if p then q books operate in an interesting corner of the poetry publishing spectrum, embracing a range of experimental and ‘sound-based’ writers of differing persuasions and distinctions.
Steve Spence reviews books by David Berridge, Geof Huth, Derek Henderson, Tim Atkins, Holly Pester and P. Inman
Read more HERE
Five or six new reviews at the ever growing Stride magazine including James Davies on Scott Thurston’s great new pamphlet Figure Detached, Figure Impermanent and Steve Spence on Chrissy Williams’ Epigraphs
Other Room reader Chrissy Williams appears on The Verb tonight discussing her latest book Epigraphs published by if p then q.
The show is broadcast at 10pm on Radio 3 and stays on iplayer for a week.
A new and fantastic title from if p then q by last year’s The Other Room performer Chrissy Williams. Epigraphs is a pamphlet of well, epigraphs. To find out more there’s a sample up on the if p then q website as well as details of how to purchase.
Other Room reader David Berridge has a new publication with if p then q.
To find out more visit the LINK
nick-e melville has done some junk mail for if p then q.
LINK
Videos below from if p then q’s recent night in London with guest appearances from Michael Basinski and Jennifer Pike Cobbing. Look out for Jennifer Pike Cobbing in particular who read some of The ABC in Sound which will be read by an ensemble at the next Other Room, just under a month away.
Lucy Harvest Clarke
Philip Terry
Michael Basinski
Tom Jenks
Tim Atkins
Holly Pester
Jennifer Pike Cobbing
New from if p then q…
The ultimate in poetry card gaming. 34 exquisite, professionally made, poetry collection trading cards selected by if p then q illustrated by Simon Taylor of Joy as Tiresome Vandalism.
Play with the entire family. Enjoy with friends. Play at work or on the train.
Includes all your favourite poets: Stein, Pound, Coleridge & Wordsworth, Schwitters, Plath, Lear, Shakespeare, Thurston, Dickinson, Clarke, Williams, Crapsey, Jenks, Ch’ing Chao, Ginsberg, Blake, Berryman, Cummings, Po, Seuss, Atkins, Christensen, Issa, O’Hara, Stevens, Terry, Berrigan, Queneau, Ono, Bataille, Jeffers, Buddhist monks, Niedecker, Cendrars
£10
Visit the website HERE
Other Room reader Philip Terry’s Advanced Immorality is out now from if p then q
The title of Philip Terry’s book, and the name of one of the seven poems in his latest collection, is an antonymic translation (opposites) of Terry’s own translations of Raymond Queneau’s Elementary Morality. Queneau’s quennet form is further utilised in A Berlin Notebook. Also included are 50½ uproarious synopsises of imagined murder mysteries, the utter destruction of the sestina, Hamlet in four pages and much, much more. From start to finish Advanced Immorality is hilarious, polished, questioning and great fun.
There are now 21 if p then q Top Trump cards at the if p then q website. That’s enough to play with 3 players. There’ll be 32 in total which’ll come out as a limited edition set. This is the best thing since Snake.
This takes place on Friday 17th and Saturday and 18th June in St. Anne’s Square in Manchester. There are events and stalls run by a wide range pf publishers, including, on Saturday only, if p then q and zimZalla. More details here.
Live via Ustream on April 6th 2011
The vital reviews journal continues to give us such goodies.
Of immediate note are reviews of P. Inman, Derek Henderson, Jeff Hilson and Place & Fitterman’s Notes on Conceptualism.
Derek Henderson will be live streaming from Utah to the Other Room on 6th April at 7.30 UK time and 12.30 Utah time. For other places in the world check conversion times from the UK time. This reading will feature a number of his sonnets from Thus &: An Erasure of Ted Berrigan’s the Sonnets published by if p then q
This is the link for anyone who can’t make it but would like to watch.
Preview of The Other Room 3rd birthday, April 6th reader Derek Henderson. Derek Henderson will be reading from Salt Lake City via live stream. Next week of course is The Other Room.
Poems
THUS & (new if p then q title)</a>
Analysis
Ted Berrigan’s seminal The Sonnets is renowned for its famous use of cut up technique and reconfiguration throughout the sequence. Derek Henderson’s erasure Thus & eliminates all words and typographical duplications. In addition to the strikingly beautiful, often minimalist, sonnets created by Henderson, Thus & asks new questions of each Berrigan sonnet and the sequence as a whole. Thus & reveals (conceals) not only the clusters of phrases/lines that were cloned by Berrigan but also words which he repeated; many obviously subconsciously. What is left in Thus & is part skeleton, and underbelly, of maître-sonneteer Berrigan’s The Sonnets and part alien remix by techno-magician Derek Henderson.
Sampler & Concordance
THUS&_sampler
THUS&_Concordance
The long awaited full set of Tim Atkins’ minimalist sonnets is finally here. First published by The Figures back in 2000 this if p then q collection contains over 100 extra sonnets to comprise 127. The title alludes to Kenneth Koch’s hilarious sequence of short plays/skits 1000 Avant Garde Plays and as ever Tim Atkins’ magic is in the spirit of that playfulness. You will have clocked some of these delights in The Reality Street Book of Sonnets.
What Ron Silliman had to say about Sonnet 91:
“Certainly a sonnet is possible in which these words fall in these places. Yet is not clear if anything, in fact, is missing. As such, the text stands mute, ironic, self-amused all at once.”
LINK to purchase from if p then q
My approach is to banish the myth that experimental poetry is impossible to read. I think that being able to read experimental poetry is often seen as an elitist or privileged skill. But it’s not always like that: I don’t know how to fix a sink but I could do it if I did the training. It’s often a case of time or patience. I have an aim of presenting it as such, letting people know that. I’ve done a lot of bubblegum things to get people interested: promotional paraphernalia, wacky gifts, goofy blog speech, events. And I’m also in the business of telling people they don’t have to ‘understand’ a poem for it to be fun. I mean, I don’t understand an ice cream. I personally don’t understand a lot music I listen to but again I could do if I put in the work.
Read the rest HERE
“There’s no sense of an overarching schema, no symphony, no grand homophonic ending. This is channel-hopping faster than eye or ear, driven by panic and punctuated with nervous jokes. In the tone of it, I’m reminded of nobody so much as neurotic old Brit comedians, Kenneth Williams or Hancock, the weirdness of their emotional hygiene, the horror at the approach of their ogres. Held in the throat of the poem is Ken Williams’s skreeking laugh, Hancock’s tussle with the melancholy of each bloodied day.”
Read it at Intercapillary Space, here.
* is published by if p then q.
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