Just back from @saloneurope.bsky.social in elegant Brussels. An outstanding event encompassing workshops, performance and discussions about many aspects of writing – from finding an agent to marketing and the nature of language. Truly stimulating and highly memorable. #poetry #shortfiction #novels

I’ve just finished updating my website. Check out the Blog for forthcoming events, workshops, and links to recently published work and the Featured Poem for poetry. @fictivedream.bsky.social and @saloneurope.bsky.social and more...

grahammort.com

Migratory birds and human conflict have always compelled me to write. Here’s a new poem of mine published in 'The North' magazine (Issue 71) by The Poetry Business, UK.

I’ve gone back to analogue photography. Here’s an image of the Picos Mountains (North-West Spain) shot on my 1951 Leica. Once the world’s most advanced camera, it still works perfectly and is a joy to operate.

Here’s the latest issue of @poetrywales.bsky.social with my poem ‘Waveforms’ and work by an international cast of poets!

I found this poem again by CP Cavafy yesterday. It seems so sad and irresolute and yet hopeful too. All lives are hidden and yet there is the urge to share them. Maybe that’s especially true of writers where the aesthetic form of their work is a veil that can be parted.

I read some poems @saloneurope.bsky.social‬ last night. What a stimulating and thoughtfully curated event. Great readings of very high standard from a broad range of writers. Highly recommended!

My new flash fiction, ‘Latent’, published in Flash Fiction Magazine and set in Italy where the past haunts the present.
flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2025/03...

Little Toller’s journal of place and ecology, ‘The Clearing’, has published my personal essay, ‘Pilgrim’.
See:
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...

My new short story ‘Swordfish’ published by Literally Stories today. A cautionary tale about a retired academic working his way around the local supermarket where he meets and old student...
literallystories2014.com

Just finished this excellent book - a comprehensive overview of what has gone wrong in the evolution of our mangled system of education. Highly recommended if you’re involved in education or teaching at any level – entertaining, provocative, socially aware and incisive.

@sammywright.bsky.social

Hoar frost this morning in North Yorkshire. A small detail from a landscape re-made overnight by below zero temperatures.

Lovely to get @undertheradar.bsky.social magazine (Issue 34) through the post from @ninearchespress.bsky.social this morning. My short story, ‘Wasps’, is in there, but it’s also packed with poetry, fiction and reviews, just in time for Christmas!

Thorn tree colonised by moss, North Yorkshire. A little patch of rain forest. Spot the berries!

‘The Comet’ by Sonya Moor’ is beautifully produced by Confingo and features some brilliant short stories. I was hugely impressed by the opening piece, ‘Lapin à la Moutarde’, in which the act of cooking recalls a past that defines and haunts a mother’s relationship with her son…highly recommended!

Ingleborough wearing a cap of snow at 3.00pm this afternoon. Ravens over Kingsdale. A big russet kestrel flapping lazily from tree to tree. Huge, rolling clouds lit by low sun over the southern horizon on the way home – they looked like they mean business!

Poet and short fiction writer, I've also written non-fiction and drama for the BBC. Emeritus professor at Lancaster University and visiting professor at the University of the Western Cape, my academic writing includes essays on creative writing and education. I’m looking forward to meeting you all!