Star Questions
Who are the super heroes of the literary world? We think it’s the people behind the readings, magazines, publishers and websites who work long hours for little or no money and often small recognition. We’d like to introduce them to you and celebrate their vision and commitment to literature.
Anne Stewart runs poetry p f (www.poetrypf.co.uk), a growing poet showcase, and provides freelance technical services to poets and poetry organisations. She has an MA (Creative Writing) from Sheffield Hallam University and is one of Ten Hallam Poets (Mews Press, 2005).
Who are you?
I’m Anne Stewart. Scottish. Came to England at going-on 16 and now based in Orpington, Kent (LB Bromley ‘Clean and Green’). What is your role and what do you do? I provide services to poets and poetry organisations, principally running the showcase site, www.poetrypf.co.uk, some admin work for Second Light Network and managing their new web-site, SecondLightLive.
How are you funded?
There are small fees payable by the poets who register on poetry p f. That covers the cost of the site. Otherwise I’m freelance (design & layout, editorial, admin) and consultancy work and I have a very nice fella who won’t see me go hungry (or teetotal!).
How, why and when did it start/you get involved?
I’d been looking for a particular poet on the internet and the searches all came up zero entries. Then I was chatting with Katherine Gallagher about poets being invisible and I thought ‘That’s what we poets need. Visibility.’ It was early 1995. The idea nagged at me so I came up with a plan and a site design and thought it might work.
When do you do it and how much time does it take up?
I think my lap-top is glued to my fingerends. I seldom see the one without the others. Time spent varies depending on time of year and what projects are on the go but, overall, I’d say poetry projects take up around four days a week.
What do you get out of it?
I love doing it. I love working with other poets. It lets me play a bigger part in the poetry world than I could otherwise.
How do you see it developing?
I’d like to see poetry p f expand beyond the one-man band stage, perhaps allied with one of the universities or larger poetry organisations. It seems to have its own identity now and shouldn’t be dependent on just one person staying well enough to manage it.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve just read Allison McVety’s The Night Trotsky Came to Stay and Sharon Morris’s False Spring. I’m revisiting my Rimbaud Complete (Scribner, 2003) and I’m itching to sit down with the latest Ciaran Carson. Also a book about trees – at about one twig a night – that I started just after Christmas 2006.
What’s the most extraordinary thing that’s happened?
Hmm. Two things. When poetry p f had around 130 poets on it and was getting 4000 unique visitors a month, one of the ACE (Arts Council England) rejection points was ‘no evidence of benefit to the public’... and Prof Dr Lidia Vianu of the University of Bucharest came up with a proposal for a collaborative project (we’d considered a couple of things before but they hadn’t come to anything) and now some 60 poets on the poetry p f site, five Romanian professors and 58 Romanian MA & PhD students are participating in the translation project, poetry pRO. More about it at:
www.poetrypf.co.uk/poetrypro.html
What do you wish you’d known when you started?
How to create an efficient website and how to get it funded without selling its soul.
Who would you like to see interviewed here?
I have a long, very long, list but I’d like to see Katherine Gallagher here. She’s inspiring and incredibly supportive in the quietest sort of ‘walks among us’ way. I’m willing to bet there are a lot of poets who owe her something of their success. Good on yer, Katherine!
Who are your super heroes? Who do you think deseves wider recognition for their ‘behind-the-scenes’ work?
Email suggestions to: [email protected]
Page(s) 32-33
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