E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

I am writing this first part on the eve of New Year's Eve day - and as new remembrances come to me, I may well update it. As the years go on, and this blog seems an interminable waste of time and fuss, and as my ego weakens its grip on me (ever too slowly to be sure) it seems less time is required to indulge my need for self-advertising. However, I do like to briefly report in such posts on things done and experienced. The highlight of the year is the time spent at Christmas with my family. No other part of the year is ever more meaningful, and I am always reminded how love shapes and supports my existence. Professionally, managing to keep my small indie publishing press afloat in a bad time for retail and literary publishing, was a major success for me. We published too many vital and important books to celebrate them all here, but two stood out for me, as being watersheds in our company's fortunes and esteem - The Monkman and Seagull Quiz Book - a good-selling en

well, first, the shortlist... longer than usual because the poems were so impressive... POETS SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPECIAL CHRISTMAS FORTNIGHT PRIZE   1.      Ashish Kumar – ‘Jackfruit’ 2.      Catherine Edmunds – 'Caney The Clown' 3.      Chris Kerr – ‘The Lorelei’ 4.      Drew Milne – ‘Having A Pepsi With You’ 5.      James Finnegan – 'Early December walk' 6.      Janet Dean – ‘Pin the Night’ 7.      Jo Burns – 'Christmas Shelter' 8.      Jose Varghese –‘The Boy from the Mountains’ 9.      Linda McKenna – 'Christmas Day on the Lord Sidmouth' 10. Marisa Silva-Dunbar –‘Body Parts’ 11. Meg Eden – ‘Instructions for Speaking in Tongues’ 12. Megan Pattie – ‘In Blakeney’ 13. Molly Bess Rector –‘Retail Therapy’ 14. Shadab Hashmi – ‘Empire Ekphrasis’ 15. Siobhan Flynn – ‘Christmas baking without my mother’ 16. Sofia Hafeji (Pen name Sofia Amina) – ‘1947. 2014. 2016.’ 17. Teresa Godfrey – 'Waiting Game' 18. Zachary D’mitri Jackson