Maintenant #78 – Damir Šodan

Though his work is utterly modern and could only be of the now, Damir Šodan, as a man, recalls a different age. Cosmopolitan, engaged, political, satirically adept and poetically versatile, he is a poet who defines and embodies one of Europe’s great, surging contemporary traditions, that is Croatia since the turn of the millennium. One of the most active and veracious translators and editors on the continent, he has won international awards for his plays and finds employment at the Hague, as a translator for the United Nations War Tribunal. This is beside his reputation as a poet, which is considerable and deservingly ever growing. His work is striking for its elasticity, its precision and its ability to retain power amidst a wit rarely found in modern letters. In a typically generous and eloquent interview, discussing everything from war crimes tribunals to the Croatian poetic tradition, we present a locus of modern European poetry, Damir Šodan.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-78-damir-sodan/

I’m very pleased to say we have published ten of Damir’s poems in English alongside the interview

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/ten-poems-damir-sodan/

Jocund Day launch readings

Timothy Thornton’s ‘Jocund Day’ will be launched with readings in London on Thursday 3 November, and in Cambridge on Friday 4 November. Further details are below.

London launch
Thursday 3 November, 8pm
The Situation Room (http://sitroom.blogspot.com/)
Timothy Thornton, Tomas Weber, and others will be reading.

Cambridge launch
Friday 4 November, 7:30pm
Judith Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English (http://crs0hq.tumblr.com)
Timothy Thornton, Simon Jarvis and Tomas Weber will be reading.

The Covers project

SJ Fowler’s project in which contemporary poets read work that has inspired them, now has a new dedicated site where you can watch all the films so far. As a taster, here is Colin Herd covering Maggie O’Sullivan, recorded at the last Other Room. Film of Colin’s reading, together with films of the other two readers, Jennifer Cooke and SJ Fowler, will be published soon.

Reality Street launches

Dwelling by Richard Makin
“This is prose you must learn to experience, before you begin to interpret … The pages in their beautiful and delirious abstraction are ordered poetry: revised, corrected, disciplined, polished and then given their head.” – IAIN SINCLAIR

Head of a Man by John Gilmore
“I admire this spare, lean gem of a novel, so lyrical and evocative its brief prose fragments get into your head and stay there.” – GARY GEDDES

STONE SQUID experimental art space, 78 High Street, Old Town, Hastings TN34 3EL. Saturday 5 November 2011, 6:00pm, free admission – refreshments available.

More at the Reality Street site.

THE FOULE READINGS

Friday 28th October, 7.30pm. THE FOULE READINGS are a new series of contemporary poetry readings in Cambridge organised by undergraduates in English (Caitlín Doherty, Andrew Griffin, Connie Scozzaro and Tomas Weber)

  • Frances Kruk
  • Mike Wallace-Hadrill
  • Ed Luker
  • Caitlín Doherty

The Nihon Room, Pembroke College There’ll be free wine, a book table, a Foule publication & a cigarette break in a Japanese garden. It’s all free.

Scott Thurston:Talking Poetics— Dialogues in Innovative Poetry

This is a book of full-length interviews with the poets Karen Mac Cormack, Jennifer Moxley, Caroline Bergvall and Andrea Brady carried out between 2008 and 2009 in the UK and USA by Scott Thurston. During the course of these conversations, the poets explore a huge range of topics likely to interest anyone concerned with the state of innovative poetry today. Each interview considers the complete oeuvre of each writer and includes detailed engagements with selected texts as well as unfolding themes such as the role of innovation, the politics of poetry and reflections on lyric and autobiography. Each interview is footnoted and there is an extensive bibliography. Out now on Shearsman.

Maintenant #77 – Maarten Inghels

It is no exaggeration to say Maarten Enghels’ impact on the Belgian poetry scene has been nothing short of sensational. At an age where poets are just beginning to find their voice, he has become one of the most recognisable and bombastic presences in the entire country and it’s considerable Flemish poetical tradition. Iconoclastic, immediate and passionate, his work has firmly put him at the forefront of a new generation of Belgian poets who will continue to emerge as major writers across central Europe by effortlessly speaking in and about his own time, in his own language. For the 77th edition of Maintenant, we are pleased to introduce Maarten Inghels. With thanks to Jan Pollet

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-77-maarten-inghels/

Accompanying the interview are three poems, translated by Willem Groenewegen. This is the first time Maarten Inghel’s poetry has been translated into English and was only made possible by the generous support of the Flemish Literature Fund and of Patrick Peeters, and Willem Groenewegen himself.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/four-poems-maarten-inghels/