'Seventeen Steps' and Rogue Strands reading this Thursday 28 November

A few days ago my poem 'Seventeen Steps' appeared on Matthew Stewart's Rogue Strands blog as a little taster for the Rogue Strands poetry reading this Thursday, 28 November in London (along with a nice little writeup). 'Seventeen Steps' originally appeared in print a few years ago in Lighthouse. If you browse the Rogue Strands blog you will find poems by all of the readers.

The reading on Thursday is at the King and Queen Pub in Foley Street, London W1W 6DL. Details:
http://roguestrands.blogspot.com/2019/09/rogue-strands-poetry-reading.html
https://www.facebook.com/events/481827772654094/

Also you can donate here to the Trussell Trust for local foodbanks, as well as donating on the evening if you can come: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/roguestrands2019?fbclid=IwAR0ejtB1F9ICc7mAEKO3AQFOeLX4SR_Jq2MTJTTd0XedWTFjJygfDnqRjXA

New Poems Published and 2015 Readings

Norwich, November 2015. Photo by Clarissa Aykroyd


I recently had a couple of new poems published. One of these, 'Beekeeper', appears in the Mexico City-based The Ofi Press and you can read it here: http://www.ofipress.com/aykroydclarissa.htm

The other poem, 'Seventeen Steps', appears in Issue 10 of Lighthouse, a journal focusing on new writing by up-and-coming writers - and ah, the rarer delight of being published in print! You can purchase a copy of this issue here: http://www.gatehousepress.com/shop/anthologies/lighthouse-issue-10/

Both of these recent publications have been poems about (or inspired by) Sherlock Holmes. If this is starting to look like a theme, that's because it is a theme. Watch this space.

Another recently lovely thing was appearing on the list of the Best UK Poetry Blogs of 2015 at Matthew Stewart's highly regarded poetry blog Rogue Strands. You can find me in very good company here, with many other blogs that I would recommend: http://roguestrands.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-best-uk-poetry-blogs-of-2015.html

Finally, here's a list of the poetry readings I gave/took part in this year. I have a couple at least coming up in 2016, which I think will be another good poetry year.

• June - London: reading at Red Cross Garden as a poet-in-residence for the London Open Garden Squares Weekend
• July - Cambridge: reading at The Missing Slate anthology launch event, at the Judith E Wilson Studio
• September - London: reading at Red Cross Garden for their annual Flower & Vegetable Show
• October - London: reading with The Quiet Compere at the Hackney Attic
• November - Norwich: reading at the Lighthouse launch event at the Bicycle Shop

I hope that all poets, audiences and readers had as wonderful a year as possible.