in Zagreb : September 4th : thanks to Croatian PEN & writers association

SJ FOWLER u ZAGREBU! HRVATSKI P.E.N. CENTAR & CAFE U DVORIŠTU pozivaju Vas u četvrtak, 4. RUJNA U 20 sati na zanimljiv pjesnički doživljaj, čitanje poezije i druženje sa Stevenom J. Fowlerom. 

S engleskim pjesnikom i svestranim umjetnikom iz Londona, jednim od najagilnijih promotora poezije, vizualne umjetnosti i multimedijalnih pjesničkih događanja u Velikoj Britaniji i svijetu, razgovara Tomica Bajsić. Steven J. Fowler je pjesnik, boksač i umjetnik iz Londona. Objavio je šest zbirki poezije i bio više puta nagrađivan za svoj rad. Nastupao je kao umjetnik u galerijama Tate, Mercy, Penned in the Margins i London Sinfonietta. Jedan je od koordinatora LYRIKLINEA, svjetske biblioteke audio i pisane poezije, u kojoj sudjeluje i Hrvatski P.E.N. Centar.

​VIŠE: Blizak modernističkoj i avangardnoj tradiciji SJ Fowler djeluje kroz poeziju, vizualnu umjetnost, instalacije i performanse. Trajno je zaposlen u British Museumu. Organizator je niz kulturnih događanja u londonskom Southbank centru / Poetry Parnassus (http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/poetry-parnassus) Urednik je poezije u glasovitom časopisu 3:AM, (http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/) gdje godinama objavljuje suvremenu poeziju i razgovore s pjesnicima sa svih kontinenata. SJ Fowler voditelj je izuzetno uspješnog projekta međunarodnih pjesničkih susreta i prevoditeljskih radionica pod nazivom ENEMIES  (http://www.weareenemies.com/
Projekt Enemies / Enemigos (Yes But Are We Enemies?) bavi se suradnjom  putem medija, kulture, preko forme, stila i sadržaja, multidisciplinarnim, ali esencijalno povezanim projektom izložbi, putovanja, susreta, nastupa, publikacija, i u tom je inovativnom pristupu suvremenoj poeziji svijeta od 2013. do danas sudjelovalo gotovo 200 pjesnika, umjetnika, fotografa i glazbenika, i to u preko deset gradova i trideset raznovrsnih događaja od Škotske, Irske, Meksika, Irana i Slovačke i Poljske. Internet stranica Stevena J Fowlera: http://www.sjfowlerpoetry.com/.

 DOBRODOŠLI!

U ČETVRTAK, 4. RUJNA U 20h. 
Café u Dvorištu, J. Žerjavića 7/II, Zagreb

Novi Sad Poetry Festival - a diary

Not 100% this actually happened. Not sure how to situate myself fresh off another near week away, this time in Novi Sad, in the north of Serbia. It did happen of course, but bracketed, as these things often are (lots of strangers, together, in a hotel of fading glory, in a place some find exotic, some intimidating etc..) but more so. More so than normal for me, and I often seek these things out, their intensity of exchange and potential for private experience and exploration very attractive to me. I can meet new and interesting poets, people local to the place, retire early each night, write a lot, and feel engaged in quite a profound way. But this trip was somehow more and less intense.

My 4th time in Serbia, and the first for poetry, the first I didnt pay loads to get there etc... and I'm older now. It made a difference somehow. Difficult to convey the subtle change in my perception of a place I was once very enamoured with. Silly of me to make generalisations, but I spent this trip seeking conversations and contact, and made them, and found many to be contradictory or even worrying in places. Moreover, while I had told friends this might be a trip that sits to the Right of my practise, an Old poetry festival, 9 years old (2005 beginning) and so starting just in the midst of a new era of Serbia, perhaps the reality of that being true did take me slightly aback. The grandeur of poetry and those who think themselves grand in that light is quite bearable, more funny for its absurdity than offensive, but still, not a cushion to my proclivities. And I enjoyed hospitality and kindness, but I also experienced a palpable sense of obstinate assuredness and martyrdom from young Serbs I had assumed to be the ideal liberal voices. Yet the whole experience was very joyful, I felt very present in Novi Sad, ate amazingly, ran the length of the Danube, spent a half dozen hours a day in conversation, and as ever a privilege to be invited and to engage with a new place and people, and travel, through the mad irrelevance of what I write.

