It looks like the poetry planets are aligned for me at the moment. I just heard from a journal in Queensland that they’ve accepted one of my poems for their next issue, and from WritingWA that they’ve accepted my application for their ‘Writers in Libraries’ Programme, which means that at some point later this year I’ll be conducting poetry readings and talks at libraries in the Perth area.
Went to the launch of The World According to Warren at Westbooks last night and what should I see when I walk through the door but a whole stack of Annabel, Again, with a shelf-talker declaring it Book of the Month and nominating me as ‘the Australian Meg Cabot‘.
This is both lovely and alarming, considering how quickly the other Meg writes (can we call her ‘the other Meg’? Can I be the Meg to whom all other Megs will now be referential? What will Meg Rosoff have to say about this? Most likely she will be too busy counting her awards to notice me). The point being that if I’m going to be any kind of Meg Cabot at all, I must put poetry and other worldly distractions aside and knuckle back down to Izzie, which is going perfectly well now, thank you very much (repeat, look convinced).
Here’s the cover image I’ve chosen for my little book of poetry:
The artist is the marvellous Nevin Hirik. Her work is so richly evocative and I love the figurative interplay between the image and the title, Cleanskin. It was quite challenging coming up with a title, but when I sat down to look at the manuscript as a whole, I realised that many of the poems are about the body, identity, memory, the complex negotiations between the past and present. So when I came across the word ‘cleanskin’ buried in the middle of one of the pieces, it seemed apt.
I’ve just sent back what I think are the final revisions on my next junior novel. Going for Broke (one world record, 52 tiny bones) will be out with Walker Books Australia in May next year. In a curious twist, I have actually done an illustration for the text (although once my editor sees the extent of my artistic skill, she may well place a panicked last-minute call to an actual illustrator).
More book news! I have just been contacted by the good folk at The Westerly Centre and informed that my poetry submission for their ‘emerging poets’ project has been successful. The literary journal Westerly received funding from ArtsWA to publish a small collection by a Western Australian poet who hasn’t yet published a book of poetry, and they’ve chosen mine.
My volume, entitled Cleanskin, will be published with this year’s issue of Westerly, some time in November. It will also feature a CD of me reading and discussing some of the poems. I now have to scurry around trying to choose a cover image and think of ways to sound intelligent and thoughtful.
I should probably add that this is poetry for adults, rather than children, although I do use some of my own material as a basis for teaching poetry workshops into schools.
Made a simple structural change to Izzie which has put things back on track quite nicely. I’m still aiming to have the first draft completed by the end of September, as per my original plan for the ArtsWA Grant period. This will require some speedy writing over the next few weeks, but I can probably make it if I stay focused.
Meanwhile, Annabel has been turning up in some interesting places. She has been added to the booklist for the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge and is featured in the latest Scholastic Bookclub catalogue. Scholastic tells us that Annabel is for ‘confident’ readers. I’d like to think she is also for thoughtful, quirky and all-round cool readers, but maybe that’s just me projecting.
Meg McKinlay 