar. But I’ve never actively asked for gifts or done anything to make you guys feel like you have to pay to read. It’s worth noting that I’ve also never attempted to make cash off the blog in other ways — I have done a grand total of one kind-of-sort-of-sponsored post in my entire four plus years as a blogger, and I’ve never, ever run ads here. I blog because I like it. Because I’m gobby and have lots of thoughts about stuff. Because the internet scares me and I want a corner of it that’s really safe for me to be — a space that’s just mine.

That said, Melissa did get me thinking. I’ve been hard at work in this space for over four years and it’s not just an echo chamber — although I’ve been moving more and more towards a ‘comments off’ policy here over the past little while (it’s just so much WORK, you guys), I know people do follow, read, enjoy what’s here. Therefore, why not ask for a little recognition? It’s just asking, right? It feels decidedly un-British, but hey, I’m going to do it anyway. So if you’ve read and liked/laughed at/been inspired by/shared the stuff I’ve been putting here over the past year or so*, then why not read on? I’ve included a few very small, very cheap ways that you can give a little something back to One Night Stanzas this festive season.

Buy my book.
You might already have it, but you can always give it as a gift to someone you know who likes one of the following things: poetry, old ladies, typewriters, books, Star Trek. For it has all those things and more inside its pages. There are only three copies left so this is the last chance you’ll ever get to buy one (except maybe in charity shops in years to come). They’re only four quid plus P&P. Read kind things smart people have said about the book — and then rush to buy a copy — right here.

Buy one of the books I have edited.
Sadly, the wonderful — even if I do say so myself — Skin Deep: Poems on Tattoos and Tattooing is now sold out. But! You can still buy one of the two Read This Press titles still available. The first of the two is Chris Lindores’ brilliant debut pamphlet You Old Soak. These are poems about drinking, awkward social interaction, walking around Edinburgh at night, and drinking some more. This book had a limited printing of 150 copies and each copy is uniquely hand-embellished with real red wine stains! Again, only four quid, and available here. The second of the two is the anthology Starry Rhymes: 85 Years of Allen Ginsberg, which contains poems from such superstars (seriously) as Ryan Van Winkle, Tracey S Rosenberg and Colin McGuire. It received a glowing review from the lovely Chris Emslie at Sabotage, which you should totally read. Again, your copy will be one of a tiny limited print run of 140 — every copy was painstakingly handmade! It’s only a fiver and it’s perfect for the Beat Generation enthusiast in your life. You can grab a copy right here.

Make a donation to Scottish Women’s Aid, or help someone living in a refuge
Earlier this year I completed training to become a Scottish Women’s Aid Community Champion, and the work I’ve done with SWA since has been one of the best things about my year. They’re an extremely deserving organisation whose staff, paid and voluntary, all work their socks off to make the lives of women in Scotland and beyond better, brighter and happier. The more donations they get, the more cool projects they can run — check out the recent I GET IT campaign, designed to get young people talking about what makes a healthy relationship — and the more difference they can make. You can buy me the Christmas present of a donation by clicking right here.
If you prefer, you can buy a real present for a woman or child who has been the victim of domestic violence or who is houseless at Christmas for some other reason. John Lewis has a gift list (number 522953) that allows you to buy a gift and send it straight to a woman or child currently living in a refuge. (NB: when picking gifts, bear in mind that most folk are likely to get things for babies. Bear the mums and older kids in mind, too!)

Buy something from Edinburgh Vintage.
Edinburgh Vintage is one of the many various things I do to keep the wolf from the door, as my gran would say, each month. I run it out of my spare room and most of the time, love it (occasionally — like recently, when an Etsy scam buyer swizzled me out of a gold watch AND the money it cost — not so much). It would be a big and much-appreciated deal to me if some of you fine people were to help support this little venture. There are some really nice bits and piece on there at the moment that, in my humble opinion, would make great Christmas gifts — and buying secondhand means unique presents that’re great for the environment! My picks might be this blue enamel coffeepot, which I am totally keeping if no one buys it by Christmas; this totally unused Estee Lauder cosmetics/beauty bag; a sleepy white kitty or a grey Beswick one for the cat-lovers in your life; this novelty wintery jumper, and maybe this amazing antique harmonica (I’m not a musician but this is one covetable little item!). Whether you decide to buy or not, I’d still super-appreciate it if you’d just have a browse (NB: I have a sale section AND a final clearance section)!

