My year in writing: blowing my own trumpet

OK, so, with all those lists out there, and stock-taking and all, I thought I’d have a look back at what I did writing-wise in 2014…

– It’s been a great year for Armelian poetry! A poem of mine, “Wisdom of the origamist”, won the Bailieborough Poetry Prize, other poems were longlisted for the Over the Over The Edge Award and the Battle of the Books competition, and my unpublished pamphlet Secret tunnels through the Andes was Highly Commended in the Fool for Poetry Competition. I’ve also had poems in The Penny Dreadful, and so recently they haven’t yet found their way to me, in THE SHOp and The Poetry Bus.

Back in the nineties, writers had to manually blow their own analog trumpets.

-Dagornesque fiction has been quite healthy as well in 2014, sneaking in to publications I had only so far managed to drool on from afar… I’m talking about The Stinging Fly, Tin House (online), Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine and NANO Fiction.

“Armel Dagorn? I’d never have lent him my horn, man. All that cat could do’s blow his own trumpet…” Miles Davis

My only (small) disappointment is having had no short story published this year (all the fiction pieces above are flash-size…). But I’ve been working one big long long thingy, which I am determined to finish. In 2015. Or 2016. Inch’ Allah. Muse willing. Hence the nostalgic looking back on past achievements… Look, I can finish something!

[links to all magazines and competition are available here!]

New poems out

I have poems out in two magazines that are so fresh, ink-sticky still that I haven’t had them in my hands yet. Thanks to the magic of the internet though, both are available right now.

This is sadly the last issue of THE SHOp, as the editors have decided to stop publication, but it looks like a great one (it’s a double issue), and I’m very proud and grateful to have a poem in it. A lot of good people in it: William Wall, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Paula Meehan, Rita Ann Higgins, Theo Dorgan…

My contribution is Biopsy, an E.R-like tale including Lilliputian lumberjacks (it’s a true story).

I also have a seasonal poem, In winter, in the brand-new, money-themed issue of the Poetry Bus. It’s about winter. And money – true story!

My point? You could do worse things than buying either/both of these magazines.