Mark Ward's Blog, page 5

Notes from the Margins #14

NEWS!

- I am nearing the end of Book One of American G.I. There’s not long to go know before the inevitable twiddling/fiddling/tinkering/editing phase begins. A year and half has gone into this book and I can’t wait for people to read it.

- A non-fiction prose story about an afternoon’s cruising along Brighton’s seafront has been included in the Queer In Brighton anthology! Out this month! Here’s the cover for the book:

- A poem of mine, Late Night Television in the Afternoon, is due to be published in Glitterwolf #5 in the next couple of weeks alongside such luminaries as D. Period Gilson, Will Stockton and Evan J. Peterson. Here is the cover for the issue I’m in:

- Another poem of mine is due to be published in a book called Out of Sequence: The Sonnets Remixed.  It’s due out this summer from Upstart: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies and their print partners Parlor Press. Very exciting!

- There is more news regarding this summer and theatre that I can’t share with you just yet but is VERY EXCITING.

Notes from the Margins #13

A sestina of mine called Mongrel which I’m very proud of is included in Emerge Literary Journal’s Winter 2013 Poetry Issue (vol 2) alongside 58 (!) other poets. You can purchase on Amazon here.

Other news, my prose piece Reconnaissance will be published in the Queer in Brighton anthology in February. Another poem of mine will be published in an anthology in spring/summer next year (more details when I can). I am still working on the first volume of my American G.I. poetry cycle. A couple more months work and I should have my first finished collection! FUCKYES!

In other writing news, I have submitted Blue Boy to a lovely thing. I will post more about that when I hear back (if it’s a yes, it may have a week-long run next year. Keep your bits crossed for me!)

Notes from the Margins #12

So, this weekend was the work-in-progress showing of my new short play, Blue Boy, at the Quarter Arts Festival was fantastic, and my first time performing onstage outside of the cabaret/drag world in a very long time.

The Triskel Arts Centre is a gorgeous space which holds wonderful things like Cut Hands and Vatican Shadow (both of whom I missed recently in Dublin, and am still stinging about), a gorgeous cafe, an AMAZING record shop and the TDC – The Theatre Development Centre, where Quarter was held.

This was the running order for the day:

The tech was fantastic, and the lights were in full swing! The set-up, the space and the care and attention Makeshift gave the piece was wonderful!

The talk, well, more of a conversation as was intended, on collaboration between artists was fascinating, and will no doubt lead to collaborations from people who attended it.

I was delighted with how well Blue Boy went. People seemed to really enjoy it/get freaked out by it. It seemed to really get under people’s skin. Lots of people saying things to me like, but you’re such a nice guy. It also got compared to Dennis Cooper’s theatre show Jerk, but more favourably in that person’s opinion, which I took as quite the compliment.

After my piece, there was a second performer, Lynn-Marie Dennehy, whose piece of performance art, Window Display, really got under my skin. Beautiful, and unsettling, with lots of things to think about and process from the piece.

After that, Eszter chaired a feedback session with the audience and Lynn-Marie and myself, that used a strict formula to get the most usable feedback for us as possible, and was an extremely helpful process for me.

And that was pretty much it, as due to time constraints I couldn’t stay for the rest of the festival. Thank you so much to Eszter, Caoilain, Leah and Ciara, Queen of Soupland (you had to be there) and the whole of Makeshift for putting together Quarter, and I’ve no doubt it will continue to grow and grow, and hopefully I’ll see you all with something else soon.

The next Quarter will be in November, and I know that they’ll be actively looking for people to participate. So if you’ve got something  you’re working on (of up to 20 minutes in length), drop them an email!

Notes from the Margins #11

So, this kind of came out of nowhere. I wrote it specifically in response to Quarter’s open call a few weeks ago, and now I’m performing it this Saturday in Cork! INSANE! Mixing dramatic monologue and performance poetry, Blue Boy is an uncomfortable, aggressive, confessional piece, and should be lots of fun to do! If you’re in Cork this weekend, come see it!

Notes from the Margins #10

So, randomly, whilst I’ve been focussing on poetry, there are a couple of theatre things that may happen. One is a new short that I’ve been working on for the past few days, and the other, rather excitingly, is an adaptation of one of my plays into a different form – THAT IS ALL I SHALL SAY FOR THE MOMENT!

Also, the SWEATBOX reading run by the PETTYCASH collective last weekend was fantastic. And it really was a SWEATBOX, since this summer continues, almost worryingly (for non-Irish readers: an Irish summer normally lasts about three days, a week tops), to continue.

