‘Mike Mackmin's Blog’ Archives
A day at the poetry
The Cley Little Festival of Poetry, in my experience, circles around the village of Cley but doesn't settle there, ranging between Sheringham and Wiveton along the coast road. They very generously invite me to suggest themes, poets etc., from time to time and this year asked me to read and to bring two other poets who I thought well of. I suggest [...]
March 9th 2011 – AN APOLOGY
Dear Subscriber, We have had a serious computer glitch at The Rialto. This means that: Some of you haven't yet received copies of No 71. We are finding out who you are and will send copies as soon as possible. Subscription Renewal notices were sent out in some cases to the wrong subscribers, i.e. people who were not due to renew. If [...]
Festival of nature writing
There was an event in North Norfolk last weekend of such significance that I'm unsure whether to write about it or stay silent. You know how it is when you stumble down a track, a path that's barely marked, into a small valley, a bay where the apples and other fruit trees have gone back to wilderness and there's no boat drawn up on the white sands [...]
October and November at The Rialto
I'm in Upper St Giles Street, Norwich having a cup of tea in what used to be a butcher's shop but is now part deli, part posh caff (lads with laptops, etc). I'm a bit shaky, I've just got my car back from the menders. I was involved in a spectacular collision in September and, though I've been driving a loan car, this is the first day back in the [...]
At The Rialto – Late September
Please come and meet Nathan and Michael at The Troubadour in Old Brompton Road (London SW6 9JA, just up the road from West Brompton tube, or via buses Nos 74, C1 430) on Monday October 4th at 8 p.m. There's a Rialto reading, part of our ongoing 25th Jubilee. The readers will be Fleur Adcock, Christina Dunhill, Joanna Clark, Joanne Limburg, Nathan [...]
August News
I'm sipping a McDonald's Hot Chocolate (maybe it's properly called 'McChocco TM' or somesuch (no I checked the website it's just Hot Chocolate, Regular or Large)) up in the sky at the top of Norwich's Chapelfield Shopping Mall. The glass wall faces north into the 'landscaped' (possibly also TM) churchyard of St Stephen and the church itself which [...]
From The Editor
The Editor is back from two weeks holiday in Italy. We watched spectacular sunsets over the Sibylline mountains, endured a huge electric storm, a day and night of torrential (that's the word) rain, another day of dark cloud cover (the oft mentioned blanket of cloud) instead of the expected blue, but had enough sunshine to get a bit of a tan. [...]
How do I get my poems published in The Rialto?
‘A writer has to spin his work out of himself and the effect upon the character is often disastrous. It inflates the ego.’ Elizabeth Goudge, A City Of Bells. I wish I could tell you. A poem on any subject, in any style, might succeed. When we started the magazine we wanted it to be open, ‘deliberately eclectic’ was a phrase we used - [...]
No 69
The new The Rialto (No. 69) has gone to be printed. If all goes well (I'm always in full anxiety mode at this stage imagining catastrophes – why not the opposite?) this should prove to be a particularly startling and intriguing issue. It is scheduled to be ready in time for the 'celebration of 25 years of The Rialto' event at the Norfolk and [...]
From the Editor – Issue 64
‘The Mandate’ by Joel Lane THE MANDATE As the first ripple of the crowd’s laughter struck the air like a window breaking to let in a fresh autumn breeze, the Emperor lifted a bare arm and slowly wiped away a tear. ‘Oh child,’ he said gently, ‘if only you knew how much strength that laughter gives to the enemies of [...]