Buy me a present present.
If you’re feeling extra-super-generous, you can buy me an actual gift. I never expect anyone to actually do this, but it has happened very occasionally in the past and I’ve always been bowled over by the loveliness and generosity of my readers! So if this is an option you want to go for, you can check out my Etsy favourites (the first page is a lot of bling jewellery I’m keeping an eye on for my some-day lottery win… skip past that for the cheap second hand books and geek paraphenalia!) or my Amazon wishlist. I also get Christmas cards yearly from some ONS readers which is super super super lovely. If you’d like to Christmas card me, drop me a line to claire[at]onenightstanzas.com and I’ll let you know where to address your envelope to (by the way, die-hard readers… I no longer have the ONS PO Box I had for the first couple of years, so if you’ve saved that address, get in touch for a new one)!

If you do any of these things this Christmas, I will seriously love you forever. I will also double-triple promise to continue writing at One Night Stanzas, so this is srs stuff! There’re only twenty days to go now til the big day, so I think it’s no longer too premature to say this: Merry Christmas, ONS readers one and all!

*(If you haven’t, you can just look at these cute photos of a polar bear.)

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

(Photo credit)

Just a few of the things I’ve loved this week. This illustration makes the list!

Patrick Green’s “Melodrama.”

I’ll admit: I was worried. Patrick Green got in touch with me a while ago to say his new album, Melodrama, would be released on band camp in early November, and would I review it? I said sure, why not. Then I hit ‘play’ on Notte, the album’s first track. A spooky, breathy sound echoed out of my speakers and a tiny part of my brain wondered what I’d let myself in for. Would I like this album? What if I didn’t? That’d be awkward. Then a growly, almost-heavy-metal-style bassline kicked in and I thought, really awkward. But then…

Then, at 45 seconds in, the various disparate elements the song had been slowly layering one on another kind of… clicked. Patrick’s vocal line came in. I started tapping my foot, realising I was listening to a song that sounded a little bit like what might happen if The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Hollies got together to make a record. In other words — damn good.
I listened all the way through, and found there wasn’t a single track I didn’t like. That’s not the sort of praise I hand out lightly — as a vinyl aficionado, I know that “there’s not a bad track on the album” is an expression that’s usually reserved for only a precious few records. Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True, for example. Now, I’m not suggesting that young Patrick is any Elvis C or anything… but really, genuinely, every track here is great. I have favourites, of course: track two, ‘Halo,’ has a whole ton of stuff going on, but manages to be spare and haunting at the same time. (It starts with a vocal line that’s reminiscent of 1960s male vocal groups like Herman’s Hermits and the aforementioned Hollies, before morphing into something more contemporary… I thought of Turin Brakes, briefly. And then in the middle of it all you get this guitar line that sounds almost like something from an Old Western.) Probably my absolute favourite is ‘Other Worlds‘, which is much more contemporary — fans of Bon Iver, Jose Gonzalez and Broken Records will dig this track. But I also love the closing track, Lifespan, which has a sweeter side than some of the others — threads of Aberfeldy and Belle and Sebastian run through this sunny little song.

Every track has a thoroughly different feel to it — every track on this short-but-sweet album is working hard to do something interesting with it’s three-or-so minutes. That’s so rare these days, when big albums are released by big artists who waffle on in press releases about how This Is A Reinvention or This Is Me Being Original or whatever. Melodrama is chameleon-like, surprising and really enjoyable. Go listen to it now. All of you.

(You can check out more of Patrick’s work at his Bandcamp homepage, talk to him on Twitter or like his Facebook page.)

Christmas giftie things at Edinburgh Vintage

OK folks — whether you’re already excited or just totally in denial, Christmas is most definitely coming. The annoying TV ads have begun, which means it is definitely time to at least start thinking about what you’re going to buy for your loved ones. Personally, I am in the ‘already excited’ camp, and because I am super organised, I bought my first Christmas present way back in AUGUST. Yep, you heard me right! Anyway, for other organised folks, here’re a few suggestions for possible gifts from my very own lovely Etsy store, Edinburgh Vintage. Hope you like!

Lock & Key gold plated heart charm bracelet

Two for Joy novelty vintage bunny ring tray (oh, that amberish-looking necklace? Also for sale!

Owl Always Love You pair of real alabaster owlets (are you an owl lover?)