I was delighted to be there with Mark Waldron, a friend through poetry, but how much do we know these kind people we meet at readings? I got to really know him in Novi Sad, for that alone, all was magical. We shared many meals, many British complaints as gentle shows of affection, many jokes, and wide ranging discussions on many things I don't often speak about. He is as humble as he is brilliant. I also got to meet some extraordinary poets from around the world, Mexico, Poland, Colombia, Denmark, and on. And some of those involved in the festival were hard pressed and lovely, overworked and bright and friendly and hospital. It was a human experience. Novi Sad itself looks beautiful to my eye, more Habsburg than Belgrade, and it was boiling hot. And I got to walk the banks of the Danube in yet another city. I climbed the hills to the fortress, perused the communist museum, rambled into the suburbs and housing estates. 

We read in a public square, under a massive chinese arch, to mixed audience, public and poets, small and large. I tried to entertain during my reading, but only between the normal miserablist / disjunctive poetry. It was gently, quietly received. On the final night, Mark read and then we were shuffled to the national Serbian slam championships, and I was slowly tortured before reading myself and deadening the crowd with my lack of emotion. It was a firm summation of the whole experience of the festival, a place too full of nostalgia that can't help but pass some of that onto you, and that's a vivid emotional experience, even if its one I often resist.

Interview with the Double Negative magazine

Kind of a weird one... http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2014/08/the-glitch-interview-s-j-fowler/

The Glitch Interview: S. J. Fowler

C James Fagan throws the rule book out of the window for his interview with Syndrome’s latest resident artist, poet, performer, and muse, S. J. Fowler…

Syndrome is an event; it is a place where poetics, technology and movement meet. Tonight, Syndrome Sessions 2.1: CHOROS opens; the latest in a series of interactive installations, held, as always, at the micro Victorian warehouse 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool.

But what does CHOROS mean? The closest Google can get is that choro is a ‘little cry’; Syndrome tells us that it is an environment created by Jamie Glendhill and Stefan Kazassoglou where bodily movements will be recorded and reproduced into electronic echoes.

“Into this space steps S. J. Fowler: poet, performer, master of the martial arts…It is, in his own words, “one of the most innovative and intensive pieces of performance art that I’ve ever undertaken”

If that weren’t enough, into this space steps S. J. Fowler: poet, performer, master of the martial arts. Who’ll be using CHOROS as a boxing ring, to perform a element of The Book Five Rings: a piece regarding the sport of western shadow boxing. Making the space his sparring partner, his pugilistic antagonist. The Ivan Drago to his Rocky. It is, in his own words, “one of the most innovative and intensive pieces of performance art that I’ve ever undertaken.”

Before he gets punch drunk, I approached S. J. Fowler to conduct a pre-match interview, in the style that Syndrome is most accustomed: glitch. That slippery art of electrical tomfoolery. These questions are taken randomly from other interviews, found exams, questionnaires, and personality tests.

What sound or noise do you love?

The word Osu. A Japanese word that means a lot of good things at once.

Spontaneity or stability?

Stability.

What do you prefer: Giving or Receiving?

Receiving.

If you were Santa Claus…

… I’d change the last answer.

Constants are changing.

Paradox.

Are there other ways to treat my condition?

Need more information. But yes, probably. Eat better, exercise, first port of call.

“‘Who are you and why?’ I don’t ever want to be able to answer that question”

What are your weaknesses?

I’m actively trying to seek them and work on them, but I must recognise they are perpetual and improving; one will create another. So whatever I give will be temporary. At the moment I still retain a quick temper based on a prideful and unnecessary sensitivity to rudeness and lack of perspective in other people.

