David Mark Williams - Poet

Aesthetica Creative Works Competition 2011

2011-11-22T12:45:00.000Z

It seems to be the case with competitions that when you genuinely forget about the ones you’ve entered, then you’re often in for a nice surprise. This was what happened with the New Zealand Poetry Society competition earlier this year and it has proved to be the same with the Aesthetica Creative Works competition which I entered back in August.

This was the first year I’ve submitted work for this competition, even though it’s been running for four years. I think what held me back was the feeling that perhaps it was aiming too high for me to go in for it or that the field would be innundated. I decided to put in for it this time, however, when I discovered that unlike other competitions, Aesthetica did not exclude previously published work for consideration. I was therefore able to submit work that had already achieved a measure of success, which gave me a bit more confidence in sending it off. Once it had gone off though I succeeded in putting the competition out of my mind completely (I do send out a lot of work which helps too!).

When I received an email from Rachael Burford at Aesthetica magazine on the first of November, notifying me that my poem, Oh, had been shortlisted, I was stunned. I imagined that the email was a global one giving the results with my name, of course, not being included.

Being shortlisted ensures that the poem will be published in the Creative Works Annual (due for release early in December). The winner in the poetry category will be announced then too. I’ve already realised that this won’t be me otherwise I would have already received a personal notification! But I’m more than happy to have got this far against so much competition and to be in such a prestigious anthology is a great prize in itself. It’s encouraged me too to be bolder in future and to keep persisting.

NZPS International Poetry Competition 2011

2011-08-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

Last month I received one of those rare emails beginning with the magic word: “Congratulations”. To my astonishment I learned that my poem The Devil’s Nursery had won second prize in this year’s New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition. Before I’d opened the email I thought perhaps I’d garnered a commended citation, which would have been great, of course, with publication in the ensuing anthology. But getting a cash prize is even more amazing and such an endorsement. The prize money was 250 NZ dollars. When the money reached my Paypal account, I ended up with £126. The most money I’ve ever made on a single poem.

A few days later, another email arrived to let me know another of my entries for the same competition, The Cloud Room, had been commended so I’ll have two poems in the anthology due to be published in November.

The prize poem was originally written in response to a theme set by Magma: The Devil and All His Works. However, the poem was promptly rejected when I sent it to Magma. Then I submitted it to a couple of competitions but again it got nowhere. When I included it in the batch of four poems I sent off to NZPS it was almost as an afterthought, not having a lot of faith in the poem. I had made some cuts to it this time, however, which obviously proved to be judicious.

Then in my usual way, I cut it pretty fine to post off my entries (NZPS isn’t set up for email submissions). I was still working on some of the poems right to the wire. When I went to the post office to get them sent off, I was told airmail deliveries to New Zealand normally took five days. My heart sank because there wasn’t five days remaining to the deadline. Fortunately, I had prepaid for my entries through PayPal which I hoped might secure them. Anyway, they must have got there just in the nick of time. Since then I’ve mended my ways and now don’t cut it so fine. But it did make me rather put the whole thing out of my mind which I think is a good thing to do with all submissions. Simply let go of each one and don’t emotionally invest in any of it.

What I’ve gained for the future is to keep persisting despite the occasional self-doubt that creeps up on one from time to time and to keep working and improving!

Poetry @ The Ivory

2011-06-15T08:03:00.000+01:00

In an effort to expand my horizons, I’ve been looking out for opportunities to perform my work outside Dumfries and Galloway. While I still have my beloved old reliable, The Bakehouse, the other venue in the region, Open Stage, is now defunct, a casualty of funding cuts. All the more reason then to look further afield.

Last Wednesday, I went along for the first time to Poetry@The Ivory in Glasgow’s Southside. I’d heard about it through DG Arts. They’d sent out a global email encouraging people to take up the opportunity of a reading slot at the venue. I emailed Jacqueline Smith, the organiser, thinking perhaps that I might have left it too late, but luckily got a slot. It was good to know where one stood beforehand. None of this business of just turning up on the night and hoping to get slotted in.

The evening turned out to be very enjoyable. The headlining poet, Magi Gibson, was excellent. She made time to establish a rapport with the audience which I think is so important. You could tell she was an experienced performer and you felt immediately relaxed in her company. Her poems ranged from being very funny to very moving and always well observed. One of my favourites was a poem about her father’s dungarees.

I liked the format of the evening. It began with Jacqueline conducting a short interview with Magi. I thought this was a great, innovative idea. This was followed by Magi’s first set and then a short interval. Then we had the reading slots. Seven poets read and everyone stuck conscientiously to the five minute designated limit. I thought it worked well that there weren’t too many people reading. The standard was high. Of the perfomers, only A C Clarke I’d heard of before. She has a beautifully modulated, clear voice. Maggie Rabatski also stood out with her wonderful Hebridean accent - she's from Harris. Finally, Magi rounded off the evening with a second set. Jacqueline shepherded the proceedings firmly but without being intrusive so there wasn’t any drift.

A microphone was provided, a necessity given there was some background noise from the bar around the corner. Fiddling with the microphone also ensured there were some bits of comic business from several of the performers, myself included. I really must get to learn how to do the adjustments on these things. When you know what you’re doing, it looks so cool.

I performed Paranoia of Flowers, The Solace of Cupboards and a very new poem, Swimming with Jellyfish. I seemed to get a good response from the audience, people were looking up, taking notice. Though there are always one or two people who seem to wear an expression bordering on misery. Sometimes I think it’s a mistake to do that trick of scanning everyone present!

