Protect IP / SOPA Breaks My Internet

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

On Anthologising I

In The Equation

This plus this equals this.

World Poetry Portfolio #6: Nathan Hamilton

In case you missed it, and assuming you'd find it interesting, as you both follow this blog, I thought I'd post here that I had some poetry featured (some old, some new) as part of Sudeep Sen's World Poetry Portfolio at Molossus.

I am featured as #6: "I am not a number, I am a free man."

You might also notice featured alongside this selection an advert for Oregon Wild Hair: 'The World's Most Literary Moustache Wax.' I like this advert. It makes me want to grow a wild and literary moustache. But I also wonder how a moustache wax might be literary. If it were used regularly by literary types, I suppose. Or if it wrote a book. On moustaches, presumably -- sticking to what you know.

Stop Sharpening Your Knives 4

SSYK 4 - January 2011 from Simon Davenport on Vimeo.

The Stop Sharpening Your Knives 4 antholog-zine has arrived. As the triumphant ident. indicates, it is moving, epic, hi-tech, big budget, romantic -- bestial? And likely to contain horses.



SSYK4 is edited by the poets Emily Berry, Nathan Hamilton, Sam Riviere, and Jack Underwood. The series is fast establishing a reputation for spotting the best new poetic talent around.



SSYK4 contains excellent new poetry from Emily Berry, Theo Best, Amy Blakemore, Ben Borek, Hayley Buckland, Tim Cockburn, Callan Davies, Margot Douaihy, Joe Dunthorne, Charlotte Geater, Matthew Gregory, Nathan Hamilton, Robert Herbert, Charlotte Hoare, Kirsten Irving, Joe Kennedy, Agnes Lehoczky, Mollye Miller, Heather Phillipson, Meghan Purvis, Sam Riviere, Ben Stainton, Jon Stone, Sam Thomas, Emily Toder, Jack Underwood, Chrissy Williams, and Michael Zelenko.

SSYK4 available now from

Egg Box Publishing.

The Rialto: Younger Poets Feature Update

The submissions doors are now closed and Flight Rialto U35 is underway. It looks to be a smooth one so far, with perhaps a little turbulence, but generally good weather is forecast. We’ve checked

poetry looms

the cargo bay for stow-away over 40s and other potentially explosive compounds, and … OK, there’s only so far you can stretch a metaphor before it threatens to snap …

So, the little experiment feature that Michael and I planned for the 25th anniversary has turned into a big experiment. We’ve had approximately 300 submissions of between 1 and 7, sometimes 8, poems (but most have been well-behaved and stuck to the original requested 3-5) and all this is in 7 days. This now leaves the slightly huge task of reading and selecting from between 800-1200+ poems in two or so weeks.

Oops. That is a lot of poetry.

In fact, it’s so much (and so much of it seems to be of a pretty decent quality so far, on my initial Beirut-soundtracked read-throughs) that we’re thinking of extending it over more than one issue and perhaps using it as the start of other regular ‘focus features’; different ages, groups, genres, or themes might be explored, for example, and different submission methods. We’re thinking about it. If you have any ideas, do get in touch.

One thing we seem to have proved is that there is — if you didn’t know already — a lot of poetry being written out there by younger people and that The Rialto continues to be a place these poets want to be seen. What also appears certain is that if you want to give yourself far more work to do than is healthy over a Bank Holiday weekend then you should send out an open call for poetry submissions via email, Twitter and Facebook, and then ruefully watch enthusiasm melt your inbox.

Anyway, I said I’d do it, so I will … it’s on with the show … excuse me, I have poetry to read … (and thanks to all those who helped spread the word through recommendations, reposts, tweets, and blogs)

[Note: I am likely to be listening to a lot of Beirut while editing this feature, including the introduction. If any of you consider their East-European-folk-inspired melancholy potentially harmful to an adequate reading of your work, speak now or forever hold your peace. I am happy to consider suggestions of alternatives.]

The Rialto: Younger Poets Feature

I've been asked by Michael Mackmin to organise a 'ones to watch' feature for The Rialto's 25th anniversary edition -- published in May and including poems from Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and Tomaz Salamun, among many others.

I have been busy soliciting submissions from individuals (ongoing) I'd like to include, if possible, to make sure I can make a certain point or two with it. In the interests of fairness, however -- and to add an element of experimental fun -- I am also now seeking to broaden the catchment beyond my own network biases and peccadilloes with further recommendations and a short-deadline open call.