Hay Xalapa lineup announced

http://www.hayfestival.com/xalapa/ Yes they've led with Salman Rushdie but I'm definitely in there, you just need to look closer, beneath the gloss of the first page, deep into the meat of the program. http://www.hayfestival.com/xalapa/downloads/
HayFestivalXalapa_Programa2014.pdf I read on October 3rd and 4th in Xalapa, mexico. Good times, only artist 6430 http://www.hayfestival.com/artist.aspx?artistid=6430

MOPHA : Sept 28th : Rich Mix theatre

I could not be more excited for the first MOPHA performance this September 28th at the Rich Mix Arts Centre Theatre http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/mopha/ Tickets available now.

"How would you describe the space around a horse? Or lift a watermelon with your voice? This experimental variety show is the result of 6 artists and poets approaching the edges of language through miniature plays, live sound effects, language games and improvisation. Expect bad jokes, fractured speech, aberrant theatre and words under pressure.

Mopha is an art-performance-poetry collective formed by Holly Pester, Patrick Coyle, Emma Bennett, SJ Fowler, James Wilkes and Tamarin Norwood. Mopha pools and mutates the live practices of six adept performers with backgrounds in poetry, sound art, live art and sculpture to create collaborative, site-responsive performances."

I have no predisposition to the romantic notion of working in a collective. But this has happened because of a really specific set of reasons. The timing, the cross pollination of practise, and my own desire to spend more time collaborating with these five genuinely iconoclastic artists, has made the whole MOPHA such a source of joy. Having the chance to work as a collective has been a privilege of mine for over the last year or so, and so much of that time has really just been about the exchange of ideas, and taking in what others have so beautifully perfected. This show will be a chance to test out something unique, a true multiplicity of collaboration, that overlaps in its form and performance as with its creation. And it'll be funny, and strange. & unresolved. & unique. & worth watching.

performing for Syndrome : staying in Liverpool

I had the chance to spend a near week in Liverpool developing a new piece for Nathan Jones intensely ambitious, Syndrome project {http://www.mercyonline.co.uk/who-we-are/what-we-are-up-to/article/introducing-syndrome}. I got to stay in Toxteth, near where a fair bit of my family is from, though I've never lived there, walk into the city everyday, actually take time to develop the work for a performance, always with the knowledge it may very well grow into something bigger in the future. It's the 4th visit to Liverpool I've made in the last few years to work with Nathan, each time in a different venue with a different work for a different program - EVP, the Biennial, Liverpool music week and Syndrome. http://www.syn-dro.me/

I found the city to be an inspiring place to visit, perhaps precisely because it isn't my home and in visiting I was able to really enjoy that which London doesn't have. Space, in human terms as much as anything, and a different energy to the art and the artists, one that is more communal I'd side, closer, more hands on. It is a thriving place to visit, a lot of ideas concentrated together. And the city itself was beautiful, the people pleasant and more muted than I'd remembered. If you've time there, it is easily filled, and I got to catch up with friends from the north west like Tom Jenks and the like. That richness, in human terms, was somewhat complimented by the stark reality of the beautiful surroundings of Toxteth that were fringed with so many abandoned properties. A great wealth or dearth that seems unreal when struggling to find space in London.

The work I produced, {http://www.syn-dro.me/portfolio/syndrome-2-1-choros/} the video of which will be available soon, is perhaps the most impactful martial arts based piece of performance art I've done, but feels so much owed to Nathan and Stefan and Jamie, those collaborators of mine, that I've yet to feel I own it. More I am part of it, I wore it. But always in our minds was the possibility of doing it again, and I have ambitions to create a program of performances and publications of my own that further my exploration of martial arts. This could be a breakthrough work in that regard.

And to Nathan's focus and erudition, and hospitality, again I am left feeling very proud to work with him so often and to be part of the impact he is having in a place that really needs him, not because of a lack, but because of the precise opposite - because of potential. Nathan is unflappable and driven and considerate at the same time, such rare qualities, and he's definitely a peer I draw much from.  http://alittlenathan.co.uk/

Marginalia: an anthology for a decade of Penned in the Margins

Really happy to be featured in the Penned in the Margins ten year anniversary anthology. An amazing achievement for Tom Chivers and the team, and an organisation I'm very proud to have worked with so often. My collaboration with Sam Riviere, from Enemies http://www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk/index.php/2013/09/enemies-2/ features in the volume.

