Now that's what I call

2024

2024 has been a year of two halves for poems and that.

The first half of my year in poetry was performance and collaboration based and the second half was more focussed on editing and releasing my book, which was a bit more of a solo adventure.

There are a lot of details I don’t want to forget, so I hope you will indulge me in this end of year round up where I will share stories about what I learned through poetry and how some things panned out (or didn't) as I meander throughout the year. Some stories are about poetry and some are about ‘that’. ‘That’ being the things I have learned through working on and sharing my poetry.

[POST WRITING BUT PRE-PUBLISHING EDIT: This article is long… and will need to be read on the website rather than email it tells me… it is also in no specific time line… other than the way things came back to me… so skim along if you want, subjects covered are, substack, collaborating with sound designers via BBC, collaborating with a painter, organising poetry events, stepping away from poetry events, rejection, ghosting, fundraisers, taking part in slams, saying no.]

First things first

Let me talk about what I have learned about sharing work here on sub-stack. I have been writing here on and off (mainly off) since 2022 and I started writing more regularly in 2024. I also shared more poetry here than I ever had before. Some poems I have since archived as I worried that I couldn’t submit to publishers if they stayed here, even if I only recycled lines from them.

I played with the idea of creating a community of women going through the peri-menopause, via sub-newsletter, but ironically,/obviously didn’t have the energy to build it. I also realised that I have boundaries around what I am prepared to share online, compared to on stage, where nuance and offsides and tone. Also seeing people’s live reactions is a less vulnerable feeling than imagining them. This feeling helped me navigate the editing process for my book.

I have trailed different formats for the paid subscription offer. Currently it is sat at access to all old articles (which archive after 4 weeks) and a monthly non poetry based newsletter called Little Wonders. I want it to be like

Annie Macmanus

‘s Rooster - a showcase for all the little pockets of joy I have seen in the world.

I am not sure I have fully worked out what works best but I have learned enough in my poetic second life that overthinking isn’t always helpful. Most of my best adventures in poetry / creativity have come from me following a gut instinct and just seeing what unfolds.

Sometimes nothing unfolds. And that can be the case here. The notes and articles that have not been interacted with, outnumbers the ones that have been. But Ievery reply, comment or like I get is a joy. I write and share it to connect. This has been proved to me over and over again.

Big news

The biggest news I got this year came really early on and unexpectedly. An email landed from the team at BBC Contains Strong Language who took recordings of a poem I performed at their 2023 festival. The email told me they had shared the recordings with a group of emerging sound designers from their Sounds First development programme and two of my poems were going to have sound scapes added to the recordings to air on BBC Radio 3.

I was partnered with two sound designers who took a poem each. Both took different approaches and both finished products were stunning. The poem that opens the show ‘Stories within Storeys’ was produced by Caity Hinds, who just did her own thing with it and absolutely transformed the poem into an aural collage. I will never forget hearing it for the first time - absolute goosebumps. The second poem was called ‘The Shrewing of the Tame’ ¹ which was sound designed by Oliver Denman. Oliver asked for additional recordings of key phrases from the poem and creating a completely immersive soundscape which opened up new layers to the poem. It was an utter privilege to have this experience of collaboration. For it to be played on BBC Radio 3, is something I would never ever have predicted when I applied to be considered by the programme in summer 2023.

Organising events

I have been organising events since 2021. From previews of my Fringe show showcasing other poets over 40 to events in a fairy lit forest, hosting and organising events is something I have enjoyed over the years. In 2023 I took on the privilege of becoming a co-host of Verbose in Manchester. It was one of the first open mic’s I went to in 2019 and helped sustain me and my creative side in lockdown. I jumped at the chance to co-host it. We had been based in the glorious pub/theatre the Kings Arms since we took it on. Where we learned about tech, and going acoustic when we messed the tech up. I learned about booking headliners, organising rooms (there was one month I booked an artist from Bristol but messed up the venue booking and scrambled all around town for a replacement venue!). I learned about PR and social media. It was all voluntary and I loved it. Sometimes after an utterly exhausting day at work, turning up to an event I had helped make and see how people shone on stage and in the audience made all that exhaustion disappear.

Once as host, warming up the mic, I decided to premiere a from memory poem. I failed. Several awkward times. And kept it going until words floated back into my head between self deprecating jokes, too nervous to get my phone out. But somehow the ‘failure’ made me less scared of trying new work. It also made me learn more about when I am ready to launch a poem from memory.

In 2024 Verbose was approached by new places interested in bringing spoken word to their venue. This included the infamous Band on the Wall, when Harry Bake and Hollie McNish were performing on the main stage, we hosted an event on the Bar Stage. In my imagination what would happen here is that we would capture a new audience for new poets of Manchester that we were showcasing. I also imagined we would be inundated with open mic requests. Which we were, but all asking to be put on as early as possible as it was midweek. This is fair enough, we all have lives beyond poetry but also meant my imagination for how this event could launch a thousand poets into new ears (Holly and Harry were sold out and finished prompt at 9.30… the audience exit drift into bar effect was a possibility.) In reality, the audiences of Harry and Holly left the venue as soon as the event was over. But I still get to say I have promoted and co-hosted an event at Band on the Wall - which is something I did not imagine happening at the beginning of 2024.

