Ok, first gripe is this. I loathe the word upcoming. Upcoming is coming up all over the place, but especially in news emails about new poetry releases. It’s a clumsy, awkward word with a horrible rhythm, and somehow it conveys a kind of coded message that something (or or more likely someone) ‘upcoming‘ is meant to excite you in some way. Upcoming conveys not just ‘about to arrive’ but also ‘about to arrive and be devastating’.
Except all we are talking about is a new publication, which may be interesting, but as one of several upcoming thousand that month, is unlikely to devastate anybody. The weeds in my garden are upcoming. My breakfast was very nearly upcoming on Friday when the migraine struck.
I often admire neologisms because they can not only be apt but also fun. Upcoming is not admirable. I vote for its abolition.
I’ve written far too much about this now, which means I’ll have to start another post to say what I was actually going to say about the reviews. This is what happens when ranting is in your genes. News on Sphinx reviews coming up (sic) next.