Christodoulos Makris' article on contemporary Irish avant garde poetry

http://jacket2.org/article/monoculture-beer-no-more a few excerpts of a brilliant and timely article

a criticism of performance poetry everywhere is that it suffers from an anti-intellectualist attitude, which leaves the work rooted in the safe realm of the populist. Another is that it places too much emphasis on identity writing with an over-reliance on flourish or a clearly defined, easy-to-follow narrative. Essentially, on manipulating its audience into assent. These are fair criticisms to extend to the Irish spoken word scene. In general, an easily identifiable agenda surrounds the performance poem in Ireland. It brooks no uncertainties regarding its ideological position. In its eagerness to become understood and accepted at once, it eschews nonlinearity or complexity and aims to flatten experience into a series of cause and effect connections. A sense of interrogation taking place in the process of composition is lost through its collapse into a single dimension.

*  With concrete or visual, sound, and, especially, forms of poetry that make use of conceptual writing strategies having remained stubbornly rare in Ireland, it’s mystifying how little attention has been paid to poets who have at one time or another adopted them. Evidence that, when prompted, writers here would be keen to engage more with experimental writing processes was seen during the UpStart collective’s poster campaign in the run-up to the February 2011 general election. Many of the text-based material erected then among the party political posters were clear examples of concrete or conceptual poetry. Context and medium were crucial; these were understood, by their authors and readers/viewers, as forms of slogans, with questions of politics, protest, public art, and temporariness vital to their acceptance as poetry.

Why I am excited for Yes But Are We Enemies? an outside view of Irish poetry

I've had the great fortune to travel during my life, and recently (perversely) often through poetry. Yet, I've never been outside of Dublin in Ireland, never been outside of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Moreover, when I've spent time in Manchester and Edinburgh, and made public my admiration for the depth and consideration of the poetry scene in both those places, centred on, but not exclusive to, the Other Room and Caesura, so those local to the place have expressed surprise that I should feel that way so vehemently. What was most often said of the Auld Enemies grand show success at Summerhall in Edinburgh just last month was that only an outsider could've had a hand in such an event coming together. So my being an outsider to Ireland has allowed me to watch, over the last year or two, a distinct and decisive blossoming of extraordinary writers, poets, editors and curators coming out of those nations. It is too frequent that a poet of quality, that I will then go on to watch for, to invite, to follow, will come out of the Irish nations, that it might be an accident. 

Darran Anderson was my predecessor at 3am magazine, to him I owe the job of poetry editor there, and much more besides. His writing, and the clear energy of literary impetus is extraordinary. http://darrananderson.com/ Susan Tomaselli has been doing for me, for my repute as it were, what often poets long for and few get, actual consideration and unexpected support. Her work with Gorse is nothing but a revelation, it is a singular project, and a magazine I will submit to for every issue, fail and or succeed. http://gorse.ie/ Michael Shank's Bohemyth is another extraordinary publication, genuinely marked out from its peers by its intensity and width, and the editorial care that Michael selflessly throws into it. http://thebohemyth.com/ Colony is an outstanding publication too, edited by a team that includes Kim Campanello, Dave Lordan, Anamaria Crowe Serrano and Rob Doyle, all of them authors whose work represents the quality of the magazine. http://www.colony.ie/ Kim herself represents the depth of connection to Ireland that currently resides in London, and has informed and expanded, palpably, the scene I am actively a part of. Pascal O'Loughlin, Robert Kiely, Stephen Mooney, Sarah Kelly, Becky Cremin, Philip Terry ... all hold Irish passports of one kind or another, all are brilliant, and perhaps united, by being profoundly underappreciated. I'll say nothing of whether the famous Irish poets of the last half century have strangled any appreciation for just how inventive and truly Avant Garde Irish poetry is and has been, as I'm not Irish and I don't know enough. What I do know, with absolutely certainty, these poets, above and below, are extraordinary, and aren't considered so by more than a few hundred people. If this project makes it a thousand (or two), then I'll sleep better.

