Teaching Beckett for the Rest is Noise study evening at the Southbank centre

October 21, 2013

Teaching Beckett is frightening. Teaching Beckett at the Southbank centre, in the QEH hall, as part of the groundbreaking Rest is Noise festival, at a free evening study course open to the general public for free is even more so. Teaching alongside Tom Service and Charlottle de Ville, even more so yet again. But it went proper well, a small generous group of people, amazing support staff at the Southbank, and my focus on the ethical engagement /disengagement of Beckett through paradox and disjunction in language was well received, not having the skill or expertise to make a proper ham of historical fact or textual analysis. I just waffled with purpose and read excerpts from Worstward ho! It could hardly go wrong. Charlotte and Tom were both inspiring to hear, I genuinely spent hours after the evening, which felt an easy 150 minutes (!) researching what they were speaking about. I hadn’t come across Tom Service before, but his work is really amazing with the BBC radio and the guardian, and I was at Wigmore hall just a few days later, rediscovering my discovery of classical music.

VLAK 4 is here and its all that we hoped for

October 21, 2013

I'm proud as punch to be an associate editor of Vlak. Louis Armand, David Vichnar, Olga Pekova and the many others involved in this heavyweight publication are doing the important work, and making Prague something it would not otherwise be because of their grind towards powerliterature. The new VLAK is breathtaking in its production value, as always, there is not a magazine like it, simply said. http://vlakmagazine2.wordpress.com/

Gilles de Rais / Estates of Westeros exhibition at the Rich Mix Art Centre Gallery Cafe!

October 20, 2013

an Enemies exhibition

Gilles de Rais / The Estates of Westeros

David Kelly / Ben Morris / SJ Fowler

http://www.weareenemies.com/estatesgillesexhibition.html

Tuesday October 22^nd - Sunday 26^th

in the Rich Mix Arts Centre Café Gallery http://www.richmix.org.uk/venues/spaces/cafe-gallery/

The Enemies project presents poetry & avant-garde illustration exhibited in the unique ‘bearpit’ café gallery of the Rich Mix Arts Centre. Two exchanges between poet & artist aim to break ground in the collaborative relationship between text, image and form, as published portable exhibitions, or books in boxes, are wallhung and ceiling strung. / Gilles de Rais – an interchangeable narrative reflection on the life and legend of Gilles de Rais – this fusion of avant garde poetry and modernist line drawing aims to satirise and subvert the manner in which the monstrous myth surrounding such de Rais is echoed in our own time by Jimmy Saville. This is the disjunctive folklore of idiot's resounding through the ages, from 15th century France to 21st century Britain. / The Estates of Westeros is where avant garde poetry meets avant garde illustration. Whether perception or reality, housing estates are environments of occlusion, claustrophobia and damage, and poetry about them has a responsibility to reflect this complexity and intensity in its tone and form. The Estates of Westeros is a meditation on this living space through the universe of George RR Martin's Game of Thrones, and where Gilles de Rais explores the absurdity of mythmaking in that which once was real, the Estates ... explores the grinding realism at the heart of the fantastical. / Both books can be purchased for £9 direct from Like This Press: http://www.likethispress.co.uk/publications/sjfowlerandbenmorris

http://www.likethispress.co.uk/publications/sjfowleranddavidkelly

A special viewing of the exhibition will take place on October Wednesday 23^rd at 8pm. The event is free to attend and features:- Eirikur Orn Norddahl, one of the most amazing poetical performers in Europe, award winning novelist / sound poet. Here’s what he did last time he visited London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P4beEsNIcQ (Preview) He will be reading from his new publication. / Ondrej Buddeus, a pivotal part of the post-millenial new generation of Czech poets, a brilliant young poet joining us from Prague, http://bodyliterature.com/2013/06/25/ondrej-buddeus-2/ / There will also be the launch of my collaboration with the photographer Matteo X. Patocchi. http://www.matteopatocchi.com/ ‘Twins born Triplets’ is a unique poetry object, a fusion of experimental portrait photography and typographically innovative poetry (about Russia, Putin, Khlebnikov, Pussy Riot – an excerpt read here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-b8KL8StMU ) printed as a newspaper in a limited edition.

