Friday, November 27, 2009
Three poems in Edinburgh Review: Czech (#128)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The Fine Line Consultancy
Kate Gould, a young up-start and the new Chief Editorial Consultant at The Fine Line (editorial consultancy), contacted me recently about her new business. She said, "The idea is to give would-be/wannabe/writing writers a taste of what people who are out there doing it are up to. Not so they can purloin things from you, but so that they’ll lift their heads from their laptops, and realise there’s a world out there. There are quite a lot of editorial consultancies out there so, to give mine an edge over theirs, I’m making the site as much about writers and writing as about the service I provide..."
I thought this sounded quite interesting and inviting so wrote her a short piece on 'how I write', which, as you'll hopefully see... is quite fledgling compared to some of the other greats up there. I'm just starting out myself so don't have much advice (and appreciate resources like this), but hopefully someone out there will find something useful in what I've said.
Anyhow! Read my piece here at The Fine Line.
And check out this fancy one called 'Smitten By the Art' by my old tutor (& good friend!) the brilliant Robert Alan Jamieson.

The Fine Line is an Edinburgh-based Editorial Consultancy, committed to helping new, burgeoning, and established writers realise their literary potential. Our aim is to inspire and assist. We provide advice to get you started, lessons to download, insights into the methods of working writers, and an editorial service designed for your individual needs.
HEY! And check this out! Looks like they're having a caption-writing competition! Prize is a free Moleskine notebook to the best 5 captions! Contest information here. Deadline January 31st.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Aesthetica: At the Airshow
Dear Aiko Harman
I am writing to let you know that you have been selected as a finalist for the International Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. Category: Poetry, Title of piece: At the Airshow was highly commended by the judges. Congratulations on this massive achievement. We had over 3000 entries this year.
A few more details:
Again congratulations on your success!
- Winners from each category will be announced just before publication.
- As a finalist, you will receive a complimentary hard copy.
- The Aesthetica Annual will be available from Borders nationwide on 1 December and from www.aestheticamagazine.com
Best wishes
Alexis Smith
Aesthetica Magazine
HOW COOL IS THAT!
I'll post again with pictures once my complimentary copy arrives. Do go check it out at Borders in December! It should be available to buy in the Aesthetica Magazine shop by then as well, in both digital and hard copy. AND BETTER STILL, I just found out my good friend and colleague Kate Charles has also been selected as a finalist, so there'll be even more good stuff inside - I guarantee it! Just as an aside, I'm not usually much up for submitting to prizes since they tend to include a hefty reading fee, but this year Aesthetica offered a discounted submission rate for students, so I gave it a go. I'm really appreciative of magazines and contests that offer cheaper (or free!) rates, especially to students, and am happy to support when I can. Aesthetica is a great-looking magazine, and I can't wait to see the contents of the Creative Works annual.
Edit: Another colleague, Russell Jones, also shortlisted! Check him out!
And of course, get your copy of the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual today!: Shop
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Letting Up: Pause - available now!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Open Magazine: Things You Can Learn How To Be, etc
Things are happening fast these days! Open Magazine has just published my poem, Things You Can Learn How To Be (by doing a search on the internet), in their weekly update, with promise of three more poems in the forthcoming weeks. You can read Things You Can Learn How To Be here.Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Syllabary: FuP 'June, July or August'

Saturday 10 October, 7pm
at Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh
Peter McCarey's The Syllabary: Launches x 2
We're delighted to be hosting the liquid launch of not one but two syllabaries:
Syllabary 3.0, which has been test run on www.knot.ch all summer, and "Provisional Title", a syllabary whose 2200-odd cells will be written by as many different people. If you want to contribute, come along for your syllable and instructions, or come to hear the random rant.
In the phonetic context of Peter McCarey's Syllabary, some 2200 people will each be asked to write one poem for a given cell of the structure. The first poems have already been submitted. Should you wish to join in, ask the compiler (mccarey@perso.ch) to send you a random syllable. You should then write a short text – 20 lines max – that contains all the words in the cell you get; some cells contain only one word, others contain dozens. Send a text file and an mp3 recording of your contribution to the compiler.
Free, all welcome
The phonetic structure I mentioned above is set out in a 3-dimensional grid that contains a total of 3600 possible combinations of initial consonant, vowel, and terminal consonant. About two-thirds of these cells contain at least one meaningful monosyllabic word; some contain up to fifty. All the noises are read out, and I'm writing a text for each meaningful cell, based on all the relevant words. The program meanders from one to another by alternating initial, vowel or terminal, one step at a time.

