Who am I?

I am a poet, editor, podcaster, event host and university lecturer. My semi-regular podcast, Rusty Sonnets, where I read out and analyse old poems, is worth a listen if you find it difficult to get beyond the metres, cadence and reverence that surround them. Before the pandemic, I hosted London’s longest-running poetry open mic, Poetry Unplugged from 2005-2020. I have no idea when, or if Poetry Unplugged will return once it is safe enough to do so. I have a few books of poetry published by Flipped Eye, the latest being my New and Selected, Werewolf of London. I also teach poetry at London Metropolitan University.

What am I wittering on about?

Blogging isn’t exactly some big new invention. We all seemed to do it once upon a time, before the social networks gave us a method for getting things off our chest and garnering an immediate response. I guess that’s the motivation for this newsletter. I’ve been rabbiting on about poetry, films, video games and the ways of the world on social media for quite a while but wanted to get back into blogging, into more thought out and less reactive content. I’ll post poems on here too. I’ve never been one for waiting for acceptances from magazines, stuffing an unwanted poem into a new envelope and sending it to the next place. I’ll also be audible too, with personally recorded narration for each post. I also record a monthly podcast which consists of monthly personal highlights and a bit of banter about things in general.

Why subscribe?

If you subscribe, you’ll get each post sent straight to your inbox. Hopefully a poem, an analysis of a poem, or a bit of cultural commentary will bring a bit of variety and randomness to your day. I will not share anybody’s email with any third parties nor will I use them for any kind of self promotion outside of footnotes at the end of regular posts.

You can also subscribe to the Rusty Niall podcast which is a monthly highlight reel/chinwag. It’s basically an hour of me reading out some new poems and talking about stuff.

I will soon offer a paid option which will grant access to occasional digital pamphlets in audio and visual formats. These digital pamphlets will also be available as digital purchases on my itch.io page for those who would rather buy them outright.

If you enjoy any of my stuff, be it the blog, the stream or the podcast, and want to support it without committing to a regular subscription, you can throw a digital penny into my virtual tipping cup via my Ko-fi page.