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Frogmore’s sad farewell to Viva Lewes magazine

This lovely set of photos was taken just pre-lockdown by local photographer and student Ruby Craig, who’d come into the Viva office on a work placement. She was fabulous, and photographed a number of features for the April issue of the long-running local listings and features magazine – an issue which, sadly, was never to see the light of day. History, and Covid, took over – and now Viva Lewes and Viva Brighton have both, permanently, had to close their doors. 

So Frogmore has kindly offered to host these photos. The subject is Needlewriters poets (though this is not the whole collective) and we four are all also Frogmore poets and  reviewers. (I – Charlotte Gann – also happened to be the outgoing editor of Viva Lewes!). Needlewriters – a cooperative of local writers – continues to host quarterly reading events in Lewes, or at least we hope to again, from January 2021.

For the planned feature we also asked each poet: ‘What is a word you love, and why?’ Here were their – our – responses.

Robin Houghton: “Box’: short, punchy, practical and a bit funny.’

Robin Houghton, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020

Janet Sutherland: ‘My word is ‘penultimate’, because there’s something magical in being able to pin down the last-but-one.’

Janet Sutherland, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020

Jeremy Page: “Crepuscular’, because it so perfectly evokes my favourite times of day.’

Jeremy Page, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020

Charlotte Gann: “Elbow’. It looks great (in many typefaces), sounds good – and combines five of my favourite letters.’

Charlotte Gann, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020

Ruby Craig can be found on Instagram @rubystyling

CG

 

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morphrog 21 goes live

The celebratory 21st edition of morphrog, offering more ‘poetry in the extreme’, is now live at http://www.morphrog.com.

Photography: Martin Kay

It’s another truly  international edition, with contributions from Australia, Canada, Switzerland and several corners of the UK, and featuring poetry by a Californian in Essex, an Italian in Leicestershire and a Scot in London.

morphrog 21 also includes a tribute in verse from Saskatoon poet Gerald Seniuk to long-time friend of Frogmore Henry Woolf on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Henry has been a supporter of, and occasional contributor to The Frogmore Papers since the early days in Folkestone. He was the first person to direct a play by his friend Harold Pinter (The Room at Bristol in 1957), subsequently acting in many of Pinter’s greatest works. Henry has lived in Canada since the 1980s and was Artistic Director of the annual Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival in Saskatoon from 1991-2001. On the occasion of his 90th birthday in January the University of Saskatchewan renamed one of its theatres after Henry in his honour. His memoir Barcelona is in Trouble was published by Greville Press, and number 96 of The Frogmore Papers will feature a new poem in September.

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Ron Scowcroft wins 34th Frogmore Poetry Prize

This year’s Prize has been awarded by adjudicator Maria Jastrzębska to Ron Scowcroft for his poem ‘Greylags in Fog’.

Ron Scowcroft, winner of the 2020 Frogmore Poetry Prize

Originally from Greater Manchester, Ron has lived in the Lancaster area since 1985. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies and on literary websites. They have also featured in exhibitions by artists Jayne Simpson and John Morrison and been adapted for video by Morph Films. His pamphlet Moon Garden was published by Wayleave Press in 2014. Ron is a founder member of Lancaster based April Poets.

 

Of his winning poem Maria Jastrzębska commented: ‘‘Greylags in Fog’, was a poem I returned to for its tenderness. I read it as a love poem. Between people and also between people and nature, the animal world. Everyone can identify with that sense of being lost in a fog – the utter relief of being found. I loved the backward and forwards of the poem’s ‘call and response’. It’s a poem written with the utmost simplicity and spareness capturing something as intangible as a moment. It doesn’t preach or try to convince but tells its story with great lightness of touch.’

Ron wins the sum of 250 guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

This year’s runners-up were Simon Maddrell with ‘The snow leopard bites its own tail’ and Chloe Balcomb with ‘Blether’. Other poets shortlisted were Sarah Barr, Lia Brooks, Wendy Klein, Rebekah Miron and Rosamund Taylor.

All shortlisted poems will be published in the September edition of The Frogmore Papers, available for £5.00 (post free) from:
The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1PJ.