Please join us for the crescendo week of the Enemies project year one on

October 23^rdhttp://www.weareenemies.com/estatesgillesexhibition.html

October 25th http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/events/3401

October 26th http://www.weareenemies.com/camaradefest.html

rest is noise festival talks / panels from the Southbank soundcloud page

October 16, 2013

C-A-M-A-R-A-D-E-F-E-S-T

October 13, 2013

The Camarade poetry festival is a unique one day explosion of dynamic collaboration in contemporary avant garde and literary poetics. 100 poets align in 50 pairs, each writing an original collaborative work, written specifically for the festival and premiered on the day. The 5th Camarade event, and the crescendo of the Enemies project’s first year, this ambitious exploration of the possibilities of collaboration in poetry will evidence the true width and depth of poetry that is happening now.

http://www.weareenemies.com/camaradefest.html

{2pm – Session I}

David Berridge & Mary Paterson

Kirsty Irving & Jon Stone

Jeff Hilson & Fabian MacPherson

Edmund Hardy & James Wilkes

Giles Goodland & Alistair Noon

Mendoza & Nat Raha

Marek Kazmierski & Wioletta Grzegorzewska

Matt Dalby & Steven Waling

Tom Chivers & Ross Sutherland

{3.30pm – Session II}

Marcus Slease & Claire Potter

Rhy Trimble & Harry Gilonis

Bea Colley & Francine Elena

Pascal O'Laughlin & Scott Thurston

Ghazal Mosadeq & Ricardo Marques

Sarah Crewe & Jo Langdon

Andy Spragg & Joe Kennedy

Robert Sheppard & Robert Hampson

{5pm – Session III}

Ahren Warner & Mark Waldron

Julia Bird & Sarah Hesketh

Ekaterina Paronian & Sophie Mayer

Chrissy Williams & Nia Davies

Becky Cremin & Ryan Ormonde

Stephen Watts & Will Rowe

Zoe Skoulding & Ondrej Buddeus

Oli Hazzard & Caleb Klaces

{7.30pm – Session IV}

Carol Watts & George Szirtes

Tim Atkins & Jessica Pujol I Duran

Ryan Van Winkle & William Letford

Jack Underwood & Alex MacDonald

Joanna Rzadkowska & Kristen Kreider

Stephen Connolly & Emily Hasler

Sophie Collins & Rachael Allen

Deborah Pearson & Tamarin Norwood

Sarah Kelly & Gabriele Lebanauskaite

{9pm – Session V}

Holly Pester & Emma Bennett

Sam Riviere & Joe Dunthorne

Ollie Evans & Robert Kiely

Nathan Jones & Sam Skinner

Christodoulos Makris & Kim Campanello

Reza Mohammedi & Ana Seferovic

James Davies & Philip Terry

James Byrne & Sandeep Parmar

Chris McCabe & Tom Jenks

The Enemies project is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England. www.weareenemies.com

James Byrne & The Becoming in 3am magazine

October 13, 2013

Very proud to publish to exceptional works of poetry on 3am today, The Becoming is an excerpt from a longer work being released by Calamari press http://www.calamaripress.com/Becoming.htm a towering Bosch tectonic shuffle of language that is as relentless as it is entralling. Inspirational work from an anonymous author. http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-becoming/

Meanwhile, new work from James Byrne, a wonderful poet and a gentleman, who has been involved in my Camarade series with Sandeep Parmar on multiple occasions. He's someone whose poetry, and whose presence, in British poetry, I admire very much. http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/james-byrne-drin/

