I wasn't only thinking of that narrow river 'poetry', Matthew, but I do
notice that word 'provincial' re-appears in your message. Now Bloodaxe and
Carcanet might be physically based in the 'provinces' (those places where
the Emperor might visit if there's danger of a rebellion) but in terms of
cultural space they're not, likewise, it would be misleading to consider the
magazines you mention that are based outside London as being 'regional' ,
other than I guess Poetry Wales, which is not a criticism of those
publications.
I'll come back later on this Mathew as it's early morning and getting ready
for work time here.
Best
david b
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Francis <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 12:22 AM
Subject: Re: A caution
> David Bircumshaw writes:
> >
> >
> I live 100 miles from London. An hour and a bit on the train. Therefore I
am
> a 'provincial'. The disproportionality of resources available in London in
> relation to the rest of the country is of the nature of an extreme case,
as
> is the accompanying distortion of the country's cultural-psychological
map.
> But, this is a big 'but', many parts of London itself are just as distant
> from the Grand Centre as say Rotherham is.
> >
> >
> I'm not so sure about this, at least as far as poetry is concerned. It is
> certainly true of the wider publishing and media scene (and of course most
> other aspects of British culture). The big publishers are in London, but
> poetry is too commercially insignificant for most of them these days. I
> would have thought the majority of poetry books published in the UK are
from
> provincial firms: Bloodaxe, Carcanet, Seren etc. For magazines, it's
Poetry
> London, London Magazine, Agenda, Poetry Review against PN Review, Stand,
The
> Rialto, Poetry Wales etc - again, London does well but the provinces don't
> seem to be neglected. Certainly there are plenty of poetry events in
London,
> but what would you expect? There's plenty of everything - it's a big city.
> I've always found enough going on in Cardiff and the south of England. I
> remember writing to Flambard and being told they couldn't publish me
because
> I wasn't from the north-east (a condition of their funding was that a
> certain percentage of their poets had to be local). I don't think poets
from
> more prosperous parts of the country can take advantage of this kind of
> handicapping. I speak as a non-Londoner, though I too am near enough to
take
> a daytrip there from time to time. Shame Roddy Lumsden, who does live in
> London, isn't on this list any more. He's always touchy about any
suggestion
> that he belongs to a metropolitan establishment (see his argument on
Martin
> Blyth's website http://martinblyth.co.uk), and I always used to enjoy the
> resultant rhetoric.
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> Matthew Francis
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Visit my website at http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk
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