Maintenant: the Camarade project, Featuring Tom Jenks & Chris McCabe; Patrick Coyle & Holly Pester; Sam Riviere & Jack Underwood; Sandeep Parmar & James Byrne; James Wilkes & Ghazal Mosadeq; Iily Critchley & Tamarin Norwood; Sean Bonney & Jeff Hilson; Marcus Slease & Tim Atkins. With an introduction by Steven Fowler.
Out now on Red Ceilings Press.
The book will be launched at The Rich Mix in Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 15th October.
One of the stars of the contemporary Latvian poetry scene, Anna Auziņa, already established as a classically trained artist, has emerged as a constant and resonant force in Baltic poetry over the last decade. Her work maintains a resolute affinity with the organic and perhaps overtly poetic language of her own personal journey as an artist. Gifted in both fields, her work reveals this creative agility in its imagery and tone. One of the five non-British poets visiting for the Maintenant Camarade event in the East end of London this October 2011, we are pleased to welcome our 75th interviewee in the Maintenant series.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-75-anna-auzina/
Accompanying the interview are four of Anna’s poems.
Already considered one of the finest poets of Ireland’s new generation, Ailbhe Darcy has gained international recognition for her vibrant poetry and rapidly growing body of work. Being at the forefront of a tradition as considerable as Ireland’s has required her to maintain the idiosyncracy of her own taste and voice, and though undoubtedly, the lilt of her work, it’s care for being read and for being rhymtical, resounds with the narrative tradition of Irish poetry, it is also true her idiom can be disjunctive, unpretentious and colloquial. More vitally she creates poems that are conceptually often unresolved, an act of humility that sits apart from neat lyricism. Yet it is too far to say she has made a break from the tradition of her nation, and many would say this is the bigger achievement. For the 74th edition of Maintenant, our first Irish poet, Ailbhe Darcy. thanks to Michael Schmidt
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-74-ailbhe-darcy/
Accompanying the interview are three of Ailbhe’s poems.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/3-poems/
The poetry scene in Europe seems, from the vantage of the UK, to be far more fluid and less divisive than that of the UK. This may not be true, but there certainly seems, through the regular festivals, readings, residencies and academic exchanges, a sense of physical communication between poets who traverse many nations, languages and traditions. In the case of a poet like Lidija Dimkovska, we seem to have an individual whose experience is truly pan-Balkan, traversing Macedonia, Slovenia, Romania … but whose reception is continent wide. She carries her influences with a fidelity that makes them invisible within her explicitly well considered and captivating poetry. A formidable academic, a poetic folklorist, a respected translator and an innovative and elastic lyric poet, we are pleased to introduce Lidija Dimkovska as the 73rd edition of Maintenant (and furthermore, we are very pleased that she will be reading at the Maintenant IX event on October 15th 2011 thanks to Literature across frontiers and Arc publications.)
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-73-lidija-dimkovska/
Accompanying the interview are four poems by Lidija translated by Ljubica Arsovska and Peggy Reid
Peter Hughes writes about the Knives, Forks and Spoons Press in general and imminent Other Room reader SJ Fowler’s The Red Museum in particular at the Poetry Book Society Poetry Portal:
“Earlier this year, Alec Newman’s Knives, Forks and Spoons Press was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award for outstanding UK publisher of poetry in pamphlet form. It is easy to understand why. KF&S has been putting out an amazing range of innovative poetry at an extraordinary rate. There is a buzz and an urgency about the whole project which has made it a particularly welcome addition to the British poetry scene.”
A Swede who is an American, an American who is a Swede. The irrelevancy of the nationhood of Johannes Göransson is never more obvious than in the multifarious and rapacious nature of his work – it calls on traditions too intertwined, too psychological and introverted to make its genesis of much interest. What is of interest is his industry as a translator. As well as being one of the most interesting and acerbic poets and educators currently at large in the US, he is also a vital conduit to the breadth and brilliance of contemporary Swedish poetry. For Maintenant in it’s 72nd guise, the excellent Johannes Göransson
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-72-johannes-goransson/
Accompanying the interview is a significant selection from Johannes’ most recent publication.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/entrance-to-a-colonial-pageant-in-which-we-all-begin-to-intricate/
Taking place at Voewood House in High Kelling, Norfolk, 27th – 29th August, the Voewood Festival is “dedicated to the written word.” Performers include Emily Critchley and SJ Fowler.
The videos from the Pugilistica event held at 43 Gordon Sqaure, in Birkbeck College on July 28th are available to watch:
Chris McCabe and Tom Jenks are collaborating for a project related to the Maintenant series of interviews, readings and publications organised by SJ Fowler. All work is appearing on a WordPress blog. Comments and suggestions are welcome and any input may be woven into the finished piece.