All the fat feral pigeons are pregnant,
stumbling around on the awnings,
drunk with eggs and summer.
One flumps to the pavement
like a slung burlap sack of seed,
foraging for dust, discarded chips or bugs
in the cracks, anything, lust-hungry.
Even an old frump, feathers matte
with crisp white bits, still coaxes
a crude lover who croons to her
on the plinth of a window ledge,
does his spinning dance on splintered legs,
puffs his plump body up before her,
and wins, in time for laying season.
June, July or August, first in The Syllabary, for Peter McCarey 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Mesostic: Interleaved project
100 mesostic poems composed on an eclectic selection of 100 authors. Published to commemorate the redevelopment of Edinburgh University Library (2009), Mesostic Interleaved is a poetic bibliography of eminent thinkers in the fields of Science & Technology, Politics & Economics, Languages & The Arts. Each page has space for writing your own poems and notes.The project coincided with the re-opening of the University of Edinburgh Main Library. There was a big christening event for it a few weeks back, where Ian Rankin amongst others spoke about their experiences with the library (back when he was an Edinburgh student!) versus what it's become today. I'll not rehash an explanation of what the BBC has already covered. The event was lovely though, and gave me a chance to see what had been done with the mesostics! (A couple of my coursemates and I got involved with the project last November, so its been nearly a year in development for us!)


And head here for the Library Information Services 'Art in the Redevelopment' news article: A great explanation, with pictures! - thanks Denny!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Pomegranate Iss.9: 'Golden Gai'
Monday, September 21, 2009
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: 'Pause'
Fortunately for me, I've been lucky enough to collaborate with Mike on the lyrics for a song! He's taken lines from two of my poems (Pause and In the Parking Lot) and made them into track 5 on the new album. He's titled the song 'Pause', and the female vocals are by Amy Izushima. It's totally exciting to me to see the way he's taken parts of the two poems and set them to music to create something completely new.
I've included the lyrics here below and a link to some of his other new tracks to sample online. PLEASE go support Mike's band if you like what you hear. The new album is available for pre-order off of Amazon and in the iTunes store & I'm sure Letting Up will be touring Los Angeles & beyond as we speak. I'm so pleased with how this turned out.
Pre-order the full-length at Amazon.com: click here!
And here in the iTunes store: click here!
I'll definitely post again once I've got a copy of the CD here so you can see all the album art, etc. And of course a HUGE thanks to mlee for this collaboration - even the sea can't stop us!
Pause (lyrics)
I blew into it; I dreamed it real
Could it be you?
And I trail you
I think you know this.
My pace increases
The rest of the way
Stock-still in the parking lot,
I snap out of this, catch myself
I stand on the causeway of time,
A suitcase of sentiments trailing behind,
Waiting for you (to carry me)
I'll catch myself
where we first met
holding out your hand
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
'Masters', a chapbook from Read This Press
News! 'Masters', the latest chapbook from Read This Press, is now available for pre-order! Head over to One Night Stanzas for more information on how to buy:http://www.readthismagazine.co.uk/onenightstanzas/?p=1075
My classmate, Claire Askew, editor & founder of Read This Press has put together an anthology of poetry representing the poetry students (me!) on the MSc course at Edinburgh University. The anthology showcases seven other poets & myself, including (copied from Claire's website):
Excited yet? I am!"Niki Andrikopoulou, a passionate political poet from Athens, Greece // Aileen Ballantyne, journalist-turned-poet and winner of the Sloan Prize 2009 // Dave Coates, originally from Belfast in Nothern Ireland, now a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library, the lucky swine! // Aiko Harman, American poet and recently a London Poetry Festival Poet in Residence // Natalia Herrero, hailing from Mexico and now living in Edinburgh, previously published in Tontine and Read This // Struan Robertson, Read This Magazine editor, metapoet, budding filmmaker // and Hayley Shields, previously published in Textualities and a reader at Blackwells 2008 Best of Scottish Writing Event. (I’m also in there of course, but you all know who I am!)
The anthology is not yet OUT, only available for pre-order. There is a reason for this, however — there will only be TWENTY COPIES available for general sale, so if you want one, I suggest getting a pre-order in as they’ll go quickly. Copies are a bargainous £5 (plus p&p), and if you pre-order one now you can expect it to land on your doormat sometime in mid to late September."
My poems Authenticity is a Bird and Hart are featured in this chapbook, so if you haven't seen them already at Poets Letter or Poetry Super Highway, respectively, then this is your chance!! Also, I'm positive the contributions by my classmates are more than worth your poetry ££s.
Please do pick up a copy from Read This Press while they last.
I believe we contributors will receive a few copies as well, so if you miss out from Claire, do give me a shout and I'll try to send one along.