Viva Mexico

October 11, 2013

Rest is Noise festival - on Thomas Bernhard & the Black Mountain college

October 11, 2013

A day of two halves. The first, a bite talk, 15 minutes on Thomas Bernhard. It was a failed experiment. I overwrote the content, wanting it to be so good because of the passion I have for Bernhard, and was far too loyal to the text. I was boring. The art of lecturing is a practice I am engaged in learning. You learn more from a 'loss' I suppose. Still annoying to speak so poorly about an author I love so much, and if anyone stayed awake through my monotone the actual content had some moments of insight I hope. / I then went on to chair a panel on the Black Mountain college with Alyce Mahon from Cambridge Uni, and my old friends Tim Atkins and Peter Jaeger. It was a brilliant hour, fluid, insightful and balanced. Each speaker brought information from differing perspectives, and were all very generous with their thoughts. Peter offered real insight into John Cage and Zen, Alyce opened up the history of the school with its creative spark offset by administrative suicide, and Tim told everyone that poets killed the college. The list of alumni or teaching staff is unbelievable - Duncan, Olsen, Williams, Cage, Cunningham, Albers, Twombly, Creeley, de Kooning, Rauschenberg, Dorn. The questions were also very positive, and we ended up talking about the modern state of the education system and how restricted it is, against such a hotbed of radical innovation and collaboration as the BMC. / The rest is noise is an awesome opportunity to open up so many discussions that rarely get such a platform. Next up, Walter Abish and Jack Spicer in November

You are invited to the Launch of Enemies

October 11, 2013

ENEMIES: THE SELECTED COLLABORATIONS OF SJ FOWLER

Toynbee Studios, London E1 6AB (Map)

Friday 25 October

7pm, Free

Please pop along if you can. I'll be reading with Sam Riviere, David Berridge, Tim Atkins, Sarah Kelly, Eirikur Orn Norddahl and Tom Jenks. From the publisher:

"You are invited to join independent poetry publisher Penned in the Margins for the launch of SJ Fowler’s groundbreaking, multi-disciplinary collection Enemies; the result of collaborations with over thirty artists, photographers and writers – each imbued with the energy, innovation and generosity of spirit that has become Fowler’s calling card as a poet.

Meta-diary entries mingle with a partially redacted email exchange; texts slip and fragment, finding new contexts alongside paintings, diagrams and YouTube clips. Animalistic Rorschach blots and behind-the-scenes photographs from the Museum inspire a poetic that is dynamic but unstable: Fowler’s texts walk the high-wire between reason and madness, the individual and the collective, human and animal.

The Enemies are: Tim Atkins, David Berridge, Cristine Brache, Patrick Coyle, Emily Critchley, Lone Eriksen, Frédéric Forte, Tom Jenks, Samantha Johnson, Alexander Kell, David Kelly, Sarah Kelly, Anatol Knotek, Ilenia Madelaire, Chris McCabe, nick-e melville, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, Matteo X Patocchi, Claire Potter, Monika Rinck, Sam Riviere, Hannah Silva, Marcus Slease, Ross Sutherland, Ryan Van Winkle, Philip Venables, Sian Williams"

Pre-order Enemies online

"An overwhelming assault. The geography is unnerving, almost familiar, then stinging in its estrangement.Intensity crackles. Tension teases. At what point does collision become collaboration? When do the bandages come off?"

Iain Sinclair

VLAK 4 imminent - contains Camarade texts

October 11, 2013

The powerhouse publication of avant garde materials is on its way in its 4th guise. Very privileged to be on the editorial board for VLAK, the new issue is just as groundbreaking as the last 3, and the production quality of what is essentially a massive perfect bound shiny tome is always remarkable. I'm happy to say in this issue I've burrowed out a small cave of Camarade texts from the events I've been running over the last few years, with work in there from Philip Terry & Allen Fisher, Tim Atkins & Marcus Slease, Jeff Hilson & Sean Bonney and quite a few others. I've written an intro to the selection, all of which I am very proud to have commissioned as it were. VLAK also has a new website at http://www.vlakmagazine.com and forthcoming events are listed at http://vlakmagazine2.wordpress.com/events/ -- if you happen to be in the vicinity of any of these, please do go and support the enterprise.

