Much of interest to be found in Eric Elshtain’s frequently active e-imprint Beard of Bees, all PDF and all free. The latest release is Mark Cunningham’s Regularly Scheduled.
Two new Knives Forks and Spoons titles
More at the Knives Forks and Spoons site.
Paula Claire
Paula Claire read remotely for The Other Room on 19th April. This is the film she sent. Click on the bottom right of the player to view the film on a larger screen.
Stride Magazine
Lots of interesting stuff to read at Rupert Loydell’s Stride, including his interview with Robert Sheppard and new work by Tim Allen, Steve Waling and Alec Newman.
The Other Room tonight
South of the River Symposium
Maintenant #91 – Gunnar Harding
It is too easy, and often, it would seem, far too tempting for the assumption to be made that it is just longevity itself which accounts for the repute and esteem of certain figures in poetry, whose influence seems so fundamental and ubiquitous within a nation’s poetic culture. Yet Gunnar Harding, as much as many a near legendary poet, has influenced so many and built such an immense following precisely because of his remarkable ability to make his poetry one founded on renewal, on tone, on intricacy, on inhabitation – to strike the reader with an original voice no matter their generation and poetic taste, whether they read his first published book in 1967, or his last, a third volume of selected poems. For nearly fifty years Harding has been at the forefront of Scandinavian poetics, rising from the generation of so many great poets in the 1960’s, a former artist and jazz musician, his fluid, energetic, deeply intelligent poetry has been a consistent inspiration to his countrymen and many poets who do not have five decades of writing behind them. For the 91st edition of Maintenant, Gunnar Harding.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-91-gunnar-harding/
Accompanying the interview are three of Gunnar’s poem, translated and generously given over to Maintenant by Roger Greenwald.
The BlazeVOX controversy
“A big controversy in the poetry world these days is the discussion surrounding Buffalo-based small press BlazeVOX [book]’s (now discontinued) model of charging some authors a portion of the costs of publishing their poetry books ($250, as I gather). In the closing months of last year, the revelation of this practice inflamed passions in the generally staid world of independent literary publishing. The controversy just got an enormous boost with the recent decision of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) banning poets from listing books published by BlazeVOX on their grant applications.
Questions arise about the viability of poetry publishing in an age of narrow audiences and little financial reward, and about gate-keeping, quality control, editorial integrity and the technologies of dissemination.”
Read more, including the thoughts of Geoffrey Gatza, in this piece by Anis Shivani at The Huffington Post.
Wire: Sound Poetry Portal
This month’s issue of Wire magazine includes an article about sound poetry. Their website currently features a portal with links to Bob Cobbing, Henri Chopin and Michael McClure, shown here radicalising a lion.
POLYply 18
Paula Claire: a preview
In addition to live performances by Becky Cremin, Tony Lopez and Elena Rivera, The Other Room on Thursday 19th April will feature a video performance by Paula Claire. For an extensive overview of her work, including texts, sound recordings and films, visit her own site.
Alec Finlay’s Question your teaspoons
More at Peony Moon.
Text and Electricity
Text and Electricity is an afternoon symposium designed to bring experimental poets together with those working creatively with technology: coders, circuit-benders, dorks and hackers.
We plan a loosely structured and exploratory conversation, punctuated by short informal accounts from participants talking about their work and approaches. The afternoon will be designed to enable people working across disciplines to share ideas and experience.
Discussion could focus on possible points of convergence between experimental uses of text and technology, whether in performance, online, in software applications or in gallery contexts. It will be up to you!
The event will be facilitated by Will Montgomery Director, Poetics Research Centre, Royal Holloway and Brian Condon of C4CC.
Co-organised by the Poetics Research Centre, Royal Holloway and the Centre for Creative Collaboration.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG. Book a ticket at Eventbrite.
The Claudius App III
The Claudius App, an online journal of negative reviews and poems, is now accepting submissions for its third issue, deadline June 5th. The second issue, an avant-post-Fordist labor product digitally congealed at www.theclaudiusapp.com, included work by or attributed to: Brian Ang, Sara Deniz Akant, Jerimee Bloemke, Feng Sun Chen, Patrick James Dunagan, Pierre Klossowski, Purdey Kreiden, Ben Lerner, Mark Levine, Anthony Madrid, Chris Martin, Jessica Marsh, Jeff Nagy, Tim Shaner, Josh Stanley, Jonty Tiplady, Cathy Wagner, Elisabeth Workman, and your dreams, with a splash by Ian Hatcher. Send fast poems, negative reviews, and letters with a self-addressed stamped brick for your manuscript’s eternal return, or query editors@theclaudiusapp.com for more information.
Maintenant #90 – Andrei Codrescu
It is hard to think of fitting superlatives that have not already been bestowed upon Andrei Codrescu over the course of his writing career, which spans five decades and two continents. Since his emigration from Romania in the late 1960s, his work has lodged itself in the poetic consciousness of both America and Europe for its sheer edges – its energy, its voice, its deft wit, and like all great dadaists, at heart, he is the hardest of realists, a man who cannot lie to himself above all others, in his poetry or in his ebullient criticism, journalism and collected writing. A poet whose oeuvre reaches back into the depths of Europe from the core of America, who has been peer to some of greatest writers of our century, where he now, as we roll into the 21st century, must take his own place. For the 90th edition of Maintenant, Andrei Codrescu.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-90-andrei-codrescu/
Accompanying the interview are three of Andrei’s poem, generously given over to Maintenant.
Land Diagrams
Land Diagrams is an ongoing series in which commissioned writers respond to the same visual encoding of landscape. See the website for info.
Xing the Line
Giles Goodland, Jessica Pujol & Simon Perril — Friday, April 20 at 7:30pm at The Apple Tree, Mount Pleasant, London WC1X 0AE.
A Summit of Joyful Old Savages
ANSELM HOLLO – TOM RAWORTH – GUNNAR HARDING – ANDREI CODRESCU
Wednesday 18th April 2012 – Doors at 7.30
The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD
+44 (0)20 7833 3644 – Tickets – £8 in advance here.
Maintenant: celebrating the avant garde
On March 31st 2012, 3:AM Magazine’s Maintenant series hosted a celebration of the avant garde event at the Rich Mix centre near Brick Lane in London. Eight performances of contemporary sound poetry and sonic art were interspersed with a free exchange of visual poetry provided by over seventy contemporary European poets and open to the public. More information about and videos from the event, including this Other Room dream team performance by David Berridge and nick-e melville, can be found at the Maintenant site.
equus press
equus press was established in 2011 between Paris, London & Prague with the objective of publishing new writing that is innovative & conscious of being doubly marginalised: outside the literary establishment defined by the Anglo-American publishing industry, & outside the confines of nationalism, pursuing a broadly cosmopolitan “agenda”; what has come to be termed “translocal” writing. The press is launching its next two novels, The News Clown by Thor Garcia and Breakfast at Midnight by Louis Armand at a series of events in London and Manchester:
- FRIDAY 13 APRIL, 7-9pm @ Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA..
- SATURDAY 14 APRIL, 6.30-8.30pm @ The Anthony Burgess Foundation, The Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY.
- SUNDAY 15 APRIL, 7.30-9.30pm @ The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LE.
- MONDAY 16 APRIL, 7-9 pm @ The Phoenix Artists Club, 1 Phoenix Street, London, WC2H 8BU.
More at the equus press site.
otherroom.org 