The exceptional nature of the work of Lies Van Gasse, established, formidable and achieved well before her 30th birthday, is clear to all who follow central European poetry and the figures who are now showing themselves as the future of the medium. Emerging from the vivid and remarkable tradition of Flemish poetry, Lies maintains a focus and an exactitude about her work and its direction that well belies her relative youth. Adept and acclaimed at both more traditional lingual poetry and highly original ‘graphic’ poetry, her oeuvre is innovative and confident, straddling the finer points of language and art. Our first Belgian poet to be featured in the Maintenant series, Lies Van Gasse is undoubtedly a figure whose prominence will only increase in the coming decades.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-71-lies-van-gasse/
Accompanying the interview are 7 of Lies’ graphic poems, translated into English by Trees Van Gasse.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/seven-poems-oracle-lies-van-gasse/
Simply one of the few boundless poets on the world scene, and already a centrifugal presence in American poetry, Ilya Kaminsky carries with him the power of the great Russian tradition and the obvious potential to be recognised, in an age where poetry is a reticent presence in the public’s eye, as one of the finest writers of the oncoming century. An activist as well as a poet, his remarkable energy and intellect permeate his earnest, fulsome poetry and his unforgettable, idiosyncratic readings. In an interview which seems typically representative of his generous spirit, Ilya has offered one of the most ebullient accounts featured in the Maintenant series, and we are especially excited to have him read at the next Maintenant event in London, this coming october. To mark our 70th edition, Ilya Kaminsky
with thanks to Nikola Madzirov за многу нешта
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-70-ilya-kaminsky/
To accompany the interview are two of Ilya’s poems.
SJ Fowler’s new collection ‘Fights’ is now available to order from Veer books via Paypal at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/cprc/publications/Veer_Publications/Veer040. The book is £9.00 + £0.80 If paying by paypal use the payee address ESTAPHIN@HOTMAIL.COM ( Stephen Mooney – editor of Veer).
Márton Koppány’s opus of visual poetry stands as a remarkable entry into the ledger of post WWII European poetic innovation and expression. Behind him sits a life’s work, denoted by intellectual rigour and brilliance, as he has quietly, but indelibly, edged his medium forward. Producing work of immense quality, consistently, in the field of visual poetry for over thirty years, he has inspired new generations of poets while working from the inside out of his environs in Budapest and with a capacity for profound inflection and wholly accurate understatement (to a level of humorous / satirical reverence so poorly missing from much experimental poetry) he has tackled the nature of his own family history and it’s entwining with the darker days of modern Hungary. His work is thus indicative of the possibilities, and even the necessities, of visual poetry, his fundamental mode one of honesty in expression, led by a suspicion and engagement with the limits of language. Koppány has always maintained an incisiveness that has attracted the plaudits from poets in his field, and his sophicated, intellectual and urbane corpus has rendered him simply one of Europe’s finest poets and an immense contributor to often the most stimulating field of contemporary poetry.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-69-marton-koppany/
Incorporated into the interview are 13 poems by Marton, selected to display the width and evolution of his work over the last 30 years.
SJ Fowler will be reading for The Other Room in October. In the meantime, you can get familiar with his work at his new blog, full of interesting stuff, including this reading at the recent launch of the Herbarium anthology.
Footage from the Herbarium reading on 22nd July, launching the anthology edited by James Wilkes for the Urban Physic Garden project.
Concepts that may link poets from one nation are as fraught as the idea of nationhood itself. The poet who truly understands the nature of his own beginnings, most often by acquiescing to a conceived misunderstanding, perhaps offers the finest representation of his language and his country. Often only in the trace, the fragments, the shadows and the bunkered leftovers of language and expression can the truly analytical, intellectual and philosophically rigorous poet find safe ground. Thus we come to Ulf Stolterfoht , simply one of the most sophisticated and brilliant poetic minds of our generation, conceivably of any generation. Utterly unique, wise, witty and thoroughly considered, Stolterfoht’s work has been a beacon in European poetry for some time, and his standing has been a lightning rod for many poets he might call his peers. In one of the finest interviews given for the series, we present one of the finest German poets of his generation.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-68-ulf-stolterfoht/
Accompanying the interview are four of Ulf’s poems.
a literary celebration of boxing
Thursday July 28th 7pm ~ entrance free
Birkbeck Cinema Theatre, Birkbeck College 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD
poetry book launch – SJ Fowler’s “Fights” cycles I-XV published by Veer books
“A dazzling, visceral, proficient, kinetic work. fights runs its combinations in formal excitement and trenchgut force.” Maggie O’Sullivan
Lynda Nead, Pevsner Chair Of History Of Art at Birkbeck college presents ‘Stilling the Punch’ a talk & presentation on boxing imagery
Kasia Boddy, author of Boxing:a Cultural History & Senior lecturer at UCL presents ‘Save the Public’s Soul by Punching Its Face’: Modernist Poetry and Pugilism
Tim Atkins celebrates the legendary heavyweight bout between Jack Johnson v. Arthur Cravan in the Monumental bullring, Barcelona, April 1916
Michael Zand reads “The Klitova-Klinchko Kuntador”
Patrick Coyle reads ‘The first painting i ever sold was of Muhammad Ali’.
Kirmen Uribe is a basque poet who has become a world poet. A pioneer and a sensation in Spain, a true representative of the new and modern from one of Europe’s most distinct cultures and languages, Kirmen is already one of the most celebrated literary figures in the history of Basque literature. His is the first Basque language collection to be published and translated in full by an American publisher, and he is the winner of numerous awards, reading his work at festivals around the world. His work is unsurprisingly unique – graceful in its vitriol, singular but not solipsistic. He is the standard bearer of a nation as it moves into new realms of poetic expression, for the 67th edition of Maintenant we are proud to bring you Kirmen Uribe.
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-67-kirmen-uribe/
Accompanying the interview are two of Kirmen’s poems, translated from the Basque by Elizabeth Macklin.
otherroom.org 