Dept #5 - a collaboration with Anatol Knotek



A4. 44 pages. £2.50.
New work from: Iain Britton, JP Duran, SJ Fowler and Anatol Knotek, RTA Parker, Nat Raha, Andy Spragg, Steven Waling

Available now at the Department site. This work featured is my second collaboration with the amazing Austrian visual poet Anatol Knotek, following 'the inner life of man' which was featured in Anything Anymore Anywhere, this is our work 'Glitches'. http://departmentpoetrymagazine.blogspot.com/2011/12/department-5-now-available.html

Gnomes for Xmas!


The Red Ceilings press has just published the first part of the truly remarkable collaboration between Chris McCabe and Tom Jenks, entitled Gnomes. This work was commissioned for the Maintenant Camrade project I, and will continue for the second Camarade event, which will be held at the Rich mix centre in London on February 11th 2012. Click the link to buy this limited edition chapbook.

http://www.theredceilingspress.co.uk/ Welcome to double dip.

Maintenant #83 - Daniele Pantano


One of the leading poets of central Europe, a Swiss poet by all rights, is somehow is also one of its leading poets of exile. Daniele Pantano, vigorous, multifaceted, considered and cerebral in his poetry, is one of the most active and highly regarded translators of modern Swiss poets and writers, and has brought to light some of the finest authors of the 20th century in Walser, Dürrenmatt and Trakl. Moreover, he has a fine reputation as a critic, poet and teacher in both America and England. His is a story of living in more than one country, writing in more than one language, pursuing poetry in more than one facet, and anyone who has read his work will not be surprised by the breadth of his background and erudition of his account. Discussing the modern history of Swiss literature, his own journey from Switzerland to America to England and the work that is marking him out as one of the most remarkable talents of his generation, Maintenant presents its 83rd edition and it’s first Swiss poet, Daniele Pantano.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-83-daniele-pantano

Accompanying the interview are four poems from Daniele’s remarkable, and ever growing, new project, Mass Graves. You can buy parts XIX-XXII here and its thoroughly worth doing so
http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/theknivesforksandspoonspress/P-Z.html

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/fou-poems-daniele-pantano/

Maintenant #82 - João Luís Barreto Guimarães

With a precision and focus that seems to mirror the requirements of his profession, a surgeon, the poetry of João Luís Barreto Guimarães is representative of the finest work in contemporary Portuguese letters. Concise, eloquent and immediate, his work is concerned with phenomenological clarity and an engagement with a language of presence, of excavated intimation, and a wholly personal reality that hinges on a fundamental act of communication with the impersonal. For over two decades he has been a leading light in a poetry tradition often underappreciated outside of its borders, but from which giants of modern poetry like Fernando Pessoa and João Miguel Fernandes Jorge have emerged. In an extremely generous interview, we are pleased to present João Luís Barreto Guimarães as our first Portuguese edition of Maintenant.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-82-joao-luis-barreto-guimaraes/

Accompanying the interview are five translations by Ana Hudson. These poems form part of Ana’s remarkable project http://www.poemsfromtheportuguese.org/ in which she has pioneered the translation and elucidation of a vast number of contemporary poets writing in the Portuguese language.

Maintenant #81 - Valerio Magrelli

For over thirty years Valerio Magrelli has represented Italian poetry to the world. Inarguably the most influential poet of his generation in Italy, the oeuvre he has thus far established has ensured his place as one of the few poets able to look eye to eye with his nation’s iconoclastic predecessors. And yet, this language of grandeur does not seem apropos in describing a work built on agility of thought, deftness of expression, a modest, good-natured gesturing to the immense power of poetry which, in and of itself, locates that very power. Valerio Magrelli is a poet whose work has the authority to wake his readers, to bring their focus back to the poem itself, as a thing, not as a product of a poet first and foremost. Consistently, it is this eloquent and energetic intellect which resonates through his work and reminds us of the heights that the Italian language and the Italian poetry tradition can reach. For the 81st edition of Maintenant, Valerio Magrelli. Thanks to Jan Wagner, Federico Italiano & Jamie McKendrick.


Accompanying the interview are four poems, taken from the book 'Valerio Magrelli: The Embrace' Faber & Faber 2009, translated by Jamie McKendrick. For this remarkable undertaking, Jamie McKendrick won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and the John Florio Prize.

Maintenant #80 - Arnoud van Adrichem

A poet whose inventiveness and incisiveness is architectural in its care - witty, adventurous, circuitous and at ease with its own intelligence, the work of Arnoud van Adrichem, one of the most remarkable poets and critics Holland has produced in the last decade, stands as an example of how international traditions, multiple languages and a shift in political culture, will not waylay a brilliant poet from writing brilliant poetry. If anything it will only add context to the work of a poet like van Adrichem, recognised across the Netherlands and beyond as one of the most considered and necessary agents for poetry currently at work, and with no sign of lagging. Editor of the international journal Parmentier and a specialist and translator of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, it is hard to look past Arnoud van Adrichem as a fundamental part of the future of Dutch letters. Another exceptional addition to the Maintenant series, edition #80, we are privileged to have his work translated into English for the very first time thanks to the generosity of the Nederlands Letterenfonds with thanks to Jan Pollet.


A poem in five sections, Corner, accompanies this interview. This is the first time Arnoud van Adrichem’s poetry has been translated into English and was only made possible by the generous support of the Nederlands Letterenfonds (the Dutch Foundation for Literature) and of Thomas Möhlmann. Translations by Willem Groenewegen, 2011. http://www.willem-groenewegen.nl/

Cemal Süreya & Turkish video-poems

I've just visited Istanbul, for the third time in the last three years. Again, I used the time to read as much Turkish poetry in translation as possible. As ever Nazim Hikmet, Edip Cansever, Ilhan Berk and Cemal Sureya have infused themselves into my reading and work in general. In searching for a reading of Sureya I found a massive spate of videos on youtube featuring Turkish poets being read over image montages and background music. Ive not seen anything like this before, at this frequently anyway, there are hundreds of these videos.

Nominated for the pushcart prize

Chosen from over 1000 poems, my poem 'oar fish' from my Taxidermy series has been nominated for a pushcart prize by Vox poetica and its editor Annmarie Lockhart. http://www.pushcartprize.com/

"The Pushcart Prize - Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of our annual collections.

Writers who were first noticed here include:
Raymond Carver, Tim O’Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Charles Baxter, Andre Dubus, Susan Minot, Mona Simpson, John Irving, Rick Moody, and many more. Each year most of the writers and many of the presses are new to the series."

Minimum Security Prison Poetry - the readings online

A huge thanks to everyone who read and attended and supported on Wednesday night. It was another unique and memorable reading, the 17 voices of the poets spilling together like the contents of a magic intestine. It was a lovely evening to launch my new book and the venue, the Horse Hospital, was really exceptional. Special thanks to Catherine Carncross, Livia Dragomir, David Kelly and Andy Spragg for helping out. And to Colin Herd for the book.