Wow – I never thought I’d say this, but today we sold out our last copy of issue 3!  New orders and subscriptions will start with issue 4 now. It’s a good thing too – it means there will be somewhere to put all those new magazines when they get delivered.

Spent the evening doing more planning for issue 4 – we’re still commissioning illustrations. My best thinking on deadlines is that illustrations should be complete in mid-late January, and final layouts and proofing will mean we go to print in early Feb. Fingers crossed. As our fine designer said, when she saw the manuscript for issue 4 – it’s a bumper issue. It’s our biggest yet, and I hope will be worth the wait.

Anybody interested in contributing black and white illustrations for issue 4 should get in touch in the next day or two.

Hi everyone – if you are a subscriber or regular follower of the Scrumbler, you may have started to ask yourself, “when is issue 4 coming.” Fear not – it is slowly, but surely making its way towards the printing press. Life has been busy here at Scrumbler headquarters over the last few months, so progress has been slow, but I’m meeting with our designer now, and a lovely artist is working on the cover. We will be publishing, I hope, around January. The next big thing is to get all the illustrations finished. If you are interested in illustrating for this issue, it is still worth getting in touch with me.

So – while I’m very sorry for the long wait, I can say this will be our best and biggest issue yet.

Meanwhile, we are always accepting new work, and are currently collecting poems to include in issue 5. I am particularly interested in using some shape poems in the next issue, so if you have any poems that have a visual side to them, or that are contorted into interesting shapes, please submit them!

Just a quick note to say the editing and poem selection for issue 4 is well underway now. I’m very pleased to say we have a bumper crop of new poetry submissions, more than ever before… now it’s just a matter of carving out some quiet evenings to concentrate on all this new work.

I’m currently aiming to release the next issue some time in the late summer or early Autumn, but I will give an update as things progress.

Have a look at this post about keeping notebooks, from my friend, the poet Helen Mort.

This was posted on the new Young Poets Network site, run by the Poetry Society. It looks fab… definitely one to watch regularly.

I recently decided I’d like to start including some reviews of new poetry books for children in upcoming issues, and, with a stroke of luck, just last week I was sent a review copy for a new collection of poetry. So, it looks like we are in business! The only thing I need is someone who is interested in reading the collection and writing a short review of between 200 to 500 words.

The reviewer can be any age (from about 10 years and up…. including adults), and will be able to keep the copy of the publication they review. I will also make sure you get a complimentary copy of the issue of The Scrumbler in which your review appears.

If you’re interested, please register on our new online submissions website, and make sure you note that you are interested in reviewing.

There has been a lot of talk in poetry circles this week about recent (UK) Arts Council cuts to the Poetry Book Society (which also ran the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf), and NAWE (National Association for Writers in Education). Both organisations do extremely important work for children’s poetry, and it is dismaying to see the cuts.

Regardless, The Scrumbler will keep on doing its part by maintaining its commitment to publishing excellent poetry by and for children. We are still very much in the early stages of this magazine and have big plans for it. We don’t rely on any external sources of funding (and we run at a small loss, currently!). I firmly believe that although these institutions have a huge part to play in spreading the good of creative writing, poetry has always, and always will keep on going, and find its way to the people who love it.

You can read more, including join a petition to challenge the decisions by following the links below. I encourage you to do so.

Links:

Detailed article on The Bookseller website regarding the cuts
Poetry Book Society
Poetry Books Society Challenge to Arts council decision
Children’s Poetry Bookshelf
National Association for Writers in Education

This just in -the John Betjeman Poetry Competition 2011 is open for entries from 10-13 year-olds until 31st July.

Each child is invited to send in (by post or online) one poem on the theme of ‘place’. They can choose anywhere that is important to them – from their bedroom to somewhere they visited on holiday, from their favourite park to their favourite building. The subject of their poem could be a city or a garden or a beach or a street. We are asking them to capture in words what that place means to them.

Winners of the poetry competition are invited to read their poems aloud to an audience of judges, entrants, teachers and parents at a prize giving held in October on the concourse of St Pancras station, next to the bronze statue of John Betjeman.

The first prize is £1000. There are five runner-up prizes of £50 book tokens.

Entry forms at www.betjemanpoetrycompetition.com.

Postal entries to The John Betjeman Poetry Competition, PO Box 51177, London, SE13 9BP.

Details of the competition can be found at the website: www.betjemanpoetrycompetition.com

This just in … the prestigious Foyle young poets award has now opened for 2011. This will be of interest to any really keen young poets out there, ages 11-17. More details on the UK Poetry Society website. Have a look.

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/fyp/

I’m really interested in how the different forms of the arts can inform each other. For example, poems which use paintings as their subject, or paintings that make use of words.

Or sometimes the influence is less direct. When you’re creating, you need to keep yourself fuelled up, and it can be good to visit the well of creative work from all different arts to excite you, re-inspire you and generate unexpected ideas.

When I’m thinking about how to inspire my students and my own kids, I like to share with them things that have inspired me over the years.

I’d like to produce a list of works of art from all the different disciplines – painting, music, sculpture, poetry, prose, architecture – a sort of ‘top 100 works of art to share with your kids’ – categorized by discipline – complete with links to information about these pieces.

Can you help? What few pieces of art of any genre, have you, or would you most like to share with your own kids? Comments welcome…

I’m really excited to say that Issue 3 of The Scrumbler has now been printed and it is looking great! This morning I posted off all the subscriber copies, so subscribers should be receiving these soon.

To all our wonderful contributors, I will be posting your copies tomorrow.

This issue has been a long time in the making, but it has been worth the wait. We’ve got a new designer, Jenny, who has contributed enormously to the magazine. I really got a new appreciation for how subtle changes to a design can make enormous improvements.

I will do some more postings about the new issue over the next week or so, and add the new issue to our online shop.

Thanks to everyone who made this issue possible, and I hope everyone who gets their hands on the new issue really loves it.