& Rob Doyle, whose book sits on my shelf, recently catapulted quite deservedly (and all the more rarely for that fact) into a literary exposure I could not have been more pleased to watch happen http://robdoyle.net/ There's Aodan McCardle, who I saw perform in London before I published a poem, who leaves behind him here, while making similarly important work in Ireland, a legacy that generations will remember in Veer press. There's James Cummins, who I saw storm up Prague this May. There's Stephen Connolly, who I've had the pleasure to publish and invite to read in London, who is markedly, no matter where he might be from, one of the more generous and intelligent younger poets working today. There's Damian Smyth, a more open and supportive curator I have yet to come across from the distance I have been lucky enough to know him so far. There are these names, and so many more, whom I have read and whom I have the pleasure and privilege of meeting in the latter half of September - Kit Fryatt, Cal Doyle, Eleanor Hooker, Ailbhe Hines, Doireann Ni Ghriofa, James King, and many others,  please search them out, you will be better for doing so. 

I will not yet write about my co-tourees, Sam Riviere, an old friend who lives in Belfast, Ailbhe Darcy, Billy Ramsell, Patrick Coyle, as I will have plenty of time to do so during my tour diaries and this is about what is in front of me, that which is happening in Ireland now. But I will finish by speaking of Christodoulos Makris, someone who I'm very proud to say has become a friend since I interviewed him for my Maintenant series a fair few years ago now. I could not have found a better and more responsible and generous co-curator and collaborator for this project. He has managed to be so many things at once, in his work and in his person, humorous and warm, yet dignified and serious, experimental and innovative, and yet never trenchant or posturing, Irish and Cypriot, and yet neither / both of these. His recent work is up on 3am http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/chances-are/ Have a look at 'Chances are' and the poetry of it speaks up itself. 

This is the right time to be exploring Ireland, and not just through poetry, but through collaboration in poetry, something that forces creative sociality, friendships, communication and bonds, made face to facem that I hope, being relatively young in my life, will last many decades into the future

my bio in Serbian

С.Џ. Фаулер(1983), савремени је авангардни енглески песник и уметник. Рођен је у Труроу, Корвнолу, и студирао је на Универзитетима у Дурхаму и Лондону (Беркбек колеџ). Објавио је шест збирки песама, од укупно двадесет и једне публикације, међу којима су књиге у кутијама, песнички памфлети и постери. У свом представи значајне европске песнике и филозофе 21. века. Од 2011. главни је уредник Лириклајна за Британију и часописа 3АМ. Збирке поезије: Ротвајлеров водич за власнике паса (2014), Непријатељи: избране сарадње С. Џ. Фаулера (2013), Рецепти (2012), Зубар у затвору минималног обезбеђења (2011), Борбе (2011), Црвени музеј (2011). Живи у Лондону. * стваралаштву бави се асемантичком, конкретном и звучном поезијом, соничком уметношћу, инсталацијама, перформансом, визуелним уметностима и прозом. Примио је наруџбине од Тејта, Мерсија, Укљештених на маргини, Лондонске синфониете, Војсворкс пројекта и Ливерпулског бијенала. Његова дела су преведена на тринаест језика, наступао је на бројним манифестацијама широм света, укључујући и Вигморску салу, Рич микс арт центар, Салу св. Џорџа, Модерни торањ, Сејџ, Лабораторио арте алмаеду (Мексико сити) и Арс поетику (Братислава). Предавао је у Саутбенк центру, Школи песништва бербечког колеџа, Колеџу св. Мартина и Британској библиотеци. Куратор је пројекта Непријатељи, покренутог 2013. године, у оквиру кога ради на оригиналним заједничким перформансима, сарадњи међу сликарима, фотографима, вајарима и другим ствараоцима. У намери да развије могућности сарадње и писану реч, овај пројекат јеукључио преко две стотине стваралаца и добио нагрaде од Уметничког савета Енглеске, Џервудске фондације, Британског савета и Креативне Шкотске. За часопис 3АМ 2010. године почео је серију интервјуа "Одржавање" која до данас има око 99 наставака, у намери да енглеској публици и песницима

