My poetry pen has to be set aside for a while after a book comes out, or allowed to rest under whatever I’m reading, listening to, looking at. This happens after every publication, though the past nine months (since the publication of Beyond the Gate) have provided a particularly spacious space! At such times, my…
Category: News
Beyond the A12
On Tuesday 10th October we launched my new Worple Press collection Beyond the Gate in the beautiful crypt (or Forum) of the newly refurbished St John’s Waterloo, in London. I love book launches. And because this one had been postponed from July, I’d had extra time to plan, in a very bossy way: notes and…
To share or not to share
There are times in life when it’s easier to share snaps of pets and plants than it is to talk about what else is going on. There are lots of reasons not to share – not wanting to burden people, not wanting to risk ‘oversharing’ and simply not having the energy, the time, the stamina….
Two new reviews for ‘End of Season / Fine di stagione’
My thanks and appreciation to Matthew Stewart of Rogue Strands who has written an insightful post here about End of Season / Fine di stagione, focusing on tensions of various kinds running through the work. It’s exciting when a reader / reviewer homes in on something that really is part of the foundations of a…
Happy New Year!
I’m very grateful to the Italian poet Franca Mancinelli for hosting some of the poems from End of Season / Fine di stagione on her beautiful blog Diario di passo. The poems appear in both English and Italian. It was a joy to work with Franca and with John Taylor when they were translating my…
Collaboration and celebration
I recently wrote two pieces on the subject of collaboration for The Friday Poem, an excellent and vibrant poetry venture (started by Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie a little over a year ago) which sends a new poem to subscribers’ inboxes every Friday. The Friday Poem also carries reviews, articles, opinion, all kinds of good…
Making paper while the sun shines
I recently felt compelled to learn how to make paper by hand. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to do this, but I’m so glad I booked myself onto a course. And now, thinking back over last weekend at West Dean College, I have a slightly readjusted sense of who I am. My father was…
The Missing List – three years on
“…a powerful and riveting memoir. The Missing List is an important, essential text in the context of the #MeToo movement; it is also an essential text for women’s studies courses. As Best demonstrates, sharing these stories is the first step towards paving a way forward.” My memoir The Missing List was published and launched in…
An hour for a day
One hour to write up a day. I did this before, in 2013. Some things haven’t changed. My beloved still brings me a mug of Earl Grey at around 5.15 am. Pre-Covid habits of getting up early for his commute to work haven’t deserted us, and at this time of year I wouldn’t want to…
2020: Year of Many Aprons. Part 2 of 2.
A year ago, I was preparing to return to Guildhall School of Music & Drama where I was a student on the MA in Opera Making – an amazing programme (the only one of its kind in the world) that excavates and nurtures the idea and reality of close collaboration across and between all the art…
Clare Best 