Pleased with Mr Postman

Great post today, from the further reaches of Five Leaves' tentacles. Firstly there was Assent, the poetry magazine edited by our writer Adrian Buckner (whose new Five Leaves' pamphlet will be mentioned here shortly). Assent used to be Poetry Nottingham and, to show that those bitter football rivalries don't intrude on poetry, it is now published in association with the University of Derby. Links with Nottingham remain, with this issue, 64/3, featuring the winners of the Nottingham Open Poetry Competition. Surprisingly, there is no website for the mag.
The first issue of Mistress Quickly's Bed arrived, the direct successor to Penniless Press, mentioned here before as one of my favourite little mags. With many of the same contributors (Croft, Lykiard, a couple of Dents) and with even the fifth part of a translation from Victor Serge, it is not at all obvious why the mag. changed its name. Penniless, and its review section, The Northern Review of Books, continues on line at http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/.
Hearing Voices, a literary magazine from Crystal Clear Creators has reached its third issue under a rotating editorship, and I think this issue is the best yet, with a good cover. There were only three planned but a fourth is now announced. Many of the contributors are regulars from the burgeoning East Midlands small press scene. More on http://www.crystalclearcreators.org.uk/.
The Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month is now well established, and the National Association of Teachers of Travellers has produced an excellent magazine to go with the month. This is, I think, the first time NATT has produced the annual magazine and it has an orientation towards the classroom. Many aspects of Traveller life are covered, from Romani music to Romani language, from reminiscences of life on the road to Romani art. NATT has also produced a further excellent publication, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Resources Catalogue. Both would be useful in schools with and without Traveller children and are available free from http://www.natt.org.uk/.
The final piece of post was the Catalan Romani magazine O Tchatchipen which includes a late review of our young adult book of Romani short stories, Spokes, bu Janna Elliot. The magazine is in Catalan, with summaries of the major articles in English and Romanes. A Spanish version is also available. See http://www.unionromani.org/.

National Poetry Day - Derby

Without an event of our own to go to, we wandered over to Derby to support our author Adrian Buckner (Contains Mild Peril) in relaunching his magazine Assent under its new arrangement "in partnership with Universtiy of Derby". (Are universities the new Medicis? Discuss.) Assent started life as Poetry Nottingham in 1959, and Nottingham connections are still strong with many of the 60 people in the audience from there. One of the readers, CJ Allen, is also from the 'hood. Allen is an excellent poet and reader, winner of more competitions than you can shake a stick at, and performs with wit and understated humour. The main reader was Bernard O'Donoghue, a Cork man long domiciled in Britain. He is the writer of small masterpieces which I wish he would turn into longer narrative poems, but another great reader.
Assent promises further such readings and launches, which is good, though they must talk with their sponsors about getting a website.
I was also pleased to see an old friend, Les Baynton, has started up a performance poetry night in the same venue - the fancy new Quad - free, every second Thursday of the month.