Midamble by Peter Jaeger out now from if p then q

Peter Jaeger’s stunning new book, Midamble, is out  priced at the snip of £12.

midamble-photo
420 pp
£12.00
LINK
to purchase and sample pages

About the book
Midamble is a long poem that concerns Peter Jaeger’s interest in walking practice; in particular his travels on a variety of pilgrimage routes. A prose poem, it comprises two bands of text: the top level is a list of walking experiences whilst the bottom re-appropriates materials from comparative religion texts. Midamble is a poem that is clearer than crystal, and possesses a musical quality that is comparable to seminal and contemporary minimalist music.

The poem also has a life in durational performance. When read live Midamble demonstrates its consistency as well as its diversity. In such performances listeners are invited into a collective experience in which they can engage with ideas for as little as a moment or as long as several hours. Indeed, perhaps its most enduring feature is its quality of having no fixed entry or exit point.

About the author
Peter Jaeger is a Canadian poet, literary critic and text-based artist now living in the UK. His recent publications include John Cage and Buddhist Ecopoetics (Bloomsbury 2013) and 5404 (University of London Veer Press 2014). He has also published A Field Guide to Lost Things with if p then q. Jaeger is Professor of Poetics at Roehampton University in London.

 

New Hix Eros review

Hix Eros: Poetry Review is published jointly by Sad Press and Hi Zero.

The latest issue is #8, published in March 2018, covering work by Sean Bonney, Lisa Robertson, Linda Kemp, Lila Matsumoto, Jennifer Pike Cobbing, Mike Saunders, Holly Pester et al., Sarah Hayden, Nicky Melville, Sophie Mayer, Calum Gardner, Juha Virtanen, Jèssica Pujol, Millie Guille, Sophie Seita, Caitlín Doherty, Corina Copp, Eleanor Perry, Daisy Lafarge, Vala Thorrods, JH Prynne, Colin Herd, and Peter Manson.

LINK

Surrey Poetry Festival 2018

Early notice of this event which is organised by The Other Room’s James Davies,  current Poet in Residence at the university. The day will feature a number of amazing poets. Get the date in your head now! Guildford is just 30 minutes from London Waterloo. More on where  and how to buy tickets soon but should be around £5.

Surrey Poetry Festival V 1

Summer Poetry School course with James Davies

Archiving Your Self Yourself: Quantified Self Studio

At a time in which we are archived by others, often through digital means, it seems more and more important to attempt to define ourselves – on our own terms – as individuals and as members of a diverse range of groups. Written attentively, poetry that archives the self is subversive and can present radically different narratives to those purported by digital and mass media. By using methods such as diaries and collation of information one can conduct a close examination of the self as it stands, now and then, to see how it fits into the bigger picture.

Read more about this short online course HERE

Interesting Drug Episode 6 – Xmas Edition

With a focus on the Basquiat show at the Barbican, this episode looks at the interface between art and music – between uptown and downtown – in early 1980s New York City.
“Four Saints in Three Acts” was an avant garde opera with an all black cast from an earlier era – Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson’s piece was performed in 1933 – and is currently being showcased through contemporary photographs of the performance at the National Photographer’s Gallery. A run through of other recent cultural events – Ice Cream for Crow as part of Beefheart weekend in Liverpool, Protomartyr live at the Deaf Institute, and the Royal Northern College of Music’s New Music NW festival are all given a mention. Music from Blondie, Kid Creole, House of Bedlam, Neil Young and others. Listen here.

Redell Olsen – A Preview

Our next event takes place on December 6th at The Castle Hotel, 7pm and is free as ever – hope to see you there. It features Sharon Kivland, Redell Olsen and David Steans. Here’s a little preview of Redell Olsen:

say I and you London land marks

say I and you in London mark land

say London land is marked by you and I

say I and you make marks in London’s land

say I and you mark lands in London

say I and you marked by land

say London land marks

say long done land marks

say long done marks in land

say land in long marks in language

from Film Poems. See more HERE

Adjacent Pineapple Two

Issue Two of Colin Herd’s lively new online magazine available at this LINK and featuring:

Robert Sheppard

  Dominic Hale

       Amy Gerstler

       Joey Frances

    Eva Ferry

Max Parnell

      Iain Britton

   Jonathan Coward

Maria Sledmere

Jordan Hayward

    Calum Rodger

Sally-Shakti Willow

 Tom Crompton

Loll Junggeburth

     Clive Gresswell

Nick Piombino

      Medbh  McGuckian   

Jazmine Linklater

Denise Bonetti      

William Fuller  

Sascha Aurora Akhtar

Sarah Bernstein    

Paula Claire         

Claire Potter            

Paul Hawkins   

Millie Earle-Wright

Rachel Grande      

Laura Tansley    

Nicola Thomas    

Mike Saunders    

   Jonty Tiplady 

House of Bedlam Concert in Manchester

The book of Matthew
Music and film by Larry Goves/Text by Matthew Welton

The wind around the orange-tree
brings on the smell
of nutskins mixed with whisky
mixed with lemons or rain…

From The book of Matthew; Matthew Welton, Carcanet, 2003

A piece for instruments and projected text using extracts Matthew Welton’s The book of Matthew; a collection of thirty-nine hauntingly beautiful poem variations arranged according to Roget’s Thesaurus.

