I’m teaching a residential in Umbria in 2026. I am reliably told there is Aperol spritz on tap. With @tobiasjones.bsky.social and Elise Valmorbida villapia.com/a-haven-for-...

I’m also teaching an Arvon course w/ Richard Scott and @troycabida.bsky.social www.arvon.org/writing-cour...

Become a member of our ANNUAL BOOK CLUB and receive 10 new #poetry books as they are published across 2026. Introductory offer, just £79.99 including postage. Find out more about our list and sign-up now for the best kind of post 📚 ninearchespress.com/shop#!/Poetr...

Well, I once started my own country: ninearchespress.com/publications...

The supplements I’ve been taking have caused me to put on weight and grow a big white beard. I’m giving up the Santagen.

May your Christmas be this splendid.

This is the basis of the new ‘good chaps’ theory of governance: too much visibility is proportional to poor rule.

Caroline Bird So good! A masterclass, really, in efficiency: the essence of a sonnet in 14 words, including volta; the destabilizing yet utterly apt image; the kite string of the poem letting the title soar...

Annual watching of Conspiracy has begun.

My Xmas gift to one of you: the Pushkin sonnet!

On BBC Two in the UK. Agreed, a v good documentary, which has little jabs at the film also.

Should have said: if you want one, lmk and I'll pop in the post after Xmas. A contribution to my contribution to Royal Mail's coffers appreciated.

Something soothing about making a low-fi fanzine of poems.

If you see this, share a redhead

Very happy that they won. Peaky tango will live long in my memory.

Karen and Carlos got me absolutely balling here. #Strictly

Craig just dropping Byron on Saturday night. #Strictly

Watching Gremlins (1984) with the eldest. I hate to point this out but early in Gremlins, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) is on TV. We are now further away from Gremlins than Gremlins was from It’s A Wonderful Life. Sorry.

Got a brief recommendation in this week’s @bigissue.com too

Well done team @wasafirimag.bsky.social for getting issue 124 into the world just in time for the holidays.

‘Tis the season to flog my poetry. Hollywood or Home—a Tinseltown of the mind. An unusual stocking filler for the cinephile in your life.

Save the date! Join us on 29 January at the Schwarzman Centre for our next Professor of #Poetry lecture by A.E. Stallings @aestallings.bsky.social. The title of the lecture is 'People Poems: Portraits in Verse'. ALL WELCOME! Booking details will be confirmed in the new year.

Delighted to have a review in the latest Under The Radar, alongside some fine poems and stories. You can get your copy direct from @ninearchespress.bsky.social: ninearchespress.com/magazine

look, what is the infinity of the internet for except to provide a home for this?

Middled-aged nostalgia is discovering hardback books about Everton's mid-1980s glory years and going, yeah I've got space and time to read about that. Again.

Pretty sure this story will be over five years: float, share price sinks, rapid cost cutting, taken back private, sold to private equity... and all the latter's positives. Ahem.

A reminder that Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak will be published by @ninearchespress.bsky.social on 19 March 2026, and is available for pre-ordering now. ninearchespress.com/publications...

I mean, I wish it were so, but is Julian Barnes really on Insta?

I was saddened to learn of the recent death of Richard Meier, winner of the inaugural Picador Poetry Prize in 2010. He was the author of three collections - his most recent ‘After the Miracle’ came out this year: happenstancepress.com/index.php/co... A fine man and a fine poet. #Poetry

What Kemi doesn't get – amazingly – is this buddying up to, and repeating the bullshit of the worst people in society will not save her. In any and every sense.

If Keith Richards can make it to 82, you can make it to Christmas Eve.

In 2026 I will be launching a new project… As dementia has slowly taken my dad, I increasingly felt that it might be a healing thing for family, friends, and carers of dementia patients, to write, share, and mutually aid somewhere. This is These Golden Hours bsky.app/profile/thes...

I get the feeling that @duncanrobinson.bsky.social was really weary when he wrote this para, but also really enjoyed it. From his excellent col this week: www.economist.com/britain/2025...

overwhelming urge to spend cash on frivolities to distract myself from the bad weather

re-upping this in hope of confirmation I wasn't having a mad cheese dream

New verse novel idea: memoir of a Reuters pigeon

NGL the fancy cheese advent calendar is defeating me right now.

Tried to get chatGPT to draw me a map with cities showing. I think the OS is safe for now:

You will see a lot of the word 'Semiquincentennial' next year, but this will be the best use of it I'm sure: www.milb.com/somerset/com...

Saw Richard Linklater's 'Blue Moon' last night, which serves as an excellent warning to those aspiring to never become writers.

Howdy. Please excuse the silence. R103 is on its way, currently at the printers. So it should be with you just after Christmas. It is we think worth the wait.

echoes most of my initial reaction upon reading two summaries of it last night. Hoping that current incarnation of DCMS might take this as a potential transformative moment seem a long shot to me.

Shamelessly jumping on this to say: Conspiracy is a Christmas film, kinda: whatisinfinitylike.substack.com/p/on-conspir...

Once again @markantonyowen.com produces a stellar collection of #poems by so many talented #poets. I hope someday he reveals the secret sauce of this success. In the meantime, thrilled to be riding #Wave24 #PoetsOfBlueSky #StayCreative bsky.app/profile/iamb...

Probably a terrible time of year to do it, but I'm selling my Fender Jaguar Thinline. A lovely guitar, it's just not for me. Very bright sounding and in excellent condition: reverb.com/uk/item/9358...

I know Spring feels a long way off right now, but it is coming, and I have just the thing for you when it does... Pre-order now at @ninearchespress.bsky.social: ninearchespress.com/publications...

Ready for when we'll all be ready for Spring. Come through...

Jane Austen / 250 years and still bossin' / The novels, making the middle class swoon / To obscurity, she is immune.

In this poem i recast the world as a series of giant funhouse mirrors