Cathy Bryant

Biography

Cathy Bryant has won ten literary awards, including the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Prize in 2012. She has blogged for the Huffington Post, and her stories and poems have appeared in over 100 different publications, including Popshot, The Moth, The Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Futuredaze. In 2014 her poem 'The Poetry Diet' (from her first collection, 'Contains Strong Language and Scenes of a Sexual Nature') was featured on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please with Roger McGough. She is one of the judges for National Flash Fiction Day’s short flash fiction competition, run by ‘Mr Flash’, Calum Kerr. Cathy's new book is 'Look At All the Women', available from http://www.themothersmilkbookshop.com/. She lives in Hope both figuratively and literally – Hope, Derbyshire. See more at www.cathybryant.co.uk

Samples

The Poetry Diet - drop a stanza in just two weeks! Breakfast is blank verse spread with ballads Or a bowl of elegy and a boiled ode. For lunch, try a rondelet with herbs such as cento. Follow with a lay if liked, Sweetened artificially if necessary. Vary your cinquains and quatrains According to season. For dinner a well-grilled villanelle With a simple side sonnet and a little steamed prose. Do beware of prose. It can be hard to stop. Make sure to keep crunchy acrostics to hand. For snacks, try haiku. They're surprisingly meaty And will satisfy. Free verse is unlimited. Drink at least eight couplets a day, And up to three glasses of freshly-squeezed phrases. When tempted by fizzy limericks, Chewy clerihews, chocolate epics and sweet lyrics, Visualise yourself as a sexy sestina Rather than doughy doggerel. This poem is scientifically proven And has been approved by dactyls And other members of the metrical profession. It really, really works.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.