Tithonus, Drunk
Music by Laurie Tompkins/Text by Sam Quill

Tithonus, drunk is a short soap about life on the sauce for four instrumentalists, electronics, and projected drinker.

House of Bedlam:
Kathryn Williams flutes
Harry Fausing-Smith & Carl Raven saxophones
Tom McKinney guitars
Steph Tress cello
Laurie Tompkins projected drinker
Larry Goves director

Free admission, no ticket required

https://www.rncm.ac.uk/performance/nmnw17-house-of-bedlam/

The Crater/Sharon Borthwick Advent Calendar 2018

Via Richard Parker…

This year Sharon Borthwick’s done our advent calendar! The Borthwick Riot Calendar contains all sorts of incendiary material, 25 poems, a colour collage and lots of Xmas cheer – it’s also definitely NSFW. £5 and P&P, it’s on the website now: www.craterpress.co.uk  Copies will be sent out about the middle of November – orders from outside of the UK may not receive their copies before December/advent.

Also, there’ll be an Cratery Xmas party on the 1st of December at The Field, 385 New Cross Road, London, where we’ll celebrate Sharon’s advent intervention and yuletide cheer. Sharon will read, there’ll be an Xmas performance from the Ninnies and there’ll be a bunch of other stuff too.

Merry advent one and all!

National Creative Writing Graduate Fair

From Comma Press…

The National Creative Writing Graduate Fair takes place on the 3rd November in Manchester, a day dedicated to emerging creative writers, from poets, to short story writers, to novelists. 

The Fair is all about giving writers practical and up-to-date advice on how to live, work, and succeed as a writer. Over the course of the day, you will attend panel sessions, talks and workshops about topics like digital innovations in publishing, choosing the correct form for your idea, and book publicity. Moreover, writers are given the opportunity to meet with two agents, and have a pitching session where they can present their work for on-the-spot feedback. 

You don’t have to be a university graduate to attend the fair, nor do you have to have had anything published. All you need to do is prepare two verbal pitches, in 2 of 10 genres. We cater to writers working in everything from commercial fiction to short stories, from poetry to historical fiction.

The programme includes ‘Next Generation’ poet and novelist Luke Kennard (keynote speaker), Betty Trask Award winning Irenosen Okojie, Jhalak Prize winning Jacob RossBookseller Start Up of the Week Bookollective and leading writer’s magazine Mslexia

Head to the Grad Fair website for the full programme and more information about the day. Tickets are £40, or £35 when booked in a group of five. If you are in receipt of means-tested benefits, or a single parent, you can apply for a reduced fee place for £20.

Bookings close on Wednesday 25th October, so don’t miss out on securing your place.

Adrian Slatcher: Interesting Drug #4

Latest installment of the hour long arts and music podcast playing music related to the arts and with commentary from Adrian Slatcher on what’s going on in Manchester and beyond: “A couple of weeks ago I saw Sven Helbig perform his Pocket Symphonies at HOME with Manchester Camerata with visuals by Chris Paul Daniels – here’s what I thought. More artistic obituaries – John Ashbery and Walter Becker, two great chroniclers of the American condition – died on the same weekend. Next week I’m seeing Chris Krauss talking about her Kathy Acker biography, so remembering one of my favourite writers. With nuclear brinkmanship back in the news I also look at the honourable history of nuclear war songs from the sixties and eightes.” Listen here.

Simon Taylor – Prospectus

if p then q is very pleased to announce the publication of Prospectus by Simon Taylor.

prospectus sample

Part Cindy Sherman part HR, Prospectus is a beautiful square format book which consists of a selection of colour photographs and descriptive texts for that all important ‘about me’ page.

Prospectus front cover flattened

Simon Taylor is one half of Joy as Tiresome Vandalism whose works are the books aRb and Absolute Elsewhere and the card game What’s the Best? He has also designed book covers for if p then q and posters for The Other Room poetry series. A sketchbook of his work and images from Prospectus can be found at Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/discomoobs/

You can buy at the if p then q website – LINK

Adrian Slatcher: Interesting Drug #3

Yoko Ono’s early 1970s albums have just been reissued on vinyl, so time for a reappraisal of this remarkable artist, musician and icon, including tracks from throughout her career and some associated Fluxus. In addition, we have obituarities for Sam Shephard, Peter Principle of Tuxedo Moon and Glenn Campbell, and focus on art exhibitions at Liverpool Tate, Henry Moore Institute and the Turner Contemporary, Margate. All in just over an hour with music from Ono, Beck, Kurt Schwitters, Patti Smith and others.

New episode of Adrian’s podcast, available here.