Hi Katy,
OK! there are LOTS of British poets writing metrical verse.
I suppose my point was about magazines, I seem to have more things published in print in America than here.
I do think that the tradition of metrical verse does tend to get underplayed. I bought the Bloodaxe Anthology of 20th Poetry for my daughter - it missed out Betjeman altogether!
I've seen the details of the poetry conference at Cambridge - but it is not a practioner's event:
I quote the aims:
The primary aim of the conference is to stimulate academics to engage with and write papers on British and Irish contemporary poetry written originally in English. In order to encourage consideration of issues of practice, there will also be readings and lectures by leading poets.
I can imagine myself as a writer enjoying West Chester, it feels inclusive; the Cambridge event has an altogether more academic tone, I think it might be fairly intimidating for anyone without a string of publications in academic journals. There are poets in attendance, but they are reading rather than running workshops it seems.
It's a shame that some of the leading creative writing university departments such as Warwick or East Anglia don't do something along the lines of West Chester, but then again, they are not particularly active in the small mag. market, unlike their American equivalents.
The fact that there are an increasing number of UK based moderators on the Sphere I think is an encouraging sign, we may get a UK practitioner based event one day maybe.
best wishes
Alan
[This message has been edited by Alan Wickes (edited June 18, 2006).]
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