Tom Jenks

Peter Manson Symposium

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27 October – 28 October, University of Glasgow University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ .

The first symposium dedicated to Peter Manson’s work, a carnival of epistemophilia, pareidolia and paranoia, deciphering and decoding, as we reckon with the Manson panoply. An evening of poetry (27/10) by poets, friends and accomplices, including Linus Slug, Nat Raha, Nick-e Melville, Jow Lindsay, Sarah Hayden and Holly Pester, precedes the symposium (28/10), which closes with a reading by Peter Manson.

Please send abstracts of c.250 words to mansonsymposium@gmail.com by the 31st May, 2017. Full details here.

Alan Halsey: Selected Poems 1988-2016

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Selected Poems 1988-2016 focuses on Alan Halsey’s longer poems from the period and brings together the previously scattered sequences Ars Poetica, Tracks & Tracts of the Lizopard, A Looking-Glass for Logoclasts and Latin for Today: The Sequel. It includes some revised and expanded texts such as the John Dee libretto Loagaeth alongside poems written since Rampant Inertia, published by Shearsman in 2014.

Phonica: Five

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Phonica: Five features six exciting acts from Ireland, Spain and Iceland presenting a blend of songwriting and sound improvisation; poetry incorporating architecture and design; ‘musique concrète’; translation; poetry and audiovisual art; cello and electronics; and subversions of the expectations around spoken word performance.
Phonica is a primarily poetry and music series with an emphasis on multiformity and the experimental. Conceived, programmed and hosted since early 2016 by Christodoulos Makris and Olesya Zdorovetska, Phonica aims to explore compositional and performative ideas and to encourage a melting pot of audiences and artists from across artforms.

Verbose

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Following standing-room-only events in February and March, live literature night Verbose is back on Monday 24 April, at Fallow Café in Fallowfield, Manchester.

Hailed by the media as one of the best spoken word nights in Manchester, Verbose’s headliners are always linked – this time it’s members of The Writing Squad initiative.

James Giddings received a Northern Writers award in 2015. His debut pamphlet Everything is Scripted won Templar Poetry’s Book and Pamphlet Award in 2016, and he’s shortlisted for the upcoming Saboteur Awards. Charlotte Wetton won second prize at the StAnza Slam and her pamphlet I Refuse to Turn into a Hatstand is just out with Calder Valley Poetry. James Varney is a writer and theatre maker who has had work published in Ambit, and Gregory Kearns is a poet based Liverpool, published by In The Red 14 and The Lifejacket Anthology.

Taking place on the fourth Monday of the month at Fallow Café (2a Landcross Road, M14 6NA), entry is free and doors are at 7.30pm. See verbosemcr.wordpress.com. Open mic slots are three minutes; to perform, email via verbosemcr@gmail.com.

A Slice of Life: The Art of The Short Story with Neil Campbell

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Sat 22 April 2017, 10:00 – 13:00. Lincoln Room 2, Central Methodist Buildings, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JQ.

An introduction to the art of writing short stories by Neil Campbell.
This three hour workshop will introduce participants to the essential ingredients and structure of a well crafted short story. Beginning with reading an existing text and identifying key features in a group setting, participants will then have the opportunity to have a go writing their own individual short story with the support of an expert in the genre. The workshop will culminate in a reading of the stories created and the opportunity for instant feedback. More here.

Illuminations I : Elfriede Jelinek

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Illuminations I : celebrating Elfriede Jelinek
Wednesday April 26th / 6:30pm doors for 7pm start
Free entry (booking required)
Austrian Cultural Forum. 28 Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1PQ

New performances, readings and artworks by Hannah Silva, Jen Calleja, Patrick Coyle, SJ Fowler, David Rickard and Esther Strauss

Elfriede Jelinek is one of the most powerful literary figures in Europe, a novelist and playwright of remarkable authority. Her work is marked by its purposeful originality and cutting exposure of bourgeois sensibilities. Profoundly appreciated by readers in continental Europe and beyond, Jelinek’s work is not only vitally contemporary, it is ever more relevant in the UK.

This event, by commissioning contemporary artists, writers, poets and theatre makers to each make a new work responding to the works or life of Jelinek, aims to transpose her brilliance into a new moment – one that will stimulate as well as illuminate. More here.

European Poetry Night : London

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European Poetry Night 2017 in London. May Saturday 6th: Rich Mix
7.30pm – Free Entry. 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

An opportunity to see some of the most exciting contemporary poets from all over Europe, as over 20 poets travel to London to share new collaborative poems, premiered on the night, in pairs, across languages, styles & nations. These are some of the most dynamic literary and avant-garde poets of the 21st century, celebrating the potential of collaboration to generate truly innovative poetry and work firmly against the divisive idea of a reduced closeness of spirit across our continent. Curated by SJ Fowler. More here.

English PEN Modern Literature Festival – films

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The second English PEN Modern Literature Festival, curated by SJ Fowler’s Enemies Project, saw 30 contemporary UK-based writers present new works in tribute to writers at risk around the world at Rich Mix, London, on April 1st 2017. This film is of Hannah Silva, performing her piece for Narges Mohammadi. The rest of the films, more about the event and details of the important work of PEN can be found here.

Anthology out now

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Our ninth anthology is out now, featuring Bryony Bates; Susan Bee; Charles Bernstein; Cathy Butterworth; Stuart Calton; Kimberly Campanello; Wayne Clements; Sarah-Clare Conlon; Gary Fisher; Joey Frances; Steven Hitchins; Sarah Kelly; Linda Kemp; Amy McCauley; Geraldine Monk; Iain Morrison; Kerry Morrison; Wanda O’Connor; Maggie O’Sullivan; Martin Palmer; Sam Riviere; Rosanne Robertson and James Wilkes. Go here to buy a copy.

SJ Fowler book launch in Bristol

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Arnolfini : Bristol – April Thursday 6th – 7pm : Free Entry.

The launch of SJ Fowler’s latest poetry collection ‘The Guide to Being Bear Aware’ from Bristol-based Shearsman Books, featuring performances and readings from Fowler and guest readers John Hall, Holly Corfield Carr, Paul Hawkins, Phil Owen & more to be announced.

“The Guide to Being Bear Aware offers advice for living in a world gone awry. Wry, violent, contemplative, political, intimate and raucous by turns, these are poems that laze on your lap only to get their claws in… Morphing into unfamiliar shapes beneath the watching eye, these refreshing, quizzical, well-traveled poems forge a world entirely their own: they won’t let you go of you easily.” Sarah Howe

More here.

A Future / No Future Poetry Experiment with Poetry Wales

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7 April at 7 PM. Jacobs Market, West Canal Wharf, Cardiff, CF10 5DB.

Cardiff Poetry Experiment will launch Poetry Wales’s new Future/No Future issue with an evening of live poetry at Jacob’s Antiques in Cardiff.

What happens to language when the future keeps getting cancelled?

Nathan Jones, Peter Finch, Ailbhe Darcy and Julia Rose Lewis will read and perform from the new issue which explores futurism, utopia, dystopia and the ‘lossy present’.

Organised by Poetry Wales and the Cardiff Poetry Experiment, supported by the School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University.

Nikolai Duffy and Ian Seed book launches

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The Manchester Writing School, Number 70 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5NH. Entry free, but booking essential. 7 PM start.

The Manchester Writing School at Manchester Met is delighted to present this special event to launch Nikolai Duffy’s latest poetry collection, Up The Creek, published by Knives Forks and Spoons Press and Ian Seed’s short story pamphlet, Italian Lessons, published by Like This Press. More here.