2021: the bright spots in a darkling year
JLM Morton x infinite mirror
Prone to grumpy catastrophising, I tried to make a list of things I’ve been grateful for in my 2021 writing life. Might regret / delete later… but then again, I might not – the writers’ life is full of hard won battles to blacken the page. It’s good to count the blessings.
Putting this down reminds me how much writing is made possible by collaboration, community and the sheer DIY camaraderie of it all ...
Writing Drowning Backwards (a retelling of the Sabrina / River Severn myth) and collaborating with the lovely musician Oonagh Davies and field recordist Joff Elphick. We hoped to debut the film at Severn Worlding at SVA Gallery in November but Covid postponed it – fingers crossed for next year.
Accepting rejection as a normal part of the writer’s life that doesn’t need to wreck your day / week / life / self-belief. Having the confidence to start sending poems out again – getting published in some cool mags, esp The Rialto, one of my faves.
Being awarded an Arts Council DYCP grant blew my mind and is helping me make a massive step change in my work.
Stroudwater Textile Trust’s poetry residency - the poetry walks I’ve led in Rodborough and Wallbridge in particular have focused my energies and sparked inspiring exchanges with historians, artists, walkers and more about Stroud’s heritage of cloth and colonialism.
Working with Philip Rush of Yew Tree Press – wonderful teacher and poet, wise mentor, all round excellent human being. Taught me the power and value of creative process in and of itself.
Publication of Sentient, a micropamphlet meditation on hedgerows and the healing season of last winter in lockdown. Collaborating with the uber talented Susie Hetherington on this
Persuading 30+ women writers to film themselves reading for #1MinuteWonderWomen for International Women’s Day – all up on Dialect’s YouTube channel now.
Seeing Dialect grow and nurture new talent – especially the deep work with mentees and writers in residence.
Prioritising my own writing and setting aside daylight hours to get sh*t done, instead of shoving it to the fag end of the day.
Living with Water – swim-walking the River Churn for an MUP commission, exploring ideas of home and belonging and ending up in a place I didn’t expect.
Although it was a small one, my poem ‘The Startling’ being part of If Trees Were Lone Women What Would They Sound Like for Lone Women in Flashes of Wilderness was awesome - my voice joining with 140 other women to speak and claim space in the trees in Galloway Forest. Linked to this, it took me ages to get right but my poem ‘These Specified Offences’ about the many times I’ve been sexually harassed, followed, flashed at etc. was accepted for publication in Trigger Warning, an anthology forthcoming early 2022.
Cuda Ex Nihilo – micropamphlet publication on the iron age goddess, the start of a larger project – in tandem with being part of Invoking Absence: water, mineral, deity – exhibition curated by the visionary Patricia Brien
Somehow managing to crowdfund DIRT, a new ecopoetry press that will print on plantable paper with the lovely force of supernature Alice Willitts. First publications coming 2022.
Writers’ workshops in the stunning walled garden at Museum in the Park on hedgerows and the stories held in the collection. Swooooooon for the planting there.
Starting my mentorship with Pascale Petit – beyond lucky to have her as my guide. Won’t jinx it by saying more!
Watching The Outposted Project thrive and reach out to new artists, writers and makers – exhibition coming soon.
Doing Anthony Anaxagorou’s advanced poetry course is probably the single most powerful dose of salts I’ve taken for my writing in the last part of the year. What a teacher he is, what a thinker.