This email bugged for a long-time; I sussed out this morning what it
was. I find it richly ironic that Duncan is sniffy about poets writing
applications for money to write poetry. He spent a long time on the
dole, and is probably even as we speak working out why he should get a
job-seekers allowance.
Roger
On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 10:38 AM, David Bircumshaw
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Doug
>
> Somewhere in a recent book, I can't remember which off-hand, Andrew
> Duncan rather tartly observed (in respect of a number of British
> poets) that their abilities would be better displayed to the world if
> instead of publishing a Selected Poems they offered a Selected Grant
> Applications as that is where their true creativity and gifts lie.
> I'm paraphrasing Andrew there: the pun in the last word is an
> accidental harmonic.
>
> He is serious about the point though: if people's main energies as
> writers go into making applications for institutional funding, if that
> becomes their prime preoccupation as writers, you may well get writing
> that is in effect a representation or reflection of that.
>
> With Gillian Ferguson, well, the Arts Council bodies in Britain are
> refusing or withdrawing support all across the spectrum, to poets,
> publishers, groups, often for very small amounts, a few hundred pound
> here or there, particularly because of the monies required for the
> London Olympics, yet she's had a very considerable grant to do
> something, put a long poem onto the web, which no end of people do
> gratis. I wonder if she'd have done it without being paid?
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
> 2008/4/25 Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>
> > Not all poets know how to write really really good Grant Applications, Dave.
> > But some do, as I found out about a local poet recently (well he also writes
> > fiction & non-fiction)....
> >
> > Doug
> >
> > On 24-Apr-08, at 4:33 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> >
> >
> > > I might have to hard on her, Doug. Anyone who can create lines like:
> > >
> > > "Every man in the street is your brother;
> > > every tramp and king, film star or child.
> > >
> > > Look no further for your family,
> > > than all the nations of the world."
> > >
> > > and get paid 26 thousand pounds for it must have something going for 'um.
> > >
> > >
> > > Best
> > >
> > > Dave
> > >
> >
> >
> > Douglas Barbour
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> >
> > Latest books:
> > Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> > Wednesdays'
> >
> > http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
> >
> > There are no wrong notes!
> >
> > Thelonious Sphere Monk
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"She went out with her paint box, paints the chapel blue
She went out with her matches, torched the car-wash too"
The Go-Betweens
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