So, starting here at Curiosa: calling all poets, 35 and under! Please send 3-5 poems (no more than 5 sides) to this email address by 31st of March. These should either be previously unpublished or published somewhere of significantly lower profile than The Rialto (where Rialto would act as a greater showcase and validation of your work). Yes, it is a short deadline -- that's part of the challenge. It is also an experiment (for future work) to test or prove that such a submissions process might work well for things...

This is not limited to UK poets -- we are curious to see others, too -- but it will probably remain focused on the UK, based on the likely catchment. We'll see...

Depending on response, this may also develop into a regular feature, after establishing itself with this first introductory list, perhaps focusing on different genres or age groups, and including different submissions processes. So, get sending your poetry and spread the word! Please pass this on, in any way you see fit, to poets you feel fit the bill, or send me some work yourselves. But be quick! I look forward to reading your poems.

For more information about The Rialto, please visit: www.therialto.co.uk

Down at the White Horse, feat. Bob Walsh

I had a drink with a cool guy called Peter at The White Horse the other night. I found out that the pub has an interesting story to it, documented next morning here on my iPhone. Bob Walsh is the barman there who told me all about it. Forgive amateur footage and goofy interjections - I only had 10 mins filming and an hour editing.

Clinic Presents: MAGIC

Sorry for short notice and shorter note. Here is information about a reading tomorrow night. I'll be reading some old stuff and some new stuff: I have been building a gang of Malcolms.

CLINIC
Presents:
/// MAGIC ///

MUSIC:
Talons
On Histories of Rosenberg
Hreda
Jamie n Commons

POETRY:
Nathan Hamilton / Jack Underwood / Matthew Gregory + Clinic

EXHIBITION
Take Courage Gallery

Curated by CLINIC

Thursday 11th February
/// 7 Till 1 ///

Amersham Arms
New Cross SE4
£3 with flyer / £3.50 without

clinic presents

UEA CREATIVE WRITING ANTHOLOGY, 2009

You are cordially invited to the launch of the UEA CREATIVE WRITING ANTHOLOGY, 2009. Attend and get your copy at a reduced price ahead of the official release on OCT 31st.

NORWICH Launch:
Tuesday October 13th, 7:00pm
UEA Drama Studio
UEA Campus
Norwich
NR4 7TJ

MAP

***

LONDON Launch:
Thursday October 15th, 7:30pm
Basement Bar
Slug & Lettuce
North Block (1-63)
5 Chicheley Street
Lambeth SE1 7PJ

MAP

UEA is proud to announce two new anthologies of work from their world-renowned creative writing MA. The UEA CREATIVE WRITING ANTHOLOGY: PROSE features a foreword by alumna Tracy Chevalier and introductions from Kathryn Hughes, Andrew Cowan and Val Taylor. It showcases thirty talented new writers from the Prose, Scriptwriting and Lifewriting strands as they lead us through the musings of a hairstylist, the birth of a snow child, and the fjords of Norway telling fine tales of refugees, lovers and Republican bloggers along the way.

The UEA CREATIVE WRITNG ANTHOLOGY: EIGHT NEW POETS is introduced by prize-wining poets Lavinia Greenlaw and George Szirtes and brings together eight fresh and fine new voices from all around the world (Australia, Bermuda, Greece, Hong Kong, New Mexico, and the UK) – some already being heard and heralded.

“UEA has a knack of discovering writers with a distinctive voice – in this case 40 distinctive voices – and these latest anthologies prove that standards remain high. Thoughtful prose, considered poetry, provocative stories that stay in the mind, extracts from novels that make one long for the finished book. Read them and sample the future.” – John Boyne, 2009

The MA has produced numerous impressive and prize-winning alumni, including Ian McEwan, Anne Enright, Tracy Chevalier, Kazuo Ishiguro, Adam Foulds, John Boyne, Kathryn Simmonds, Diana Evans, Trezza Azzopardi, Owen Sheers, Toby Litt and Deirdre Madden.

THERE ARE TWO LAUNCH EVENTS, ONE IN NORWICH AND ONE IN LONDON, FOR BOTH ANTHOLOGIES

Copies are available online now.
Facebook event info here.

--------
PS I will be back blogging properly soon...