John Greening
John Greening is a poet, critic and editor who has spent much of his life teaching adults and young people — in Scotland, the USA, and Cambridgeshire. Two years as...
Writer's Block
Perhaps your subject went away; the war ended; you moved from your special place; the poet of youth grew old.
My Reading Habits
Those heaps of books in the living room left as if to mark my territory, with their scruffy bookmarks, torn up poetry drafts may, of course, be evidence of a project.
Marketing And Me
Buying books to sell at readings, buying more to send out as extra review copies; attending unlikely events in the unlikely hope that someone might be looking for poetry.
Letter To My Readers
Think of yourself as a baby dropped in a swimming pool. You won’t drown, and… may even find you’re enjoying the experience.
Why I Write
If you have to ask yourself why you write, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. In my experience the best poems take both reader and author by surprise.
How I Write
The blank page can be unnerving to a novelist preparing for the day’s long trek, but it’s a wasteland that poets have comfortably colonised.
Letter To My Younger Self
True, your diaries tend to trail off around March after your birthday presents, but what about those days you sat pounding the old Underwood? ‘Crash, crash, crash’ was your opening line.
Life-changing Literature
Although the 8mm silent version of Milton’s epic never made it to a sheet of painted hardboard near you, I think I was onto something.
How Writing Changes The Writer
Writing poetry is about tuning in; language is the necessary crystal. Find the wavelength and everything connects with everything.