John's '˜Outlaws...' launch imprint

A new Calder Valley poetry imprint launches this month with a collection of poems by local writer John Foggin.
Calderdale poet John FogginCalderdale poet John Foggin
Calderdale poet John Foggin

For some years in the 80s and 90s John was an adviser of English and Drama to Calderdale Council’s education department, but it is only in recent years that he started writing poetry seriously, says Bob Horne, founder of publishers Calder Valley Poetry, who issue John’s fourth volume of poetry, Outlaws And Fallen Angels, next week.

The collection, which includes around 25 poems with a common theme of sculptures, and the imprint, will be launched at an evening at The Blind Pig, Tower Hill, Sowerby Bridge, from 7.30pm on Tuesday, January 19. John’s previous collections - Running Out Of Space, Backtracks and Larach - have garnered considerable praise, and he has won two poetry competitions, entries submitted for judging anonymously, judged by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bob Horne says John’s poetry has gone down a storm and Outlaws And Fallen Angels is available at £7 by emailing [email protected] or phoning him on 07776 211891 for postage details. He was delighted when John wanted his next collection of work to be published on the imprint as its debut title.

John says on his WordPress site https://johnfoggin.wordpress.com: “Here’s a series of poems that buck the trend of the previous three pamphlets. All the poems in those, bar one or two, had been written between 2012 and 2014. Nearly all of them started life in writers’ workshops. ‘Outlaws And Fallen Angels’ is different because it took a very long time to come together, and because it took a lot of rewritings. It sprung from a compulsion to find different voices, to get out of my default voice, and to explore different ways of thinking.”