In my dream I couldn’t pick those thorns
from the sunk-eyed creature’s fan of horns.
‘Carved Antler’, Chris Jones

The Spirit is a Bone is a new exhibition of drawings by Paul Evans based on the various natural history specimens sited at Derby Museum (accompanied by new poems by Chris Jones). Click here for further details about the exhibition (and details of a reading and artist’s talk with Paul Evans and Chris Jones at Derby Museum on Saturday 25 May).

Matthew Clegg visits Sheffield’s Bloc Projects and reflects on a recent exhibition by artist Nigel Grimmer in ‘The Art of Relationship’, which takes in masks, monuments and memoir. Click here to read the essay. Brian Lewis revisits Sheffield’s Graves Gallery (site of a memorable reading given by poet Andrew Hirst in 1998) in ‘Gifts Received’, a new piece for the Longbarrow Blog. Elsewhere, Peter Riley addresses conflict and competitiveness in a review of two new poetry anthologies; click here to read the review (and further contributions to the debate in the ensuing ‘Comments’).

The 2013 Sheffield Poetry Festival takes place over 10 days in early June (31 May – 9 June). The full programme can be found on the new Sheffield Poetry Festival website and includes several events featuring Longbarrow poets (including Angelina Ayers, James Caruth, Matthew Clegg, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones, Fay Musselwhite and Alistair Noon). Click here for details of all 30 events – readings, films, workshops, walks and more…