isacoustic* poems in print

The print edition of isacoustic* vol. 4, including my poems "Giacometti," "The Same Province of Nothingness" and "In the Kafka Museum," is now available to purchase

New publication: Three poems

My poems "Giacometti," "In the Kafka Museum" and "The Same Province of Nothingness" appear today on isacoustic's website. They'll also be in the print edition in due course.

Crannóg 46 out today

My poem "Dream" appears in issue No. 46 of Crannóg magazine, out today. The magazine is available in print or for Kindle and can be bought from their website.

New Poem Flyers at Poetry Book Fair

The new Poem Flyers of "Persephone" and "Imperfective Future," as well as my two earlier poems "Bat Walk" and "On Seeing the North Korean Prison Camps on Google Earth," will be available for 20p each from Poem Flyer's stand at the Poetry Book Fair in London on Saturday, 30 September 2017. I'm hoping to help out on the stand at some point in the afternoon, and will be happy to sign Flyers, increasing their future value by up to 10%. Admission to the Fair is free, so please come along if you can to support poets and their publishers.

Forthcoming publication: Crannóg

My poem "Dream" will appear in issue 46 of the Irish magazine Crannóg, to be launched on 27 October. Crannóg isn't published online, but you can buy it in both print and Kindle formats via their website. They're one of the relatively few magazines out there to actually pay poets, so please give them your support!

Shostakovich Study Day review

A while ago, I mentioned that there was one more piece of mine that might see print in the July issue of the DSCH Journal: a review of a Shostakovich study day presented by Gerard McBurney and Pauline Fairclough at the Southbank Centre in January. It appears from the published table of contents that this hasn't, in fact, been included in the Journal, so I've published it here. Hopefully it will still be of interest despite the time that's passed.

More Poem Flyers to come

I'm pleased to say that four more of my poems will be printed in postcard-sized format as part of the Poem Flyer project. "Persephone" and "Imperfective Future" should be published by September, with "Fissidens" and "Ganesha in the Park" appearing sometime thereafter. "Persephone" and "Ganesha" were previously published online; the other two are previously unpublished. My poems "Bat Walk" and "On Seeing the North Korean Prison Camps on Google Earth" appeared as Poem Flyers last year.

Update: Making a Muddler

I've now withdrawn "Making a Muddler" from the DSCH Journal. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is that the Journal gives copy approval to article and interview subjects (something I was not aware of when I wrote the piece).

The uncensored, unauthorised piece will remain on this site for everyone to read. 

I will not be writing for the DSCH Journal in future. There is one more piece I wrote for them (a concert review) that, as far as I know, is still due to appear in their July issue.

Making a Muddler

My article "Making a Muddler: How the British Far Left Learned to Talk About Shostakovich" was written for the DSCH Journal, and last I heard, it was still scheduled to appear in their July 2017 issue. However, there is a possibility that it will appear in an altered form. I've therefore put the original version on my website; you can read it here.

Carnivorous Plant Newsletter article

The current (December) issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter includes my tribute to my father, Jeff Del Col, who loved carnivorous plants and was an early contributor to the Newsletter. You can buy a copy in the International Carnivorous Plant Society's online shop (or you could consider becoming a member).

More DSCH Journal pieces

The January issue of the DSCH Journal will include two reviews by me: one of the Royal Opera House's recent production of The Nose, and one of Jascha Nemtsov's new recording of the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich's contemporary, Vsevolod Zaderatsky. Zaderatsky's story is particularly interesting, since his music was never performed in his lifetime; he spent much of his adult life in gulags (where the Preludes and Fugues were composed), and his work was banned even after his release.

I've also recently completed a longer article for the Journal that is tentatively scheduled to appear in their July 2017 issue. Watch this space ....

New DSCH Journal, and CPN update

Issue no. 45 of the DSCH Journal, including my review of Julian Barnes's novel The Noise of Time, is out now; please go to the website to buy a copy or subscribe.

Meanwhile, my piece about my father has been held over till the December issue of Carnivorous Plant Newsletter.