News
Last updated 11 May 2009
This is where I'll post messages about updates on the site, or news about any of the material on the site
May 2009
Bill came second in The Kent & Sussex Open Poetry Competition 2008 (results announced in February), judged by Penelope Shuttle, with a poem called 'Five Minutes Later'. (This is the fourth consecutive year he has been placed in the top four.) He was highly commended in the Wigtown Poetry Prize 2009, judged by Douglas Dunn. for the poem 'The Bridle Path'.
Bill Greenwell's Poetry Clinic - 2009/2010
Can't scan, won't scan? Images in a fix? Looking for some one-to-one support, and some peer commentary too? Follow this link to a new course at Exeter, the first starting in October:
March 2009
You can now link to about 150 of my New Statesman poems from 1999 onwards:http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/bill_greenwell
October 2008
There are now lots of updates on the site to report. The first is that I have started to update Lost Lives - some more than others. The most comprehensively updated life is that of Jerome K Jerome, to which Frank Rodgers has generously contributed an article on JKJ in America. Frank has also helped me (understatement) correct the various errors in my original piece, and if you are a fan of JKJ, I urge you read his additions. I have also corrected a variet of details about Dan Leno, about whose family I now know a great deal more, and I would particularly like to thank Barry Anthony for helping me out here. There are still some Lost Lives to come, including that of James Prinsep, and eventually, Ted Pablo Fanque, the son of Pablo Fanque, whose life deserves a complete work.
There is now a blog associated with the site - you can go to it directly via http://billgreenwell.wordpress.com or click on the link on the sidebar. This is an experiment. Feedback would be appreciated. I have managed about three weeks on a daily basis, and I'm seeing where it will lead. I am not a natural diarist, but I like the discipline of deadlines.
There are now several articles accessible through links, as publications like The Independent update their archive. I will add more pieces as they travel back in time.
I may try to update the family history section by altering the main text, but it is more likely that I will add new sections as I go. The downloadable .ged file in one of the appendices now contains information about the families, forebears and descendants of each of my great-grandparents: Thomas William Greenwell, Hannah Botterill, Thomas Catcheside, Sarah Jane Porter, Clement Meuron Maxwell, Mary Jane Futers, Elizabeth Whayman and James Buskin Frail. In some cases (the Herring, Hay, Goode, Henderson familes in particular) I have done more research. Five people have asked not to be publicised online, and I've respected that.
I continue to bump into former students from the Art/English ('CLP') course, and I would like to expand this section with photographs and any reminiscences, too.
At the moment, I am leading a quiet life (ha ha) as a full-time employee of the OU. I will do my best to continue updating all parts of the site. All suggestions welcome. We seem to have the Sp*m under control on the Comments book, and all comments are welcome.
I will restrict this section to site updates. I'd like to thank Mike Jeffries of By Design for his constant and careful update of the site, and for its additions.
It is hard to keep track of my poems, but there are two in the current edition of Envoi. All suggestions gratefully received.
Bill
September 12 2007
Watch the YouTube images accompanying the song 'Dangerous Heart', written by Deborah Jeanne Weitzman and Bill Greenwell, and on Deborah's new album 'Touch The Sky'. (Bill is not the whistler or the percussionist, for anyone looking in!)
News on 17 January 2007
January 2007 update
A long-overdue update from the start of 2007. Poems are due to appear in the next edition of Coffee House Poetry, and Envoi, into which Coffee House Poetry will merge later in the year. In the last year, Bill has been shortlisted for a Forward Prize for his book Impossible Objects and will, as of February 1st, become a full-time Lecturer In Creative Writing for 20 months at the Open University. Two recent articles to read: a selection of nine Auden parodies published in The Independent in late December, and an article by Frieda Hughes in The Times about one of the poems in "Impossible Objects" in January 2007.Read here (The Indie) - and here (The Times)
News on 21 January 2006
Poems on their way
New poems from Bill appear/will appear in the current issues of The Rialto and Coffee House Poetry and in the forthcoming editions of Anon, Staple and Smiths Knoll. Over the next few weeks, some more recent, unpublished poems will appear in a new section in the Poetry part of the site.
21 December
Latest news
Watch out for (a) a spoof on Bleak House in The Independent on Friday 22 December 2006 Read it here!, and (b) a poem on The Today Programme, Radio 4, in the week following Christmas, on Friday December 30th 2006, at 0824. Listen again here!
21 December
A site special: a Christmas spoof
An exclusive spoof has just been posted for your festive entertainment - what if the hit series had been Desperate Authors instead of Desperate Housewives? Have a look for the piece in the Articles section.
17 October
The Art/English course ('CLP')
This section of the site is now live, and the site now includes a guest-book for former students (and any other visitors) to contribute any messages.
9 September 2005
Family
Dorothy Greenwell Atkins was 100 years old in May, making her the first descendant of George and Mary Greenwell to cross that milestone. In June, alas, Maisie Magee - Dorothy's second cousin - died suddenly but peacefully at the age of 98, at her daughter's home near Newry. The two nonagenarians - Peter Pottinger and Nancy Shaw - have recently turned 96 and 92 respectively, and are both well. The family history part of the site should be populated with more photos very soon.