I paused for too long prior to the final stanza of Solace and a woman in the audience applauded, thinking the poem was finished. I pointed out to her that it wasn’t but thanked her for her encouragement and that if she wished to applaud every single stanza that would be fine with me. These delightful little glitches seem to happen to me when I’m performing but they always add to the occasion. At the end of the evening, the same lady came up to me and said how much she’d liked my poems, especially the one about the “psycho flowers”! That’s how I’ll think about the poem from now on.

The most enigmatic piece of feedback I received was from a guy who commented: “You’re not as tall when you’re not standing behind a microphone.” Right.

I was glad I’d made the effort to go along. I liked the atmosphere there and it was lovely to see such a wide range of age groups present, including young people just starting out on their poetry careers.

Another great innovation is a loyalty card, which you receive on your first attendance. You bring the card with you each time and it gets stamped. After 5 visits, your sixth is free. I’m definitely planning to go back.

Southlight

2011-05-17T14:37:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I was notified that three of my poems have been accepted for the next issue of Southlight.

The magazine is published by Dumfries and Galloway Arts. I’ve got copies of the last two issues and both are excellent with poems, short stories, in-depth articles, photgraphs and artwork.

It’s great to have so many poems coming out in one issue. The last time I had this kind of exposure was when my work was showcased in Markings 29 back in 2009. It’s also nice to receive encouragement again on one’s home turf.

Southlight 9 will be out in July.

Further News on Prole Laureate Competition

2011-04-12T10:10:00.000+01:00

Shortly after learning that my poem, Beautiful Animal, had received a highly commended in this competition, I received a further email from Prole co-editor, Brett Evans, to let me know that the poem made it to the top four. So further cause for celebration on my part.

I know I was within a whisker of being in the top three and therefore gaining a cash prize, but I have no sense that I wuz robbed. The poems in the top three are all so excellent, I can say in all honesty that in my judgement they are far superior to my poem.

I do relish though this comment from Brett: “We loved the everydayness of the language, yet original imagery of 'Beautiful Animal'.”

Prole Laureate Poetry Competition

2011-04-03T17:42:00.001+01:00

Today I received an email from Brett Evans, co-editor of Prole magazine, to let me know that one of my poems, Beautiful Animal, was highly commended in the Prole Laureate Poetry Competition. The poem will be published on their website over the next few weeks.

This is particularly good news for me because I’d already checked out the winning poems on the website and thought that I’d got nowhere - again.

The winner of the Prole Laureate title was Helen Ramoutsaki with The Up Side. The two runners up were: Patricia Sumner for Blackbird and Sue Millard for Godless. All three poems are very strong poems, invested with a quiet authority, not a word out of place. So I feel very honoured to have got so close against such worthy competition.

South

2011-03-07T15:57:00.001Z

Last month I discovered that my poem Oh has been selected for inclusion in the next issue of South (issue 43). This is the fourth poem of mine to appear in the magazine over the last two years, starting with issue 39 in April 2009.

The pleasure of having poems accepted for publication is enhanced for me in the case of South because of their unique editorial policy. The poems for each issue are chosen by a selection panel, consisting of two selectors. Each issue has different selectors. All poems submitted are judged anonymously so no-one gets through on name or reputation but purely on the strength of each poem submitted.

Last year I got a phone call from Patrick Osada to let me know that two of the poems I’d had published in South in the previous two issues, A Tall Melancholic Man Contemplates a Pekinese and Shush, had been chosen by two of the South selectors as part of the magazine’s submission for the Forward Prize in the individual poem category. I didn’t get short listed for the Forward Prize as it turned out (you would have heard about it if I had) but I felt it was such an honour in the first place. So big thanks to everyone at South for all the support and encouragement.

Finally, although my opinion may not count for much as you’ll think I’m biased, South is an excellent magazine, and well worth taking out a subscription to. Each issue contains an in-depth profile of a featured poet, is packed with a wide and varied selection of poetry and there’s a substantial reviews section.

Ragged Raven Prize 2010

2011-02-04T19:26:00.001Z

On the 17th December last year, I received an email from Bob Mee of Ragged Raven Press to let me know I’d won a prize in their annual international competition for my poem The Year of My First Wedding.

This was great news because 2010 had been a very lean year for me and no matter how much you put this out of your mind, it does give you a boost to enjoy some success.

The prize was £50.00 and publication in a Ragged Raven anthology to be published this March. Though my poem didn’t win the top prize, it was one of the four runner-up prizes, not bad out of a total number of entries of nearly six hundred.

This is the third year in a row that I’ve won a prize in the Ragged Raven competition, which is very encouraging indeed. It’s gratifying to know that there are some people out there who see something in your work.

I had submitted The Year of My First Wedding to the Bridport Prize competition but didn’t get anywhere so I think there’s something to be said for entering smaller competitions where the judges are more likely to read every entry and you stand more of a chance.

Stepping Into the Blue

2011-01-18T12:51:00.000Z

How hard it is to let go – to step into the blue. And yet one’s creative life depends on it and one desires to do nothing else.
- Katherine Mansfield

This month I begin a new life as a full time writer. Early in December of last year, I decided to give up the quiet desperation thing and handed in my notice, putting paid to the day job.

I thought there might be some ambivalence about this new commitment, that it might feel like too much pressure all of a sudden, that the fun might be taken out of the writing. But not a bit of it. Quite the opposite in fact. If anything it was having to make the best of a bad job that had a negative impact on my relationship to writing, being caught between two stools. Now I’m free of all that, and able to enjoy such a feeling of release, the impact has been entirely positive, not just for writing but on my life generally.

I’m looking forward now to be able to devote more time and energy (as I’ll have more of both) for writing with the intention on improving the quality of what I write. What’s wonderful is that for the first time in my life I feel I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

It’s time to step into the blue.

Welcome

2011-01-14T11:26:00.001Z

I've just decided to start a blog to go along with my poetry website, in order to keep it more current.

Come back soon to see how it develops.