Maintenant #78 - Damir Sodan


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.


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


Recipes published in Otoliths


a new issue of Otoliths for spring 2011. As ever it's one of the most considered and wide ranging poetic publications online. Features a mass of poets including excellent standouts Márton Koppány, J. D. Nelson, Felino A. Soriano, Grzegorz Wróblewski and sean burn.

I think this is my fifth or sixth time in Otoliths. These poems are from Minimum Security Prison Dentistry, the collection launched this month.

the Other room - my experience & an interview with its founders

I've just returned from reading at the Other room in the old abbey inn in central Manchester, it was the 29th edition of the series and one of the highlights of my year in terms of poetry.

The invitation had a special significance for me. Firstly, the Other room is a project I have followed as closely as any other - the web presence being a vital resource for British poetry, plus the readings are always meticulously recorded, both with performances and interviews and I've been able to follow some of my favourite poets partaking - Tim Atkins, Jeff Hilson, Philip Terry, Holly Pester etc... Secondly, those who organise the series, and seem to represent succinctly the surge of amazing innovative poetry emerging from the contemporary North West scene, have been instrumental in my writing (Tom Jenks gave me my first magazine publication in the sorely missed Parameter, Scott Thurston was one of the first to offer me invaluable critique and support, and Alec Newman published my first collection.) Thirdly, and finally, I have come to see the series as an inspiration for the events I organise and the spirit in which poetry is fostered and supported. The Other room is never dictatorial, never knowing, exclusive or smug - it is open, collective, earnest and centred entirely around the poetry itself. The excellence of work is matched by the atmosphere in which the readings take place and are organised.

The hospitality afforded me was remarkable, those in attendance were welcoming and receptive and the discussions in and around the event were as enjoyable to me as the reading itself. It is a remarkable project and one whose increasing legacy reflects correctly, and brilliantly, on its instigators.

Here is an interview with those who run the series, James Davies, Scott Thurston and Tom Jenks, a resource I am sure will be important in the future:

Patrick Coyle & SJ Fowler at You Call Him Doctor Jones!

This was really fun.



Patrick Coyle and SJ Fowler read their collaboration "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK' Screenplay. REVISED REVISED THIRD DRAFT, AUGUST 1979" for the Penned in the Margins curated homage to the Indiana Jones franchise 'You Call Him Doctor Jones!', featuring music, performance, comedy and poetry. Which is kind of what this is.

Blue Touch Paper scheme with the London Sinfonietta

Following an open, national call the London Sinfonietta has selected a group of composers and multidisciplinary artists to participate in the Blue Touch Paper programme. The three composer-collaborator partnerships, who have all been awarded a Jerwood Blue Touch Paper bursary, are:

- Steve Potter (composer) & Kélina Gotman (Writer/Dramaturg)

- Elspeth Brooke (composer), Seonaid Goody (Puppeteer) & Anna G Jones (Director)

- Philip Venables (composer) & Steven J Fowler (Poet)

The three exciting ideas for new multidisciplinary pieces from these partnerships will be presented at a work-in-progress preview event in May 2012. The projects are:

- a music-theatre piece which explores the reality of dreams through staging political, utopian and everyday examples such as Martin Luther King’s rally against the Vietnam War.

- a re-imagining of the Greek myth of Persephone, experimenting how effects from early animated film could transfer to the art of puppetry, integrated with live musical performance

- a piece exploring the violence, sanctioned by society, that is boxing, through music and poetry

Maintenant Camarade - the collaborations




"On October 15th 2011, 3:AM Magazine’s Maintenant series hosted it’s largest event so far at the Rich Mix centre near Brick Lane in London. Poets from Russia, Macedonia and Latvia joined nine pairs of British poets in a memorable evening of performance and poetry. The British poets were paired as part of the first Maintenant Camarade project, with their efforts published in a chapbook by the Red Ceilings press. The videos below are shown in the order of the readings given on the evening, an event which showed the depth of talent, inventiveness and wit in contemporary European poetry."


Thanks to everyone who came, it was by far our best event, both in attendance and quality. Thanks to Literature across frontiers and Arc publications, and of course to all of the 23 readers, who read remarkably. It was a special evening and I'm happy to say the next Camarade project has commenced, and the reading will take place next February at the Rich mix centre.

Other room preview

SJ Fowler – a preview

14/10/2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Events and tagged: ,

SJ Fowler will be reading at the next Other Room on Wednesday 26th October at The Old Abbey Inn on Manchester Science Park. You can read some of his work a the Voiceworks site and much more at hisown site. Or watch a film of him reading at the launch of his collection Fights on Veer Publications.

Preview of Colin Herd to follow soon. Click here to read a preview of Jennifer Cooke.

Camarade publication available to buy


Now available to buy at www.theredceilingspress.co.uk, I edited the booklet and it features an introduction before the incredible poetry of Tom Jenks & Chris McCabe, Holly Pester & Patrick Coyle, James Wilkes & Ghazal Mosadeq, Tom Chivers & Simon Barraclough, James Byrne & Sandeep Parmar, Sam Riviere & Jack Underwood, Emily Critchley & Tamarin Norwood, Marcus Slease & Tim Atkins, Sean Bonney & Jeff Hilson. It's only 5 pounds and its without doubt the best work I've ever edited, the poets have really excelled in showing the potentiality of collaboration and the quality of work being produced in contemporary circles.

Maintenant poetry at "Linguistically innovative €#*@$?!"

"Notes on old new little presses part seven
& parts one, two,three, four, five,six

For a 21st century expanding European generation of poets new international networks are emerging fast. Through, for example, 3:AM Magazine Maintenant and Poetry Kit hub - the internet provides updates on local, regional, and international scenes. Universities have their own creative writing bubbles and old London town has plural exhibition/music/poetry spaces.

Both Norwegian poet Paal Bjelke Andersen and Swedish poet Aase Berg, in recent Maintenant interviews with younger generation British poet Steven Johannes Fowler; seem to suggest, in their individual and distinctive ways that 'innovative', 'experimental' may now be the dominant published poetry in Scandinavia, with small press its mainstream vehicle.

Maintenant: the Camarade project has brought into the picture new collaborative possibilities between English-speaking and foreign language-speaking poets.

New small publishers like The Red Ceilings Press, who've published the Maintenant Camarade mini-anthology as perfect-trim A6 artzine, produce inexpensive limited edition print plus open access screen readings. Working from regional locality it is difficult to envisage this little press and others as new mainstream-in-the-making.

These rough 'Notes on the old new little press' will conclude next post before addition to planned Songs Our Teachers Learn Us, or, Lessons To Be Learnedpublication."

Thanks to MJ Weller at http://egnep.blogspot.com/

Maintenant #75 - Anna Auziņa

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.


Accompanying the interview are four of Anna's poems.