Split into numerous zones (The Basement, The Granny Flat, The Main Area, The Tunnel of Love), there were numerous things going on. The readings were up in the main area and were fantastic. The second reader, right after the host, whose name I can’t remember, totally floored me. Mighty fine performance poetry. I read four poems from Assaracus #11 and Mongrel, forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal. ‘Twas great. In terms of performance, my highlight of the night was friend and Drag King, Julian Mandrews’ deconstruction of what’s Straight and what’s Gay with wallcharts, markers, sandwiches, techno, and George Michael’s “I’m Your Man”. Gorgeousness.

In other news, this week I have been dipping in and out of Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters and being astounded by fellow Assaracus poet, Sean Patrick Mulroy, and his poem Pyrokinesis, which takes my breath away. Interestingly (interesting as I also recorded a spoken word album as a present for someone about five years ago), you can listen to him read the poem here.

Notes from the Margins #9

NEWS:

So. I’m finally published! Assaracus #11 is officially out now. This is how I looked the day I got my copy last week:

Super happy with it. Thanks again Brian, Seth and all of Sibling Rivalry Press!

Copies can be gotten direct from SRP, or from Amazon, or The Book Depository (which is much cheaper than Amazon.)

OTHER NEWS:

I’m doing a poetry set this Saturday (11th July) at SWEATBOX, a 10 Days in Dublin event.

Spoken Word / Performance Art / Disco

^How could you *not* love that? The line-up is as follows:

We’ve got performances from Aoife Leonard | Una Mullally | Conor Behan| Vicky Curtis | Alan Delmar | Hannah Wilson | Andy Apples | Shaun Dunne | Dylan Coburn Gray | Conor Bloggs | Erin Fornoff | James Moran | Maedbh Haceid | Xnthony | Mark Ward | Julian Mandrews | Matthew Mulligan | Emer Brady | PETTYCASH

DJ sets from Conor Behan | Exit Introvert | Toast Office DJs

And visual art contributions from Kristina Collender | Iam Destoryer | Supercreep | Emmett Connell | Kasia Kaminska | Cat O’Shea

AMAZING. Also PETTYCASH will be performing an excerpt from our SECRET NEW THEATRE project. HOW EXCITING!

Tickets are available here. You could also try on the door on the night. I don’t know if that’ll work or anything. I’m just saying you could *try*

MORE OTHER NEWS:

American G.I. is progressing nicely. Part 1 is going with gusto. A bit here and a bit there to go, but going well. Another teaser title for you:

General Pepperell and the Vociferous Volcano

FINALLY: EVEN MORE OTHER NEWS

Oh yes, I thought I’d blogged about this, but I haven’t! A sestina of mine called Mongrel will be appearing in Emerge Literary Journal’s Fall 2013 issue (out around Sep/Oct – I can’t remember the exact date offhand, I shall of course be linking ye to it around the time of its release).

Notes from the Margins #8

Update time!

So, my publication in Assaracus is going to be in July’s issue, FYI. I’ve been working away on the first section of American G.I. - I think at the moment it will have fifteen poems. There will be at the very least two more parts. Some titles to whet your appetite from Part One:

The Bit of the Biography I Normally Skip

Peeping Tom

Monsters in the Closet

Like Children Pretending to be Adults

There! That’s all you’re getting.

Also, I’ll have some more news for you all, poetry-wise, very, very soon.

Notes from the Margins #7

MASSIVE HUGE AMAZING NEWS!

Seven of my poems are going to be published in Sibling Rivalry Press’ journal of gay poetry, Assaracus in their tenth issue, out in April 2013.

This will be my first time in print, and I’m delighted that it’s these poems in that journal! Thanks to Bryan Borland and SRP! I can’t wait!

Notes from the Margins #6

+10 Overhaul.

So, over the next little while, I’m going to be overhauling this website somewhat to become more of a general writing website, instead of focusing purely on plays.

Over the past few months, I have returned to my first love of poetry, and have been working on it quite extensively recently. New areas of this site will include information on my poetry and prose, as well as publications as and when they happen.

So, in the spirit of news – for the past while, I have started work on a long series of poems about which I’ll tell you nothing except for the overall title: American G.I.

Also, I am going to try and post here a lot more regularly, even if it’s just to say HELLO, I’M ALIVE, THIS IS WHAT I’M WORKING ON!

Notes from the Margins #5

Apologies for the lack of posts lately.

I’ve been tinkering around with a few things lately. I’ve a couple of new plays brimming in the back of my head at the moment, both of which are still early days, one of which has the working title of You Think You’re A Man. More info on those soon, hopefully. We’ll see what develops.