This summer sees three collections of poetry by OU Poets published.

OUP member, Karen Macfarlane’s first pamphlet, All About the Surface, has been published by Seahorse Publications. Karen was ‘spotted’ by Seahorse editor Linda Jackson while reading at ‘The Wee Gaitherin’, a three-day poetry festival in Stonehaven, in August 2023. Linda encouraged Karen to put a collection together and the 36-poem pamphlet was launched in Glasgow on 5th June, with a Zoom event on 12th with guest readers Kate Young and Sue Spiers from OU Poets. Andy Jackson (editor, Poetry Scotland) says “All About the Surface is a collection of wise and witty poems, all of which stand at the intersection of things… this wonderful debut collection expertly examines fragments of evidence of the inner workings of the world.”

Karen is embarking on the final module of her Arts & Humanities degree (Creative Writing & Art History). She combines her love of the two subjects in her online project ,Poems on Public Art (www.poemsonpublicart.wordpress.com). 

The second collection by an OU Poets member is Beyond the School Gate by Kate Young. It was winner of Hedgehog Poetry Press’ Wee Pamphlet Competition in 2023. The poems open up the classroom door to introduce us to fictional, yet authentic, depictions of pupils in the primary schools: e.g. the carer , the neglected, the boy in care, the child with learning difficulties. Each offers a challenge to the teacher operating in an educational system that sees each child as ‘data’ and delivers the imperative to ‘close the gap’. Yet Young’s poems treat each child with understanding and respect, never failing to find ‘the lustre in the centre of each one’.

Kate Young was brought up in Norwich and trained as a teacher before settling in Kent. Recently retired, she now has more time to devote to writing. Her work has been published in webzines and journals including Fly on the Wall, Alchemy Spoon and Poetry Scotland. Kate’s poetry can be heard on Words for the Wild and the Podcast Poetry Worth Hearing. Her poem Fear was placed 2^nd in The Canterbury Poet of the Year Competition, 2022. Her pamphlet A Spark in the Darkness was published by Hedgehog Press.

You can find out more about Kate’s poetry on her website- kateyoungpoet.co.uk.

Finally, the third collection is Openings 41, the 2024 annual anthology of poetry by OU Poets.

This year it features poems by John Starbuck, Christine Frederick, Karen Macfarlane, Madeline Parsons, Adrian Green, Peter Meredith Smith, Pru Bankes Price, Liz Beber, Tim Field, Denis Ahern, Suzie Millar, Susan Jarvis Bryant, Jane Avery, Sue Spiers, Kewal Paigankar, John Hughes, Ross McGivern, Vicki Morley, Polly Stretton, Cate Cody, Barbara Cumbers, Jenny Hamlett, Geoff Chilton, Sally James, Nigel Kent, Ian Ledward, Julie Anne Gilligan, M.C. Gardner, Marilyn Francis, Katherine Rawlings, Alice Harrison, Ian Campbell, K.J. Barrett, Wendy Goulstone, Jim Lindop, Phil Craddock, Kate Young, Nigel Pearce, Rob Lowe, Hilary Mellon, Julie Stamp, Ali Chakar, Lindsay Rossdale.

Well, that’s your holiday reading sorted!