Full list of contents here http://vlakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/vlak-4/ see it to believe it, as ever - Notley, Sollers, Berrigan, Kinsella, Armand, Garcia amongst.

International Translation Day at the British Library

October 9, 2013

I would honoured to speak at this one day conference / summit / get together of translators and industry professional at the British library on technology, futurology and poetry. It was an embarrassment of riches in terms of the speakers, I actually looked like the child of most of the distinguised peoples in the programme, and I inhabited one of the afternoon breakout seminars with Maya Gabrielle, who is a serious digital programme industry leader, working with the National Theatre and others. She spoke really directly and powerfully about waste and direction in using social media and allowed me to be the good cop really, as I waffled on with my thoughts on the potentiality of the ether for writers, and how the internet is not a tool but a mode, and that its growth is inevitable, its use free and its engagements exponential. It went well, I was able to ramble without notes, feeling quite empassioned, and the people in the full room were knowledgable and positive about my positivity. Robert Sharp mediated us well too. All immensely clever people involved, and great to see friends like Dan Gorman, Sarah Hesketh, Alexandra Buchler amongst new connections I will no doubt benefit from meeting. Also to speak at the British Library is a proud first.

Internet as a creative realm and the decision to be open and positive online. Thanks @stevenjfowler for your ideas at #ITD13 last week!
— Juana Adcock (@jennivora) October 7, 2013

Iain Sinclair's 4th book of Suicide Bridge on 3am

October 3, 2013

Without doubt the highlight of my editorial career at 3ammagazine, and an enormous privilege to publish extracts from the 4th book of Iain Sinclair's legendary Suicide Bridge. http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/iainsinclairbookfour/ Without doubt, if anything ensures my opinion that the post war British avant garde has an ethical, human, social streak running through it, it is my personal experiences with the likes of Will Rowe, Tom Raworth, Anselm Hollo, Iain Sinclair and others.

From the first time I sidled up to him at a lecture in Kings college, having heckled the rest of the panel, from the Balkans, about the turgid lack of experimentation in their works, he has been uniformly kind, supportive and generous. Hard to imagine how practically busy he must be, and having a lifetime of brilliance behind him in poetry, fiction and new genres of writing, it is indicative of the man that always makes time for younger writers, not only in gesture but action. He was one of the only writers who really acknowledged the existence of my debut collection, Red Museum, and his collaboration with Ragnhildur Johanns has spanned my event organising career. Moreover, Suicide Bridge and Lud Heat were direct inspirations to me when I first began reading properly, and when I first came to London. I used the map in the granta book to explore the city in fact, and then found the original publications from the Albion Village press in the Poetry Library. These works are from the books of Suicide Bridge, not published, until now, coming out soon with Skylight press. See below for details and buy a copy.

Rest is Noise festival, Britten weekend - on post-war avant-garde British poetry & BS Johnson, and witnessing Anthony Blee

October 3, 2013

I was especially frightened by these two lectures. The bites format of 15 minutes is as engaging for the audience as it is troubling for the speaker, and these talks would have a fine audience indeed being a part of the Southbank centre's remarkable recapturing of 20th century cultural history through the Rest is Noise festival. Judging how deep to go, or what to cover, becomes a serious issue, and my two talks were on things very close to my heart. I felt a responsibility to do them justice.

The talk on the Avant garde poetry of Britain around the Era of Britten was one of my most gratifying public speaking performances. Not because it was good, but because everyone was saying afterward how the information was new to them and it was easily accessed and understood. And it is important information, to me, that can't be spread wide enough. You can hear it here:

The real highlight of the day was the other speakers though, all genuinely more powerful and clever than I. Diane Silverthorne has inspired me since the first time I saw her speak, I even dedicated a poem to her about Mondrian, and Sophie Mayer is a peer I really admire as a poet and an intellectual. But thank god I asked to switch the original running order just moments before the events began, which I initially was supposed to conclude, because if I hadn't I would've followed the absolutely remarkable Anthony Blee, and fallen quite flat upon myself.

