What is this place? Why am I here? Who are you people?
We’re a haven for young poets and exciting new poetry. The Pom editorial team has huge respect for the Poetry Society and the grown up poetry scene here in the UK, but it can get pretty intimidating being the only baby at the party. We believe poetic talent needs to be nurtured while the writers are still bursting with youthful passion and want to change the world. We’re a hub, a country-wide community of young writers – and we know our onions, because we’re all writers under 30 ourselves.
How’s it work?
Everything’s on a shoestring budget. We pay for this site thanks to kind funding from Arts Council England (THANKS GUYS) and out of our own (meagre) funds. Apart from Purple Dogfish, who revamped us and made us look pretty, we run the whole of this joint ourselves, when we’re not sweating over uni work and struggling to find a day job in the recession. We do our best, because we love poetry. The rest is up to you: send us submissions, write us articles, get onto the forums, and tell all your friends.
Okay, I get all that, but why Pomegranate?
We like pomegranates. Don’t you?
Okay then. Introduce yourselves.
How kind of you to ask!
The Pomegranate crew were all winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year (FYP) award in 2006 and met afterwards at the Arvon Centre in Shropshire on the week-long poetry course that was the prize. Credits:
The Pomegranate Team
Editor: Charlotte Runcie
Charlotte is Pomegranate’s editor. She won first prize in the Christopher Tower poetry awards in 2007. When she’s not being a poetry editor, she’s a student and a journalist, and was named Columnist of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards in 2009. She’s a big fan of photography and is a connoisseur of exotic teas. You can usually find her living in Edinburgh or studying at Cambridge University, but she may occasionally be elsewhere. Her first pamphlet of poems, seventeen horse skeletons, is published by tall-lighthouse.
Deputy Editor: Emily Tesh
Emily Tesh is first mate to Char’s captain and the oldest member of the team. As befits someone of such advanced years, she likes very old poetry e.g. Ovid, Catullus, Sappho and Homer, although she has been known to read poems written as recently as 1963. She therefore had no choice but to study Classics, which she is doing at Trinity College, Cambridge. Emily is a Londoner and her poetry has been published in Mimesis and Magma. She also designed the Pomegranate logo.
Poetry Submissions Editor: Charlotte Geater
Charlotte Geater is one of Pomegranate’s submissions editors. She comes from Ipswich (which is unfortunate), but she’s currently doing an English degree at Oxford and spends a lot of time there pretending to work in libraries. She won Foyle Young Poets a few times and has done some other stuff too, but now she mainly reads online newspapers and wastes time on trains.
Poetry Submissions Editor: Richard O'Brien
Richard O’Brien once said he had a shoulder fetish, though it was mostly just to shut the rest of us up. He is co-submissions editor with Charly – he’s the lazy half of the duo. He’s done some readings in London and been in some magazines. Rich is from Peterborough, where he did his weirdest reading yet. He regularly chats with direct descendants of Lord Byron, and is indier than thou unless you’re very indie. He used to write music reviews for Stylus Magazine. He’s about to start his first year of English and French at Brasenose College, Oxford, and is trying to remember what ‘work’ means.
Prose Editor: Laura Marsh
Laura Marsh is articles submissions editor. She was a Foyle Young Poet in 2005 and 2006, and was a runner-up in the Christopher Tower and a winner of the Rialto Young Poets competition both in 2007. She is currently in her third year at Oxford University, where she is reading English. She enjoys near-infallible lack of hand-eye coordination, Patrick Hamilton novels and very long walks in the countryside.
Artwork Editor: Tess Somervell
Tess Somervell is Pomegranate’s artwork editor, so it’s a good thing she likes art and poetry. When she’s not editing artwork for Pomegranate she’s probably studying for her English degree at Christ Church, Oxford, acting as Presidential Secretary for the Oxford University Poetry Society, or on a horse somewhere in Worcestershire. Maybe even side saddle. Oh yeah and she was one of those FYP people a few years back.
Submissions and Other Media: Adham Smart
Adham Smart is the Pomegranate Publicity Officer. He comes from Egypt by way of South London (Adham wants us to say South EAST London, apparently it’s life or death – Ed) and we’re reliably informed that he’s well hard. He’s the baby of the team at seventeen and is finally in his last year of sixth form (eek!). He was an FYP in 2006, 2008 and 2009. He collects foreign languages like planets collect satellites, and is often found writing invisible kanji on his hand.
Team: Annie Katchinska
Annie Katchinska was born in Moscow and bred in London. She won second prize in Christopher Tower 2007 and recently featured (after being invited via Facebook stalking) in the New Blood slot at the Poetry Cafe. She was recently published in the Bloodaxe anthology Voice Recognition, a collection of work by 21st century writers under 30 yet to publish a first collection. Her favourite things include Latin, Anna Akhmatova and borscht (beetroot soup…I think. Ed.), and she’s currently studying Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge. She is also God.
Team: Isobel Norris
Isobel Norris is Welsh, and don’t you forget it, cwtch. She’s read at the Dylan Thomas centre and was specially commended in the Welsh Poetry Competition, and even once wrote a poem about a dead sheep, which is about as Welsh as you can get. She likes running, swimming, cycling, Auden and the word ’fantastic’, and dislikes Yeats and things with gluten in them (because they kill her). (Gluten kills her, not Yeats – Ed.) Izzy lives in Swansea, where the highest-quality rain is.
Team: Callan Davies
Callan Davies comes from the wilds of darkest Kent, Medway specifically, where we are given to understand wild dragons are constantly roaming which he makes it his business to boldly slay (split infinitive! – Ed) for the benefit of the proletariat. He is currently in his second-year at Exeter University, where he studies English.
Team: Daniel Hitchens
Dan Hitchens was a Foyle Young Poet in 2006, and won second place in the youth category for The Times Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation 2007.
Team: Alice Howlett
Alice Howlett was a Foyle Young Poet in 2006, and was a runner-up in the Christopher Tower Poetry competition in 2007. Her debut collection, No Stars So Lovely, was published by Maclean Dubois in June 2007. She lives in Edinburgh.