Skeleton Architecture

Toffee by Sarah Crossan is supposed to be a Young Adult book, but don't let the teens keep it to themselves. The story is perhaps best introduced by this widely referenced quote from the book itself: I am not who I say I am, and Marla isn't who she thinks she is. I am a girl trying to forget. She is a woman trying to remember. This story is about a teen who feels she has nowhere to go and an elderly woman so used to being unseen that she barely sees herself anymore, and now she's got dementia to deal with. Sarah Crossan is the Irish Children's Laureate, and she writes young adult verse novels, which is not a description I love for this book. It is written in poem-type-things which use poetic aspects, but mainly serve to provide narrative of the story in vignettes, cutting to the important bits. The protagonist, Allison, is not ready to talk about the trauma that has brought her together with the elderly and confused Marla, and one particular incident i...

I've mentioned Picaroon Poetry before on this blog. It's a web based poetry magazine that I really love, and I've been really happy to have had a couple of my poems published in it. Picaroon Poetry is run by Kate Garrett, who I am delighted to say has agreed to be my very first interviewee on Skeleton Architecture. I'm planning to do this as hopefully a regular thing, and if it's as easy to work with everyone else I'd like to interview as it has been to work with Kate that will work out beautifully! Kate has a new poetry collection out now, The saint of milk and flames is published by Rhythm & Bones Press, and you can get print and ebook versions of it here , alternatively, you can get a signed copy from Kate for £10 (or £15 international), which includes postage, just go to her Paypal, here . Let's get on with the interview.... Many thanks to Kate Garrett, for agreeing to be my first interviewee.  Kate, I first came across you as the editor...

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If ever there was a time that we needed dreams and visions to help us lay the foundations for our changing future it's now! The politicians are not doing enough for the climate emergency we're facing (big up to Scotland for doing more than some, but it's still not enough). The far right are being given power by the electorate, as if they had legitimate opinions or something, but hooray for the greens and lefties making gains too. The Great Bloviator, Donald Trump has been invited  to visit our shores where he's stirring his hateful pot, and slagging off Meghan Markle. Rude. Let us hope the Queen's brooch game is strong, or perhaps she'll just wear a 'Nasty Woman' badge ( here's a rather lovely one )? So, in the face of this, if your poetry game is strong, or if you just want to push yourself to get your poetry out there  here are just some of the submission windows for poetry that are currently open: Magazines: Spitball Magazine - NEW ...