Cabaret Hrabal from the Horse Hospital

performing the striking of light & sound for Syndrome: Liverpool

http://www.syn-dro.me/syndrome-2-1-choros-21st-24th-august/ Such a privilege to work with Nathan Jones again on his remarkable Syndrome project in Liverpool, and creating a piece of work which will be one of the most innovative and intensive pieces of performance art that I've ever undertaken. Again it calls back to my martial arts practise, but this time, in collaboration with two remarkable technologists, the performance of shadow boxing, or kata, is in a light and sound receptive cell, a space in which every move I undertake is responded to, not only in colour and light, but in sound, both specific to the space into which I move and to the depth also. It is complex, better seen than explained, and I'm lucky to have a small residency with Syndrome with which to develop it before the big performance on Thursday August 21st, at 5.30pm at Kitchen 24. 

Syndrome 2.1: Choros // 21st – 24th AUGUST

A room-as-instrument devised by artist Jamie Gledhill with sound artist Stefan Kazassoglou, using an array of computers attached to X-box Kinect devices. This project brings together popularly available motion capture technology with 3D audio set up into a unique experiential and performative artwork.

The work will allow for the dynamics and speed of a users movement within the space form a live illustrative mapping on the walls, and for sound to be literally ‘thrown’ across the 3D space by a performer – and members of the public as active participators in their own performative moment with the work.

The CHOROS installation will be open for playing and viewing from 10 – 4pm on 22nd – 24th August. Entering the space, the movements of your limbs will be traced by light and sound across a 3D axis using projections and an ambisonic speaker array. Entry is free for all, and suitable for all ages.

A launch event will feature a brand new movement work by SJ Fowler in which he explores the ritual and violence of martial arts:

The Book of Five Rings by SJ FOWLER
The Book of Five Rings is an unforgettable exploration of physicality and martial spirituality through cutting edge avant garde theatre and performance. And while each Ring will be decidedly different, each a unique, responsive production to its subject, as a whole, they will form an unforgettable tale of a universal human expression, battle without violence, war without war.

no. 1: Pugilistica UK / US (western boxing)
A conceptual performance exploring the sport of Boxing. SJ Fowler takes the audience through a boxing workout with a different, shadow boxing with a complex, cutting edge technological rig, so that each movement has a responsive light and sound reaction. An exhausting, explosive performance of light and sound

The work will then be available to view from 21st – 24th August.
Booking recommended and encouraged for groups.

the 9th international Novi Sad literature festival

Revolve:R exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland

I'm a very small part of this group exhibition in Switzerland http://www.choisi.info/eventi.php#27 with some poetry of mine included in the remarkable Revolve:R collaborative project led by Ricarda Vidal and Sam Treadaway. 

"Focus: “Revolve:R”
Revolve:R is a project in visual correspondence, by Sam Treadaway and Ricarda Vidal, in collaboration with a number of international artists, writers, and curators.
Revolve:R culminates in the publication of hand-made limited edition bookworks and giclée prints.
The project explores the possibilities of an exchange of ideas via a visual and tactile, rather than virtual, form of communication. Each cycle of the project we call a Revolve. After six Revolves the work is published as a limited edition bookwork.

Edition one, inspired by chaos theory, was initiated in late 2011 and published in 2013. The second edition will be published in early 2015.

Edition Two. Works by: Alastair Whitton, Ricarda Vidal, Linnea Vedder, Sam Treadaway, Kate Street, Clare Thornton, Emily Speed, Solveig Settemsdal, Matt Rowe, James Rigler, Bernd Reichert, Domingo Martínez, John Matthias, Anna Mace, Antun Maračić, Julie McCaldon, Sharon Kivland, Hayden Kays, Alice Hendy, Verena Hägler, Patrick Galway, Steven Fowler, Stephanie Douet, Todd DiCiurcio, Emma Cocker, Anna Cady, Oscar Bandtlow, Diana Ali, plus special guests."

