At the beginning of the year, as part of our Unveiled programme at St Andrew's Wickford, I gave an illustrated talk reflecting on my experiences of writing on the Arts for publications including Artlyst, ArtWay, Church Times, International Times, Seen and Unseen and Stride Magazine, among others:
My writings on the Arts and other topics have been published in the following: AM, Artlyst, ARTS, ArtWay, Art & Christianity, ArtServe, Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, The Big Picture, Church Times, Epiphany, Faith in Business Quarterly, Franciscan, Image Journal, International Times, Muslim Weekly, National Church Trust, New Start, Seen and Unseen, Strait, Stride Magazine and the Visual Commentary on Scripture. This includes articles, exhibitions, interviews, meditations, poetry, reviews, and short stories.
My writings on the Arts were first published in 1984 in ‘Strait’, the Greenbelt Newspaper. The Greenbelt Festival began in 1974 with a holistic take – ‘Bible in one hand and newspaper in the other’ – and the belief that all artistic expression and endeavour was God-given. ‘Strait’, which has been described as Greenbelt’s very own quarterly answer to the NME, first appeared in 1981 as the literary wing of the Festival. It sought to assess what was going on in the world, its institutions and our environment from a framework of thinking which is biblical universality.
My contributions to ‘Strait’ included poetry and art, book, drama, film and music reviews. So, all the things that I continue to write about regularly. Click on the following links to see the pages from 'Strait' which feature my writings - here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
My contributions were primarily made when the poet Stewart Henderson was Editor and later, through a friend at St Martin-in-the-Fields, I was able to get back in touch with Stewart and thank him for his support of my early writing.
I also had my first article published in ‘Strait’ – a profile of the poet Ted Hughes – and this generated the first public critique I had received. That came from another regular contributor to ‘Strait’, the poet Rupert Loydell. Rupert argued that in writing about Hughes, I had fallen into the trap of expecting secular writers to fit into our patterns of belief. Receiving feedback of your writings and opinions is always useful and Rupert’s critique was a helpful corrective.
At this time, Rupert also published some of my poems in Stride Magazine, a small press publication that he began in 1982. He has therefore edited Stride magazine for over 40 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. He and I have kept in touch over the years. He did a poetry reading at St Stephen Walbrook while I was there. He has also helpfully introduced me to others with whom I have collaborated. I continue to write for Stride and also for International Times, where he is a contributing editor.
I also had my first article published in ‘Strait’ – a profile of the poet Ted Hughes – and this generated the first public critique I had received. That came from another regular contributor to ‘Strait’, the poet Rupert Loydell. Rupert argued that in writing about Hughes, I had fallen into the trap of expecting secular writers to fit into our patterns of belief. Receiving feedback of your writings and opinions is always useful and Rupert’s critique was a helpful corrective.
At this time, Rupert also published some of my poems in Stride Magazine, a small press publication that he began in 1982. He has therefore edited Stride magazine for over 40 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. He and I have kept in touch over the years. He did a poetry reading at St Stephen Walbrook while I was there. He has also helpfully introduced me to others with whom I have collaborated. I continue to write for Stride and also for International Times, where he is a contributing editor.
I recently posted a series of guest posts by and an interview with Rupert which has added to the material about Jesus Rock, CCM and spirituality in rock music published here previously. The first post in this series was a listing of previous posts on these themes - click here. The second post was an interview with musician Nick Battle, click here. The third post was the interview with Rupert Loydell - click here. The fourth post was a new interview by Rupert with Nick Battle - click here. While the final post in the series was an interview by Rupert with Steve Scott - click here.
Click here to read my full presentation on 'Writing on the Arts'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Echo and the Bunnymen - Bring On The Dancing Horses.
