Keystone Anthology

Janice Windle and Dónall Dempsey are co-founders of the loose collective they have called “The 1000 Monkeys”. The name refers to the saying that an infinite number of monkeys with keyboards, given an infinite span of time, will produce every work of literature ever written.

I met Janice and Dónall at Fermoy Poetry Festival two years ago and again at the Cork Poetry Festival earlier this year.

Over the past three years they have been organizing performance open mics with featured guests in Guilford and also publish an annual anthology. This year's anthology, The Keystone Anthology, is a collection of 121 poems by poets whose work Janice Windle and Dónall Dempsey have enjoyed at spoken word events and book promotions in 2014 – 5.

I'm delighted to have three poems, Lady's Anniversary, The Gun and My Turn, included in the anthology - and have my photo of the back cover!

There’s something for every taste in the anthology, the criterion for the editor’s choice being the poems’ accessibility and their value as oral, as well as written poetry. It includes poems by the eminent writer Bernard Kops, established and award-winning poets like Chrys Salt MBE, Wendy Klein, Patrick Osada, and Bethany Pope and successful performance poets like Steve Pottinger and Robert Garnham.

The anthology will be launched in Guildford on 8 June 2015. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend but I',m sure it will be a great occasion.

It can be ordered online using PayPal and copies will be dispatched after the launch. Price: £9.99 + postage.