Yes But Are We Enemies? an Irish Enemies project

6 locales : over 30 poets : a national tour of Ireland

& brand new innovative poetic collaborations : an Irish Enemies project

http://weareenemies.com/yesbutareweenemies.html

I’m very happy to announce Yes But Are We Enemies? an Irish Enemies project. Beginning on September 18^th in Belfast and visiting Derry, Galway, Cork, Dublin and finishing in London on September 27^th, YBAWE is a multinational project about collaboration and innovation in contemporary poetry.

Six core poets, 3 Irish, 3 English, will present new collaborative works across the six date tour. At each reading they will be joined by numerous pairs of locally based poets. Every event features never before seen collaborative works.

Yes But Are We Enemies, co-curated by Christodoulos Makris, is fundamentally about the creation of new collaborative works and the integration of differing poetic communities, and has only been possible through the generosity of a series of organisational partners, first and foremost The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, through their Touring and Dissemination of Work scheme.

Please find below the schedule and the poet's involved, and if possible, do spread the word, and attend all and any of the events you can. ALL EVENTS ARE FREE:

Thu 18 September, 8pm: Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast

http://www.crescentarts.org/

Stephen Connolly & Stephen Sexton

Manuela Moser & Padraig Regan

Sophie Collins & Robert Maclean

Caitlin Newby & Andy Eaton

Tom Saunders & Lorcan Mullen

Christodoulos Makris & Sam Riviere

Billy Ramsell & SJ Fowler

Ailbhe Darcy & Patrick Coyle

Fri 19 September, 8pm: Verbal Arts Centre, Derry

http://theverbal.co/

Aodán McCardle & Ailbhe Hines

James King & Ellen Factor

Christodoulos Makris & Patrick Coyle

Billy Ramsell & Sam Riviere

Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler

Sophie Collins & Robert Maclean

Sun 21 September, 8pm: Galway Arts Centre, Galway

http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/

Elaine Cosgrove & Anamaría Crowe Serrano

Elaine Feeney & Kevin Higgins

Eleanor Hooker & Sarah Hesketh

Christodoulos Makris & SJ Fowler

Billy Ramsell & Patrick Coyle

Ailbhe Darcy & Sam Riviere

Tue 23 September, 8pm: Triskel Arts Cenre, Cork

http://triskelartscentre.ie/events/2795/yes-but-are-we-enemies-english-and-irish-poets-having-words/

Christodoulos Makris & Sam Riviere

Billy Ramsell & Patrick Coyle

Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler

Sarah Hayden & Rachel Warriner

David Toms & James Cummins

Doireann Ni Ghriofa & Cal Doyle

Paul Casey & Afric McGlinchey

Sarah Hesketh & TBA

Thu 25 September, 7pm: Irish Writers' Centre, Dublin

http://www.writerscentre.ie/html/events/atthecentre.html

A discussion moderated by Susan Tomaselli

Christodoulos Makris & Patrick Coyle

Billy Ramsell & SJ Fowler

Ailbhe Darcy & Sam Riviere

Rob Doyle & Dave Lordan

Michael Naghten Shanks & Cal Doyle

John Kearns & Kit Fryatt

Anamaría Crowe Serrano & Alan Jude Moore

Sat 27 September, 7pm: Rich Mix Arts Centre, London

http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-enemies-project-irish-poetry-yes-but-are-we-enemies/

Christodoulos Makris & SJ Fowler

Billy Ramsell & Sam Riviere

Ailbhe Darcy & Patrick Coyle

Kimberly Campanello & Kit Fryatt

Pascal O’Loughlin & Marcus Slease

Robert Kiely & Sarah Kelly

Becky Cremin & Stephen Mooney

Sophie Collins & Livia Franchini

+ Philip Terry, Sarah Hesketh & more

Yes But Are We Enemies? follows Auld Enemies, Fjender and Wrogowie as international Enemies projects in 2014, and will be followed in 2015 with a another series of similarly innovative projects outside of the UK.

http://yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.co.uk/

www.weareenemies.com supported by Arts Council England.

