Poetry Lit Reading 4th June

I'll be doing a poetry reading on 4th June 2021, organised by the excellent Poetry Lit series. Details and tickets can be found here.

Meanwhile, my pamphlet The Girl Who Got onto the Ferry in Citizen Kane, is available from Templar Poetry.

'Men with Guns' Shorlisted for Fish Poetry Prize

 

My poem 'Men with Guns' has been shortlisted for the 2021 Fish Poetry Prize, judged by former US Poet Laureate, Billy Collins. More info here. The piece is a bit of family folklore, recounting my grandfather's experiences during the Larne Gun Running of 1914.

Poetry Reading with John Glenday et al at The Bakehouse tonight

 

I'll be taking part in an online poetry reading this evening, Saturday 6 March 2021, organised by The Bakehouse in Gatehouse of Fleet. Star attraction is the estimable and wondrous John Glenday; I will be one of the poets reading in the second half of the evening.

The reading starts at 1930 tonight. More info here.  

Now on Ko-fi

 

You can now support me by "buying me a coffee" here https://ko-fi.com/seanmartin. This is, of course, a euphemism for offering modest financial support. But if you do need to know, I am quite partial to lattes with oat milk; but my real favourite hot drink is a hot white chocolate:-)

Where in the world is Freewrite?

The folks over at Astrohaus recently ran a competition for people to photograph their Freewrite Traveler. The winning photos were selected for their website. Mine was one of the winning pictures. It's not been a week of peace and quiet, and this image reminds me of what decent writing conditions are like... Anyway, you can see the whole collection of photos, including mine, here.

Ancient Aliens appearance

Here's a still of me in Ancient Aliens, episode "Treasures of the Gods". Although it was first broadcast in 2014, I've only just seen the episode. (I was never sent a copy by the production company, which is unusual.) My next TV programme will be The Secret Story of the Knights Templar, a 3-part miniseries, due out soon, if not out in your territory already. Here's a short trailer.

Tarkovsky news

 

Here is a good article on Tarkovsky's Stalker, written at the time of the 4K restoration, released on Blu Ray and DVD by Criterion:

https://www.framerated.co.uk/stalker-1979/

I came across this piece because I couldn't remember who was head of Goskino in the mid-70s - was it Filip Yermash, or Nikolai Sizov? (It was the former; Sizov was head of Mosfilm.) And my reason for this little bit of Ecosia-usage is that we are currently making a documentary about Tarkovsky's The Mirror, which will be released by Criterion later this year. 

I will post more details when we have finished the film, and when a release date has been announced.

Incidentally, there is a new edition of my book Andrei Tarkovsky in the works. This will be published by Kamera Books later in the year as well. The current edition (the second edition of 2011) is out of print, but the ebook version can be found here.