He is an architect, one of the finest our country has produced, and he was speaking about his work on Coventry Cathedral, a world renowned project he began working on at 24 years of age in 1956. I can't express the brilliance, humility and grace of his account of this time in his life. It was genuinely emotional to watch him recount stories of Sir Basil Spence and Yehudi Menuhin, and breathtaking to see this building, this cultural hub, this national pride, grow from his personal slides and memories. To watch a man who has spent a lifetime at the service of a professional artform, and shone so brightly through that life, reduced me to feeling like a very fortunate, very embryonic and very humbled, witness. I had the chance to meet his whole family afterward, who were as gracious and warm as he was, who were unduly kind about my piffling talk, and the experience left me feeling struck in the most organic and valuable of ways. They seemed people truly open, collaborative, kind and able to navigate these very real qualities through their art / practise. This article reflects some of the man, and I'm definitely visiting Coventry cathedral soon. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2012/feb/27/anthony-blee-geoffrey-clarke-coventry-cathedral

For the earlier session, I spoke on BS Johnson, and I refused the lecture format, as he would've liked, I think, and cut up quotes that were relevant and let people pick the order from a box. A lecture in a box. All can be heard here:

Enemies is Inpress book of the month

October 3, 2013

Dear Reader,

As you most likely know, being so discerning and possessing such fine taste in poetry-selling websites, today is National Poetry Day.

This morning we learnt from Valley Press poet Miles Salter that as a nation we spend about £67 million each year on Pringle’s crisps, and only £6.5 million on poetry books. Suitably humbled, we can only hope to slowly begin to redress the balance.

With that in mind, and in honour of the occasion, we're giving you lucky people 25% off all online orders until Sunday if you enter the code NPD2013 at the checkout.

Stuck for ideas on what to buy? Then read on, October is going to be a very good month for new releases...

Book of the Month

SJ Fowler is a poet and artist living in London. He has published four collections of poetry, most recently the limited-edition Recipes, published by Red Ceilings in 2012. He has produced poetry, sonic art, installation and performance artworks for the Tate, the Voiceworks project and the London Sinfonietta. He is the poetry editor of 3:AM Magazine and also works as a martial arts instructor, and as an employee of the British Museum. A lovely lad, by all accounts, I'm sure you'll agree. But it seems even the most altruistic soul rubs up against a few people the wrong way along life's turbulent path. SJ Fowler, we are reliably informed, has enemies.

This ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary collection is the result of collaborations with over thirty artists, photographers and writers. Diary entries mingle with a partially-redacted email exchange; texts slip and fragment, finding new contexts alongside prints, paintings, diagrams, Rorschach blots, YouTube clips and behind-the-scenes photographs at the British Museum. Trust us, it really is as mad as it sounds, in the very best way possible.

Including collaborations with the unrivalled Sam Riviere and the indisputably brilliant Chris McCabe this is a collection of poetry unlike anything you will have ever read before. Iain Sinclair called it, "An overwhelming assault," and we're not about to disagree.

Want to know what on earth it's all about? Well, you can buy it here.

Will Rowe anthology by Veer books

September 30, 2013

To celebrate the reading which celebrates the career of Will Rowe on the eve of his retirement from Birkbeck college and the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, Veer books, of which Will is one of the founders, have published a remarkable anthology of original work dedicated to Will and his achievements. The poets include Bruce Andrews, Allen Fisher, Peter Jaeger, Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Sean Bonney, Maggie O'Sullivan, and many others, and my work, written specifically for Will, found, pictured, below. Go here and email them and buy a copy! http://www.veerbooks.com/

from the Secretum Meum with Tim Atkins in Summerstock issue 7

September 29, 2013

Livestock Editions is pleased as huckleberry pie to announce the release of Summer Stock, Issue 7: UK Poetry Dossier (Available at www.summerstockjournal.com). Curated by Livestock editor Elizabeth Guthrie, this year’s online poetry crop offers exciting explorations & currencies in experimental poetry from the United Kingdom.