A History of Song antique 1930s Sonny Boy harmonica

Sleepy kitty porcelain ornament from The Cat Shop

Miss Scarlet stunning kick-flare vintage coat

What are YOU loving this week?

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

(Photo credit)

Cute earthenware Halloween pumpkin lantern candle holder — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Hey you guys, BY THE WAY, I have an Etsy store! (In fact, I have two, but that’s by the by.) It has a ton of lush autumnal lovelies in it at the moment, AND there’s a sale on until the end of October! You can get 20% off anything in the store — even the sale and clearance items — by quoting the coupon code EDINA20 at checkout. Read on for my autumnal picks — or click on the shop homepage to see what else I’ve got!

Pumpkin skirt — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Autumn berries sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Wrap up warm cap — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Gathering clouds sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Fireside sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Bramble overcoat — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Falling leaves scarf — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Farmhouse kitchen tea cosy — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

When my students not only exceed my expectations, they hit them right out of the park

I’m currently teaching this class of students — mostly women — who are studying a unit that is basically Literature 101. Some of them did English in school, but none of them are pursuing a humanities subject now: this unit is a requirement for them, not something they chose. When the term started, a lot of them were bemused about why on earth they were having to do a literature course at all. We did an introductory exercise in which I asked them to list the first ten words that came to mind when they thought about poetry. “Boring”, “pretentious” and “pointless” all came up.

Fast-forward a month: last week we started talking about literary techniques. I decided that, rather than me just producing a Xeroxed A4 handout that they’d probably all just stuff into a folder and forget about, I’d get them to make their own literary techniques resource to refer to. That way, they’d have to go away and research the techniques, and they could put together something to use that would suit their own personal learning style. I told them they had one week, could be as creative as they liked, and that there’d be a small prize for the best resulting handout. I then promptly forgot all about it.

Imagine my utter, utter delight when I walked into the classroom this week and started being handed things like this:

^ This student hand-bound her book from scratch and used 100% reclaimed materials, including old envelopes. Meanwhile, check out the booklet below, which has pop-up pages, pull-out tabs and tons of illustrations:

One of my favourites came from a student who’d decided to focus on the fact that many of the class find poetry “boring.” She decided to come up with a way to make it Definitely Not Boring… um, success! Check it out:

“And just like magic, poetry suddenly bored no one.”

All of the resources the class came up with were thoughtful, creative, colourful and fun.

One student even went to the trouble of making a “poetree”! It’s made from real twigs she found around the place, and each leaf has a different literary technique defined on it. It clearly took a heck of a lot of thought and effort — and when she produced it from a carrier bag under her desk, it got a huge cheer from the rest of the group!

I’ve had something of an epiphany about my job these past couple of months. Only a few weeks ago I was applying for jobs at universities and going to very stuffy and often downright unpleasant interviews for entry-level faculty posts. Then a bunch of things like this happened, kind of like the Universe was slapping me around the head and going, why the hell would you want to work in a university when community education offers you this sort of stuff?! Now I can’t quite believe I was ever thinking of leaving. I’m so happy to be working in this incredible community (Granton and Pilton REPREZENT!) with these amazing young people. No matter what my expectations are, they’re exceeded. No matter how much I think I’ve seen, I can still be not just surprised, but overwhelmed, by the incredible creativity and flair of my students. This sounds mushy, I know… but these past couple of months have been a massive emotional turnaround for me. I’ve taken stock and realised that actually, I freaking love my job. Thank you, lovely students, and thank you, Universe, for waking me up before I made a massive career mistake!

The Folio Society

My unrequited love affair with the Folio Society has been going on for years. It started when I was about 12 and my parents signed up to be members. When they joined up, they got sent some kind of new members reward which basically amounted to a huge stack of the prettiest books I had ever seen. I remember spending a lot of time perusing the catalogue, folding over many a page, trying to decide which of the incredible gilt-edged, beautifully illustrated, cloth-bound, gift-boxed tomes I would like for Christmas. It was basically book porn.

I was pretty psyched this summer, too, when I found out that The Folio Society were sponsoring what was without a doubt my absolute favourite event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival: Marina Warner, talking about her new book on the Arabian Nights. Not only was Marina on top form (I so fangirled all over everywhere), but after the very fabby event I was chuffed to be handed a free Folio Society gift bag full of free goodies! Thank you very much indeed, Folio Society!

