mark leahy

Will Montgomery: February Preview

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Will graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a degree in English in 1987. After a period outside academia, he took the Literature, Culture, Modernity MA at Queen Mary, University of London, receiving the Marjorie Thompson award for outstanding academic achievement in 1999. He remained at Queen Mary for his AHRB-funded PhD, which was devoted to the writing of contemporary American poet Susan Howe. He subsequently taught poetry, modernist literature and critical theory at Queen Mary and at Southampton University. In January 2007 he joined Royal Holloway as RCUK research fellow in contemporary poetry and poetics. He is director of the department’s Poetics Research Centre and a co-organizer of that group’s POLYply reading and performance series.

Recent publications include The Poetry of Susan Howe (Palgrave, 2010) and the essay collection Frank O’Hara Now (Liverpool UP, 2010), which he co-edited with Robert Hampson. He is currently working on a study of short form in modernist and contemporary US poetry, and co-editing an edited collection on field recordings and literature. Will also works with audio, making field recordings, sound art and music.

Follow this LINK to hear some of his sound work, including pieces with Other Room reader Carol Watts.

Vicki Bennett & Gregor Weichbrodt: February Preview

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At our next event on February 17th Vicki Bennett & Gregor Weichbrodt’s collaborative written work The Fundamental Questions will be performed by members of the audience. Bennett & Weichbrodt won’t be present on the night but we’ve put together a couple of tasters to show where they’re coming from and it’s a good good place. The Fundamental Questions is available either as a pdf download – HERE or as a print book – HERE 

You have 7 days left to listen to BBC Radio 3’s The Late Junction featuring Bennett’s main project People Like Us  – HERE. People Like Us is at http://peoplelikeus.org/

We’ve featured Weichbrodt’s Google translation of Kerouac’s On the Road on our blog before. Check that out and other great things at http://ggor.de/

As usual the event is at the magnificent Castle Hotel on Oldham Street, Manchester. See the flier in the middle column for further details. Our other performers are Will Montgomery and Mark Leahy.

Mark Leahy: February event preview

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Mark Leahy will perform ‘his voice’ at our next event on February 17th. As usual the event is at the magnificent Castle Hotel on Oldham Street, Manchester. See the flier in the middle column for further details. Our other performers are Will Montgomery and Vicki Bennett & Gregor Weichbrodt. Bennett & Weichbrodt won’t be present on the night, instead their work will be performed by members of the audience.

Here is part of a description of ‘his voice’ from Mark Leahy’s excellent website:

“A body of text gathered via online searches for “his voice sounded like” was edited to develop two- or three-word phrases. These phrases were then used to search Twitter. In the live event the outcome of this search process is converted to audio using text-to-speech software. This audio is delivered via headphones to the performer who attempts to speak it to the audience.”

Read more about this project and the many others that Mark has been involved in – HERE

Our next 4 events

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Put em on yr calendar!

Future Events

7th October 2015 7.00 @ The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester – Alistair Noon, Chris Pusateri, Michelle Naka Pierce, Robert Hampson

9th December 2015 7.00 @ The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester – Out of Everywhere 2, an anthology of women poets launch

17th February 2016 7.00 @ The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester – Mark Leahy, Will Montgomery and TBA

13th April 2016 7.00 @ The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester – The Other Room 8th birthday, readers TBA

Contemporary Poetry and Source Conference

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18th May 2012 – 20th May 2012 at Plymouth University.

“This conference aims to explore the use of source material in contemporary poetry. The term ‘source’ should be given a wide remit, incorporating ‘origin’, ‘subject’ and ‘method’. Contemporary poetry, here, refers to writers working post – 1950, but of course thier sources may well be historical. We invite single author studies as well as papers which speak to the sources which are defining our poetic zeitgeist; we also invite creative practitioners to explore their own sources with a framework or context. Some topics for panels include: visual arts, music, nature, the personal, the impersonal, found material, the documentary, the trans-Atlantic exchange, influence, language, literature, biography, history, politics, philosophy and translations. Papers on or inspired by the work of our plenary speakers are very welcome.”

Includes a paper by Mark Leahy on Opposable Dumbs by Other Room reader Tina Darragh. You can watch part one of Tina’s reading below and find the other parts here.