Kathy Pimlott

October 2025

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What, what, what am I going to write about? I'm floundering around at the moment, hoping that a clear path will emerge. In the meantime I'm trawling through notebooks and computer files to find something, anything, that catches among all the half-started exercises and workshop prompt poems, something that ignites. There's a lot of ash to be riddled.

I do like, though, the odd poems I've written to make myself laugh, poems which hardly ever see the light of day because I seldom submit them anywhere. It is, therefore, a great pleasure to have one such in the current issue of The Alchemy Spoon - and what makes me laugh here is that I rhyme 'biscuit' with 'piqued' - it's a very small load of nonsense that delights me. Unaccountable but there we are.

I gave two readings in September. The first was on-line for Cafe Writers (Norwich) as a featured reader alongside Amanda Dalton. Cafe Writers is always a treat. Their dedicated group of followers includes some very fine poets, meaning their open mic is always sparkling. The second was n-person at Nottingham's splendid Five Leaves Bookshop supporting Matthew Paul, launching his new collection, The Last Corinthians. And if that wasn't exciting enough, also reading was Peter Sansom - a rare opportunity to see this doyen of poetry who does so much to support poets and is so modest about his own work.  Matthew and I met through Peter and Ann Sansom's Sheffield-based Poetry Business school, which has fostered so many poets and been the foundation of some of my most enduring poetry friendships. And The North magazine is one of my favourite publications. 

I’m reading

Rachel Spence's Daughter of the Sun (The Emma Press); Suzannah Evan's Green (Little Betty); Claudine Toutoungi's Emotional Support Horse (Carcanet) and Pam Thompson's Sub/urban Legends (Paper Swans Press)