But the Folio Society have now outdone themselves by sending me this utterly gob-smackingly gorgeous special edition copy of The Master and Margarita (full disclosure: in exchange for a mention in this post. But I’d've been happy to shout my love for them from the highest rooftops anyway). This book is super-special to me, and my little cheapie paperback copy is pretty battered and worn-out. This shiny new hardback comes in its own cloth-covered box and I mean… look. Just look at these illustrations!

It’s like Christmas come early here at ONS Towers, it really is!
Anyway, I urge you to go and check out the Folio Society website, because it is full of drool-some delights. The Master and Margarita, which you can buy here, is only one of the hundreds of beautiful books on offer. If you’re a bookworm, you might want to add a few (dozen?) to your Christmas list — if you know a bookworm, anything from the Folio Society store is a guaranteed Christmas present winner! Get shopping!

What are you loving this week?

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

(Photo credit)

I have waxed lyrical about Keel’s Simple Diary before: indeed, I have recommended it as a Christmas gift before. Good news for those of you who took my advice last time and found the diary was a hit — Taschen have just brought out volume II, and it’s just as good as the first one. The diary’s cheery slogan is “Shrink Problems!”, and although you might take a first look at the inner pages and raise an eyebrow, these little books are actually pretty effective.

(Photo credit)

Journalling is something I wholeheartedly subscribe to, and encourage others (namely, my long-suffering students) to do, too. But even I will admit: it can be tiresome work. You feel a sense of duty to do it at least semi-regularly; I am always beset with feelings of narcissism if I go beyond a page a day. The Simple Diary removes the hassle from journalling. Given a tiny page each day and very little space within that page to actually write, you’re forced to concentrate your thoughts, feelings, anxieties and worries down into just a few words. I’ve found that doing this really does automatically make them feel smaller. You’re also given prompts — multiple choice questions, pick-a-word questions, etc — that often make you think “eh?”, but they force you to pause, think laterally, maybe see things a little differently. The Simple Diary is like a good therapist, only much cheaper; like a self-help book only nowhere near as irritating. This is journalling for busy people, for cynical people, for list-makers. Most of all, this is journalling for poets. Seeing each page as a writing prompt would be a damn fine experiment. Any takers…?

Find out more at simplediary.com or buy a copy of Vol 1 or Vol 2 at Taschen.

What do you want for Christmas?

A little more shameless self promotion — yesterday, you got to hear about my vintage store, Edinburgh Vintage. Today, it’s the turn of my other Etsy store, Read This Press, which is much more suitable for poetic gift-giving!

For over two years I was the founding editor of Read This Magazine, a grassroots arts and literature zine aimed at promoting the work of new, young and emerging writers. After our editors scattered to the four winds in 2010, I wanted to carry on the work of RT in some way that would allow me to manage the workload alone (I know, some folk edit magazines single-handedly. I genuinely have no idea how).

Read This Press was born. We (as my team has now expanded to include Stephen Welsh, aka Lovely Boyfriend) make small, limited edition runs of handmade poetry chapbooks, make them as pretty as we can and sell them for a teeny price in the hope that we can lure some non-poetry readers in our direction and trick them into seeing that poetry is actually awesome. Our most recent endeavour was an anthology of poems inspired by the great Allen Ginsberg, Starry Rhymes, which you can buy here. We also published Eric Hamilton’s Sharks Don’t Sleep, which is sadly sold out.

Skin Deep, our first Read This Press title: an anthology of tattoo-related poems by talented folks like Kim Addonizio and Kevin Cadwallender.

To support the press, I also started making typewriter-related jewellery and accessories, in collaboration with Amanda of Reworkd Workshop. As a typewriter fanatic, though, I found it heart-wrenching to think of all the beautiful machines that had been ripped up in order to create our bracelets and necklaces (no, really). I gave up the jewellery-making a while ago, but the pieces I have leftover from my jewellery days are still for sale on the site — and there are others yet to be listed, so keep checking back!

The Camel Necklace, currently for sale here.

As the Christmas shopping frenzy is upon us, I’ll be uploading new items as often as I can in the next little while. If you like what you see in the shop, stick around and check back regularly. Please note: I am totally open to handing out mates’ discounts, so drop me a line if you see something you fancy and I may well be willing to haggle! Enquiries to claire[at]onenightstanzas[dot]com.

Merry Christmas Shopping!