Following my post on 9 January about the passing of dear Dennis Greig, here is a marvellous obituary in The Guardian by Peter Pegnall, one of Dennis’s dearest friends and a poet published many times by Lapwing.
‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends / And say my glory was I had such friends.’ W B Yeats
I’m thrilled to let you know that Mica Press has accepted my fifth book of poetry for publication next spring or summer. Mica is an extraordinary little press in Wivenhoe near Colchester run by Leslie Bell. In 1984 Les, with a striking miner and a lorry driver to help, carried a second hand press into his sitting room to carry out his poetic dream. Life doesn’t flow in straight lines and it wasn’t until 2012 that Mica was really under way as one of the most select and excellent presses in the UK.
Having seen my Dylan Thomas parody ‘Just the Ticket’ online, he contacted me to ask if I would join his submissions window last autumn so of course I did. Les (an excellent poet himself) says: ‘Mica Press hardly claims to know what poetry is, what work it will publish, as it can only declare itself in a poetry nation seemingly pockmarked with publicity about prizes by appearing opaque but letting some firelight through, like the mineral it is named after.’
Mica (pronounced Mike-ah) is a sharp, gleaming mineral used (among other things) as an abrasive in toothpastes and to provide the gleam in some cosmetics. Les says the word is Latin for a crumb, and probably influenced by micare, to glitter. I grew up looking for the starlight of flint in dark Mourne granite and love that our cover for ‘Safe Ground’ is to be a photograph (of me aged around seven) taken by my darling dad close to the Mourne wall in County Down.
Mica’s books are beautiful to hold as well as read. I look forward to our editing process and am deeply honoured to become a Mica poet.
I am editing this post in March 2024 to bring you the latest on Mica Press’s website, namely their new titles and a new online bookshop!
Lapwing Publications in Belfast has been my happy poetry home since 2010 when Dennis Greig offered to publish my first book, Sweet Seventeens. Over the past three years, Dennis has been coping with incredible courage with a sharp decline in his health.
In 1988 Dennis and his wife Rene started Lapwing after chatting with Michael Longley and Mairtin Crawford about the need for an independent Northern Irish based poetry publisher. The Arts Council NI helped with a modest sum to start with but for much of its existence Lapwing has been financially independent from any arts body.
Dennis’s son (publisher and writer) Amos Greig says: Over those 36 years Lapwing has published roughly 400 poetry pamphlets, chapbooks and collections helping new and established writers reach a new audience and Dennis has provided years of service to the poetry community both in Ireland and abroad, both in guidance on poetry matters and from time-to-time personal support, all this without any funding. Several of the poets they have published have gone on to be published in other poetry houses and won several literary accolades.
As so often happened with Dennis, he became my friend as well as publisher. In 2010 my life turned upside down and while I found my bearings, Dennis’s encouragement and welcome of my words was a treasure. I am deeply honoured to have four beautiful Lapwing books of my poetry, hand made in my native Belfast, and to be part of the community of Lapwing poets all over the world.
While the Greig family copes with Dennis’s health issues and their own (the family have HHT), Lapwing is offering the sale of backlist PDFs. You can contact Amos Greig through Facebook or through the contact email for Amos’s excellent poetry magazine, A New Ulster: g.greig3@gmail.com
I wish the whole family a turn for better health soon and peace to recover.
If Lapwing is not able to reply to your contact and you would like to buy any of my books, I still have a few and can send you copies for £10 each including postage to the UK and Ireland: rosiejohnstonwrites@gmail.com
This marvellous website – Words for the Wild – features a poem I wrote for my friend Sue after I joined her in walking her son’s dogs along Seasalter’s shore and we all came back laughing, sprayed with salty mud. It’s a wonderful feeling to see it published here, surrounded by these zesty, doggy photographs.
Words for the Wild is a beautiful place to roam if you’re in the mood for some poetry or short fiction about the beauties of natural world. Congratulations, Amanda Oosthuizen and Louise Taylor, for conceiving the idea and bringing it to life so elegantly.
Whiskey in the Jar is still putting a sway into my step after Thursday evening’s launch at Harbour Books in Whitstable. It was the first time the shop had hosted musicians – Whitstable’s finest ukulele band, The Useless Pluckers – and it was magnificent. A spontaneous line-up of ‘Pluckettes’ formed as a backing group to Mustang Sally and the whole thing was the warmest, most memorable launch I’ve ever had.
Heartfelt thanks to lovely Harbour Books for their hospitality and Prosecco, to the excellent Pluckers and to everyone who came and danced, laughed, sang, chatted, met old and new friends, and bought books. I intruded on the music briefly to introduce Six-Count Jive and will never forget the appreciative silence while I read from it.
Lapwing’s little volumes are hand bound and hand printed on high quality paper in Belfast, close to the Cave Hill. That’s Belfast for you, my home town; it can be an ugly place sometimes but there’s always beauty there too.