Issue 7 features wild woolly bully writing & literary multimedia from these Brit All Stars: Tim Atkins. Sean Bonney. Paul Buck. Becky Cremin. Laura Foster Twigg. Chris Gutkind. Alan Hay. Jeff Hilson. Peter Jaeger. Antony John. Sarah Kelley. David Kelly. Fabian Macpherson. Sophie Mayer. Richard Parker. Jessica Pujol. Nat Raha. Connie Scozzaro. Marcus Slease. Linus Slug. James Wilkes. Steve Willey. & a collaboration between Steven Fowler & Tim Atkins.

We dedicate this year’s issue to the memory of beloved poet/translator/critic/advisor Anselm Hollo, who passed away earlier this year. Anselm’s life of radical outrider poetry is a shining inspiration to all of us at Livestock. We love you and miss you, Anselm.

Enemies reviewed in the Wire

September 28, 2013

In the latest issue, September 2013, review by James Wilkes

licking up the ash of Mary Shelley: EVP Bournemouth

September 28, 2013

A reunion on the south coast for the Electronic voice phenomena tour. In a derelict theatre built by mary shelley's son for her to watch her favourite plays from her specially built god's eye portico dumb waiter while ill and invalided. As part of the Bournemouth arts festival on the very southest of coasts, in Boscombe. An amazing space to perform in, crumbling and mysterious. I was utterly profane, rewriting my whole piece to be about Shelley and Frankenstein. I heard her voice while retching, I told the audience about the new technology and possibilities of galvanism and urged them not to fear death as their favourite body part might be resurrected, I sat in a couch before them while we screened the prologue to the Bride of Frankenstein. I even finished by doing my nut as normal but with the added twist of this time licking her ash, poured from an urn I 'found upstairs', from the stage floor. So good to see the brilliant Hannah Silva, Ross Sutherland and Tom Chivers again and to explore Boscombe beach in meditation before the performance. A privilege to be able to rework my acting chops, spread the avant intensity and travel with performance.

Coin Opera 2

September 23, 2013

http://www.drfulminare.com Allow me to heap enormous praise on Kirsty Irving and Jon Stone for the amazing job they have done with the coin opera 2 anthology. its not only exquisitely produced and really one the best looking books I've held in my hands in awhile but it is also full of really interesting work that has been very specifically tailored to the remit. The intro is also on point and the whole concept is very well fleshed out. Such a privilege to be asked to provide work for it, I love writing to task. I wrote poems on altered beast / donkey Kong / golden axe. really worth looking out for the work of ross sutherland, Harry man, chrissy williams and Hollyhopkins amongst others. they also produced, amazingly, next to the bios, individual video game old school character renditions of each poet that actually resemble them! Here's mine and the whole crew of them.

the poets of 3am magazine under my reign

August 20, 2013

The poets I have published since my editorial stint began at 3am in 2011. It is a strong list. A list I am proud of. Open submissions are hard work but evidently worth the (extensive) effort. What better way to link up with brilliant pets from across the earth that I never would have known otherwise. And what a job those at 3am have done to make the magazine so respected, with such reach and power while still maintaining an intellectual but non pretentious aesthetic. Hard to do, harder to maintain.

JT Welsch http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-hell-creek-anthology/

Ji Young Lee http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pan-door-ah-other-poems/

Jax NTP http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/neurotica-other-poems/

Voldymyr Bilik http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/volodymyr-bilyk/

Matt Cox http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/metropolis-other-poems/

Ben Stainton http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/ben-stainton-short-fish/
Robert Kiely http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/robert-kiely-attempt/
Bruno Neiva http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/bruno-neiva-pastoral/

nick-e melville http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/thought-experiment-31/

Ilenia Madelaire http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-extreme-clarity-of-things/

David Kelly http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/david-kell/
Penny Goringhttp://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/and-you-know-how-they-can-let-you-down-these-people-other-poems/