Presenting at the Launch of Greg Thomas’s Border Blurs, 5th December 2019

On Thursday 5th December, I’m presenting a short paper entitled Ports in a Storm: Bill Griffiths’ Forming Four Dock Poems as part of the launch event for Greg Thomas’s Border Blurs: Concrete Poetry in England and Scotland (Liverpool University Press), an important book about interactions between Scottish and English concrete poets in the 1950s and 1960s. Also presenting are Steve Willey, Bronac Ferran, Nicola Simpson, Rebecca Kosic and Greg Thomas himself. The venue is Birkbeck, University of London (room to be confirmed). 6pm start, wrapping up for 9pm. The event is free but bookable.

• Full details on the event, plus registration.
• More about the book Border Blurs.

Presenting at artBLAB, 16th November 2019

On Saturday 16th November, I’ll be contributing to artBLAB, a monthly evening of talks by poets, artists and designers. I will discuss and read from recent poetry that I’ve been writing in the dialect of my native Yorkshire. Also presenting their practice are visual artist Marco Oggian, drag artist Taxi Rank and art theorist I-Chien Tang. The venue is the Poetry Café, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BX. 7pm start, £5 suggested donation on the door.

• Listing on the Poetry Society website.
• Facebook event page.

attercop in Long Poem Magazine Issue 22

My poem attercop is in the newly published, 22nd issue of Long Poem Magazine, which is now available to order online – £10.50 within the UK, or £17 overseas (both prices include postage and packaging).

• More about the contents of the issue.
• Order the issue.

the dotted line now available from Gang Press

The chapbook of my long, conceptual poem the dotted line is now available to order from Gang Press. With hand-painted covers by mjb. Price £3.

• Contact Gang Press by Twitter or email to order a copy.

Reading at the launch of Long Poem Magazine Issue 22, 4th November 2019

On Monday 4th November, I’m reading at the launch event for issue 22 of Long Poem Magazine, which features my poem attercop. Also performing their work from the magazine are Anna Robinson, Tim Dooley, Lucy Sixsmith, Terence Dooley, David Sollors, Joan Michelson, Gregory Woods, John Greening, Ian Seed and Alasdair Paterson. The event takes place at the Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, City of London EC2Y 8DS. Doors 6pm, readings 6.30pm. Free entry, refreshments available.

• Event listing at the Long Poem Magazine website.
• Facebook event page.

Launching the dotted line at Guillotine 8, 29th October 2019

On Tuesday 29th October, I’ll be reading to launch my chapbook the dotted line, a long, conceptual poem issued by Gang Press with hand-painted covers by mjb. This will take place at the eighth iteration of the reading series Guillotine, which will also feature readings by the excellent poets Fran Lock and Stephen Mooney. It’s at The Beehive pub, Stoneleigh Road, Tottenham, London N17 9BQ; nearest stations are Bruce Grove, Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale). 7.15pm start. Recommended £4 contribution on the door, or less for those on low incomes.

• Event listing on Facebook.

Collaborating with Ghazal Mosadeq at the Torriano Camarade, 14th July 2019

On Sunday 14th July, I’m reading a new collaboration with the poet Ghazal Mosadeq as part of the Torriano Camarade, an evening of poetic collaborations that also features Russell Bennetts & Calliope Michail, Astra Papachristodoulou & Maria Sledmere, Han Smith & Kirsten Irving, SJ Fowler & Harry Man, Molly Bergin & Jennah Fletcher, Joe Turrent & Eshaan Akbar, Fabian Peake & Dominic Jaeckle, David Berridge & Ryan Ormonde, Mischa Foster Poole & Amy Cutler, and Lavinia Singer & Kate Wakeling. This event also sees the launch of Greatest Hits II: The Selected Collaborations of SJ Fowler and Harry Man (Kingston University Press). There will also be an open mic session to begin the evening. The venue is the Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town, London NW5 2RX. Doors 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Recommended £5 contribution on the door, going towards the upkeep of the Meeting House.

• Event listing.
• Torriano Meeting House website.

Reading at the 87 Press Summer Special, 1st July 2019

On Monday 1st July I’m reading my poetry at The 87 Press Summer Special, the 1st anniversary celebration for avant-garde publisher The 87 Press. Also performing are Sascha Aurora Akhtar and Luke Roberts, two magnificent poets. It’s upstairs at Beara Beara Cafe, 330 Upper Street, Islington N1 3HQ (nearest tube stations are Angel and Highbury & Islington). Doors at 7pm, admission £5, or £3 for students. Please note that the venue takes card payments only, no cash.

• Events page for The 87 Press.
• Event listing on Facebook.
• Map for Beara Beara Cafe.

Presenting at Troublesome Modernisms, 21 June 2019

On Friday 21 June, I’ll be at Troublesome Modernisms, the British Association for Modernist Studies International Conference 2019, to present my paper ‘it doan sounn like briggflatts’: Basil Bunting as a Caribbean Poet, which looks at Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite’s reception of Bunting’s long poem Briggflatts. The conference runs from 12pm on Thursday 20 June through to 6pm on Sat 22 June, with a fantastic diversity of panels and round-tables on modernist writing, art and culture, spread across two London venues: King’s College London, The Strand, Westminster WC2R 2LS; and the St Bride Foundation, 14 Bride Lane, City of London EC4Y 8EQ. The keynote speakers are Douglas Mao and Isabel Waidner. Saturday evening features the Modernist Revue, a cabaret of modernist performance works, which is also open to non-delegates. I’m on the 3pm-4.30pm panel Nationalisms/Transnationalisms in Room SO.12 at King’s College, alongside papers by Ahmed Honeini on William Faulkner, John Lowney on Langston Hughes, and Kiron Ward on GV Desani and Nirad Chaudhuri. Conference registration is £60/£45 per day, or £150/£105 for all three days (with extra discounts for BAMS members); tickets for the Modernist Revue are £10.

• General information about the conference.
• Download the conference programme (PDF).
• Conference registration.
• Information and bookings for the Modernist Revue.

Chairing Anthony Joseph’s keynote at the Work in Progress conference, 13th June 2019

On Thursday 13th June, Birkbeck, University of London is hosting Work in Progress 2019, a conference where MPhil/PhD students from Birkbeck’s Department of English and Humanities share their recent research. I had a role in organising the event, and will be chairing the conference’s opening keynote, where poet, novelist, musician and Birkbeck lecturer Anthony Joseph will present Kitch: A Liminal Life, A Community of Voices, a reflection on Kitch (Peepal Tree Press, 2018), his fictional biography of the great calypsonian Lord Kitchener. The keynote is 1pm – 2pm, and will be followed by a packed programme of student papers continuing until around 8.30pm, covering an inspiring range of topics, from the influence on Chaucer of spices traded from the Mamluk Empire, through to Cthulu-worshippers in the Lake District, and the development of autism-friendly spaces in theatre. The venue is the Keynes Library, School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London, 43 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0PD. It’s free to attend and all are welcome.

• More information about the conference.
• Download the conference programme (PDF).
• Order Kitch from Peepal Tree Press.