It has been (as Garrison Keillor never wrote) a packed week, and a very satisfying one. I found out I’d got a Highly Commended in the Buzzwords Competition (along with my good friend Maria Isakova Bennett), and a 2nd prize in the Otley Poetry Prizes, which is organised by the OWF, and the indefatigable Peter White, Jane Kite and Sandra Burnett. (it occurs to me, retrospectively, that there’s no reason now why I shouldn’t share the poems, so I’ll add them as a p.s. at the end.

I’ve been ‘interviewed’ twice …once ‘virtually’ for The Wombwell Rainbow, which is a fascinating blog site that’s recently posted a whole sequence of interviews with a load of poets…(Stephanie Bowgett is the latest)…and is well with a visit; the other was a programme on Chapel FM which is a community radio station based in Seacroft in Leeds. It’s housed in a stunningly renovated…