International Translation Day - September 26th at the British Library

International Translation Day 2014 at The British Library Friday 26 September

Had a grand time leading a session with Ricarda Vidal from Translation Games and chatting about Enemies for the second year running at the ITD. Some brilliant speakers and I was happy to be commissioned to present a new piece on how collaboration might engage with the notion of traditional literary translation. http://translationgames.net/?page_id=192

la dominate: a collaboration with Ariadne Radi Cor on Cordite

the last of the five collaborations published as part of my feature for Cordite magazine, this work with Ariadne Radi Cor came about from our time together in Venice as part of the Crossing Voices project. She is an incredible artist and filmmaker - a live writer, a calligrapher, a poet. Her speed and tone are very complimentary to my own in their difference and singularity. Im so glad our creative relationship has continued on into this year, and this work, to be published in its full form for an anthology about Crossing Voices is a true collaboration, with a suite of my poems written for the task having been rendered beautiful by Ari's talents. http://cordite.org.au/poetry/collaboration/la-dominate/

Poets recently published on 3am magazine

The editorial duties at 3am remain something I am very privileged to have, very proud I am to be associated with the magazine. That being said, as I've always said, the thing is tempered by reality. 30 subs a day on average, many of which are resolutely in their derivation. Yet, though I have slowed in my responding to them, it is worth it when I claw out some genuine brilliance from people from all over the world. Here are the recent few: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/index/poetry/

Christodoulos Makris - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/chances-are/
Nikki Lee Birdsey - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/nikkilee-birdsey/
Steve Komarnyckyj - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/steve-komarnyckyj/
Alex MacDonald - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/alex-macdonald-everything-is-fine/
Lauren Hilger - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/lauren-hilger/
Daisy Lafarge - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/daisy-lafarge/
Prudence Chamberlain - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/steubenville-other-poems/
Alison Gibb - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/alison-gibb/
Andy Spragg - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/andy-spragg/

Samurai: a collaboration with Andy Spragg on Cordite

I'm really excited to be writing an extended work with Andy Spragg. He's one of the most underrated contemporary British poets in my opinion, his work full of rapidity and intensity and complexity. Much to his credit, as is his prolificism. We are writing a book about lordless Samurai, Ronin, or something like that that isn't that 
http://cordite.org.au/poetry/collaboration/samurai/

Miyata encounters the 15 vexations
1. the persistence of the stain after the fact
2. abandoned in the face of an undefined duty
3. loosed footing amongst the chatter.
4. Presently, the earth offers no cloistered respite,

collaborations with David Berridge & Tom Jenks on Cordite

Both these works are about to emerge in their entirety with Knives forks and spoons press, and really kick off the Enemies series, a selection of my collaborative works published as stand alone books in their full form. // http://cordite.org.au/poetry/collaboration/40-feet/ David Berridge and I wrote 40 feet, made of 40 poems over a year ago now, and it stands to me as a very specific representation of a time, and a city, before David migrated south.

now everything’s big, everybody’s mother
is bluer than blue, whiter than white
privileged as a dip in the car thief fame and muscling up
for money
sounds like a good deal to me
when I’ve become wealthy
I’m bound to be calmest
said a Giant, currently fashionable
if the screaming doesn’t end by sunday we’ll call a doctor, said the elephant

http://cordite.org.au/poetry/collaboration/1000-proverbs/ Tom Jenks and I took an unknown amount of time to write 1000 proverbs, and an unknown amount of wisdom. All of his are very very funny. 

Better an egg today than an egg nog tomorrow.
Better Butlin’s than a Russian prison. Better a scarf in Skegness than rubber gloves in Minehead.
Better a wrestler in the vale than in Bognor Regis.
Better a bugger in Bognor than a penis in Penistone.