{"id":17674,"date":"2018-11-12T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T08:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=17674"},"modified":"2018-11-07T13:44:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:44:23","slug":"uea-ma-scholars-amanda-holiday-and-kirstie-millar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/uea-ma-scholars-amanda-holiday-and-kirstie-millar\/","title":{"rendered":"UEA Poetry MA Scholars Amanda Holiday and Kirstie Millar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2011, IS&T publisher Kate Birch established the The Ink Sweat & Tears Poetry Writing Scholarship<\/a> (MA) at the University of East Anglia (UEA); Kirstie Millar is its eighth recipient. Amanda Holiday is the first to be awarded The Birch Family Scholarship<\/a> set up to support UK-based poetry MA students from the BAME community. Both Amanda and Kirstie will be reading at the Caf\u00e9 Writers<\/a> spoken word night at Louis Marchesi in Norwich tonight<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shipwrecked Portuguese soldiers battle giant crabs in the Indian Ocean 1601<\/p><\/div>\n

The Crabs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sea had been flat and still, barely lapping
\nAnd lulled by heat and rum
\nwe lay back in the boats drifting
\ndamp handkerchiefs on our faces
\nagainst the sun<\/p>\n

and before long,
\none by one badoom badoom
\nour pirogues thudded up on sand and pebbles
\nwedging us askew on the shore
\nBig Paul woke first and leapt out
\nshouting \u2018Santos Caranguejos!\u2019
\nMonster crabs; pink, ungainly
\nblinked back slowly and waved their claws<\/p>\n

We grabbed oars and ran at
\nthe crustaceans poking fleshy faces
\nbeating hardened shells
\ndriving them inland. Yet more came –
\nan army sideways from the sea
\nSoon we were surrounded:
\nflushed, hard-bodied hordes.<\/p>\n

Paul ordered us \u2018Pare!\u2019 Lay down our sticks.
\nWe dragged our boats to the
\nocean edge and as we waited
\nfor the moon tide and staved
\noff hunger, we sang songs to
\nthe fickle creatures, who now
\ndanced in lines across the sand.<\/p>\n

When midnight came, we loaded up
\nAnd set sail<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Amanda Holiday<\/b> has read poems from her first chapbook at the PCA ACA annual conference in San Diego as well as Herstory4 Feminist Theatre, Nasty Women and FiliArt festivals in London – The Art Poems<\/i> is published as part of New Generation African Poets chapbox set (Tano, Akashic Books (US) 2018).<\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

Slimed<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are so many different ways to be alive
\nlike
\nthat time those boys threw a donut at us
\nwe were still alive then
\nbusy stepping down the side of the highway
\ncollecting in a plastic bag all the things we might find useful in adult life
\nlike
\nhow best to hold your body while alone on the street at night
\nlike
\nhow best to feel the sandy shape of words on your tongue and how to make
\nthem pointed
\nwhen they need to be
\nlike
\nhow to paint a face on top of your less nice face
\nlike
\nhow to make that face a cold river without a single ripple
\nlike
\nhow to lie
\nlike
\nhow to use this cold placid face to project a promise into the world
\na promise that says a sharp thought has never risen and pricked the thin layer of
\npink skin drawn gently across your mind
\nlike
\nhow to scramble up yourself and be nothing but soft things piled up on other softer
\nthings.<\/p>\n

I am only soft and agreeable things.
\nI found that thing so dull and blank but useful amongst the thin yellow grass and
\ncigarette butts and rusted cans of Sprite
\non the side of the highway that day,
\nseconds before their sprinkles hit me
\nright between the eyes.<\/p>\n

I boil these discoveries down like sweets
\nand push them through the pink mess deep into another pinker part of myself.<\/p>\n

I am only soft and agreeable things.
\nI lie.
\nI move through the day like slime,
\nlike green slick slime from Nickelodeon.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m here to say
\nyou\u2019ve all just been slimed,
\nby me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kirstie Millar<\/b> is a writer and poet based in Norwich. She edits Ache<\/i>, a magazine by women exploring illness, health and pain. You can find her on Twitter @KirstieMillar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2011, IS&T publisher Kate Birch established the The Ink Sweat & Tears Poetry Writing Scholarship (MA) at the University of East Anglia (UEA); Kirstie Millar is its eighth recipient. Amanda Holiday is the first to be awarded The Birch Family Scholarship set up to support UK-based poetry MA students from the BAME community. Both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17674"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17764,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674\/revisions\/17764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}