We also put on a night at the new Fairfield Social Club with the ICONIC Joy France …

Please treat yourself to watching this:

Joy came to the open mic at Band on the Wall and as always blew us away… when the opportunity came up to host an event at a venue primarily known for comedy I thought Joy would be the perfect headliner. I really wanted this event to work and spent a day placing flyers all across Manchester, writing and sending out press releases. I worked so hard to try and make it happen. But by the time the date came around, I couldn’t be there to see it myself. Life threw me a curveball and I had to accept that this was something I had to let go.

Stepping back

I kept doing the headline booking, PR and social media for Verbose throughout the summer before realising and accepting the reality that I would not be able to go back. I had to step down earlier than I planned (which would have been in January 2025). This was so hard to do as Verbose was part of my poetry origin story and a place I have been sharing my work for 5 years. Stepping back from this also meant I felt more disconnected than I had for quite some time. I had fewer performance opportunities in my diary at that time and as performance is part of how I enjoy sharing poetry I found the shift a difficult one. But I will always always cherish the experience and the encouragement Verbose provided to me and I truly hope I helped others feel their words were valuable or find new friends or poems that they love.

Art

In February, an artist I have worked with before, Emma Evans invited me to be part of an art exhibition that would be launched and held at the iconic Refuge hotel in Manchester. The exhibition was called Tales of Manchester 2.0, and the brief was to write a poem about Manchester, that Emma would then paint and reveal in April at the launch event. I wrote about it here, so won’t repeat myself too much - but this was an absolute highlight of my year.

Slam

This year saw me take on my first ever ‘in real life’ Poetry Slam. My first was mid pandemic online as part of the Belfast Book Festival, where I survived the first round. I wrote about that here:

The second slam was with the Poetry Place in a team format, which was fun and I wrote about here:

Ghosting

In late summer I was approached via email about a potential writing and performance commission. I quoted for it, chased it up. But the replies petered out and I had to accept I hadn’t ‘won’ the commission and will never know why, other than there are so many incredible poets out there I am sure they just found another. Or they changed their mind about the idea. Time will tell.

Fundraising

My first gig of 2024 was a fundraiser for Gaza at the Eagle Inn in Salford. It was a day of spoken word and live music and over £1k was raised. I also donated a poem ²recording to a MCR4PAL album which also raised over £1k.

My book has so far raised over £200 each for Choose Love and Refuge. As the last hospital in Gaza was destroyed over Christmas and women continue to face terror at home I have zero regrets about trying to use the money I earn from poetry to help others. It isn’t enough, not by a long way

Rejection to redirection

I have written about how I decided to self publish instead of keeping at the publisher submission route.

But with more distance I also see that I pushed on with the project as an alternative to performing. I also did it to keep in touch with poetry on a regular basis through editing. The curveballs outside of poetry also made me not want to wait - if I want something to exist, waiting for permission no longer felt something I was patient enough for. I still need more distance to write fully about what I learned from self publishing as I am still learning as I write this.

Unexpected invites

This is the magic part. I am always elated when I am invited to take part in someone else’s project.

From being a guest writer for the brilliant Poetry Pals by

Nelly Bryce

Poetry (pen) Pals #4 - Poetry rules?

… to being part of TWO Coffee and Poetry clubs run by

Louis Glazzard

… the invitations gave me new experiences and connections and ideas.

Performance wise I was invited to take part in the opening ceremony for the Wal Goch festival, a football fans festival held in Wrexham, a poetry panel at incredible Sisterhood festival in Bradford in August. I also got invited back to perform at FC United pre game event ‘Course You Can Malcolm’, where I was told that my performance earlier this year went down in legend as some away fans ventured into the performance space and proclaimed ‘is there f***ing nowhere in this place there ISN’T POETRY’…. ICONIC status achieved!

Having to say No

And believe it or not. I had to say no to far more than I wanted to this year, including a panel event in Blackpool, running workshops at Boardmasters festival. Getting comfortable with saying no has become necessary. I want to say yes to every poetry opportunity I get. It gives me so much joy when I meet new people through this adventure. I worry the opportunities will dry up if I ‘disappear’ too much. But when I properly reflect, this year has been massive for me poetry wise. Having pulled off the big goal in 2023 of performing at Edinburgh Festival, I knew I couldn’t (and didn't need to) repeat that adventure. But I left space for adventure and it found me. Some of it I had to let go, but that gave me time to write more here and PUBLISH A WHOLE BOOK.

Thank you so much for reading ! I hope you found something interesting in here. If there are any subjects you think I could expand on, let me know and I’d be happy to write a more specific article about it.

I have one more paid subscriber post to post before the year is out - but otherwise I will see you again in 2025 with more stories of what I have learned through this world of poetry.

PROVING I EXIST : A Poetry Collection is available on Amazon now and all royalties will go to Choose Love and Refuge.

Poems and That is an irregular newsletter about lessons I have learned through poetry and the occasional poem. Paid subscribers also receive a newsletter called Little Wonders which is all about the little wonders in life that have sustained me that month.

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1. Yes, it is in my book if you want to read it. Complete with a QR code to listen to i.

2. A newer version of this poem is in my book.