At £10 each, they’re the same price as my first Lapwing book in 2010, even though printing costs have doubled since then, so they’re a wee bargain. They’ll be available through the Lapwing website soon – meanwhile I have a few copies to sell direct here, signed if you’d like, for £10 each including p&p. (They will not be available through amazon as its charges and discounts are punitive for small publishers.) Six-Count Jive is dedicated to anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and everyone who loves them. Female and male. I hope this little book might help somebody realise they are not alone and can reach out for help.
On Thursday THIS WEEK we’ll be launching my poetry book SIX-COUNT JIVE (Lapwing Publications) at Harbour Books in Whitstable from 6.30pm. Yesterday a dear friend of mine said, ‘Oh, is that this week?’ Yes, it is 
Whitstable’s finest ukulele band, The Useless Pluckers, will be helping us celebrate.
Harbour Books will be pouring their marvellous Prosecco and if dancing breaks out, we just might jive in the street. You and your friends are all welcome! This is a FREE event.
You can never tell if a book is going to make it to publication until you’re holding a copy in your hand or see it there on the e-reader. That’s why the day the first copies are delivered is so huge. But this is a pretty big day for me too – the one where my poetry publisher, Lapwing in Belfast, said he has an ISBN waiting and that it’s time to work on the final draft of Six-Count Jive together.
I’ve been gathering the poems for nearly ten years now. They’ve been honed, criticised by helpful poet friends (here and in Northern Ireland) and checked time and again for mistakes and howlers. There’s more work ahead but I love having my words curated by someone who is interested in making my book available to strangers. Dennis Greig of Lapwing is one of the finest editors I’ve known.
More info soon. Have a happy weekend!
I’m thrilled to see Oyster Seventeens on the Poems and Pictures blog of the Mary Evans Picture Library website today!
The Poems and Pictures blog is an absolute treat if you ever fancy exploring some contemporary poetry with the odd classic thrown in, each poem accompanied by something exquisite from the Picture Library’s collection. It’s one of my favourite sites for times when I have time on my hands and want to be transported somewhere thoughtful and beautiful. Congratulations and appreciation to its curator, Gill Stoker.
Low tide takes its muted leave –
soft pools
marooned while oytstercatchers play.
*
This fresh day. Let’s shuck it
open, feel
gusto pour between our fingers.
Words On Waves is a series of monthly spoken word evenings at Harbour Books in Whitstable and it’s the highlight of my month, not least because I get to host it. Writers bring magnificent words from all over the south east and beyond, and are encouraged to include work in progress so that sometimes we get exciting previews of projects that have not yet hit bookshop shelves. Writers of all genres are welcome and have ten minutes each to amuse and amaze you, with a break at half time to refresh glasses. Tickets at only £3 each include wine and you can book your seat by phoning 01227264011 or calling into the shop.
Our next Words on Waves is on THURSDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2019 @ 6.45pm and I’ll be thrilled to welcome Sam Rapp, Clair Meyrick, Callum Beesley, and our first publisher’s showcase, of writers published by Cultured Llama in Rochester:
Maria C. McCarthy, the herdswoman of her Cultured Llamas, has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent and won the Society of Authors’ Tom-Gallon Trust Award in 2015. After living for several years in Teynham, where she wrote in a shed looking out on boats on an orchard, she now lives in the Medway Towns, and looks out on boats on the river. Maria will be reading poetry from strange fruits (Cultured Llama, 2011) and There are Boats on the Orchard (Cultured Llama, 2017); and stories from As Long as it Takes (Cultured Llama, 2014)
Anna Maconochie is a London writer whose stories have appeared in the Erotic Review, the Dublin Review and the Bitter Oleander. Anna will be reading from her short story collection, Only the Visible Can Vanish, (Cultured Llama, 2016)
Ben Barton has been nominated for the Canterbury Poet of the Year Award and the erbacce-prize, and will be reading from The Hospital (Cultured Llama, 2018). Also a film artist, Ben’s film Stella Erratica was funded by the late David Bowie, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He lives in Folkestone with his husband and son, beside the North Downs.
Mark Holihan is a former Californian, now settled in Kent. He returns to Words on Waves, after a very popular first appearance with The Scatterlings, to read again from his Cultured Llama collection, There Are No Foreign Lands.
THURSDAY 7 MARCH 2019 @ 6.45pm:
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Words on Waves is proud to bring you The Rockhoppers (Maggie Harris, Mel Perry & Jackie Biggs) along with songwriter Jacqui Selby, Luigi Marchini, Sally Turner and Roger Tooth. A fascinating mix as ever!
THURSDAY 4 APRIL 2019 @ 6.45pm:
Our magnificent April line-up includes Jessica Taggart, Matt Chamberlain, Neelam Saredia Brayley, Rosemary McLeish, Sarah Jenkin, and Angela Dye.
And on THURSDAY 2 MAY 2019 @ 6.45pm, publisher & performance company Live Canon comes down the Thames from Greenwich to Whitstable for our second publisher’s showcase, bringing us journalist & author Mark Huband, Nancy Hynes, Andrew George & Tessa Foley.
See you there!
Among the thousand other things publishers/performers Live Canon achieve – details here – they have just produced another of their Christmas anthologies and I’m excited to be included. Beach Hut Christmas is on page 33 of this excellent anthology and you can get your copy here.
Rosie Johnston 