LitfestThis year, Valentine’s Day stretched into a weekend. So Litfest responded accordingly, by stretching the normal 12 point font into something a little larger, printing poems from North West based poets up on the walls of the NICE bar here in The Storey Creative Industries Centre.
This is what some of them look like:
Apologies, if you can’t read them properly, I took the pics on my phone. Although it’s also a cunning ploy since if you’d like to read them, you’ll just have to come over…
We’ve just taken delivery of copies of the first ever issue of Cake, the new poetry magazine that describes itself as Lancaster Literary Magazine. It has risen from the oven that is Lancaster University, edited by two of its undergraduate students, Andrew McMilland and Martha Sprackland, with Professor Paul Farley as associate editor.
Although the poems and reviews inside come from further that the university campus, combining familiar names (Woolworths by George Szirtes opens the magazine) with ones I hadn’t come cross before. It is perhaps fitting to the ambition of the magazine (cited in the impassioned editorial) the magazine closes with Amy Blakemore, also to be found in Bloodaxe’s Voice Recognition, celebrating new poetic voices for the 21st century.
It’s half four on a Friday. It arrived an hour or so ago. I’ve found a swooping variety of celebration, regret, unease and play in the few poems I’ve read. I like it.
Apparently the editors have ambitions for the magazine’s production values, so I can only see it going from strength to strength and we’re proud to be stocking the first I hope of many.
If you’re curious, then come down to the Poetry Bookcase and have a leaf …
Earlier this year it was announced that the Lancaster poet and writing teacher Elizabeth Burns won the first Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets for her collection, The Shortest Days.
The £5,000 prize was set up to highlight how effective pamphlets – defined in this case as a booklet of up to 36 pages – can be in introducing new poetry to readers. The Shortest days may only be 12 pages long, but was praised by the judges for it’s use of “a limited, light palette, which creates special, lyrical effects, particularly with her use of snow, and the colour white… this is gradually layered across the book, and all the judges felt that the play of light over the whole book was really very moving. It combines skill and direct engagement with the reader.”
“The Shortest Days” is published by Galdragon Press. The initial print run has already sold out, and the pamphlet is currently listed as being out of print, but luckily the Poetry Bookcase has copies still available. Act quick to get your copy.
Guest Post by Jane Routh and Mike Barlow
When Andy Darby, Litfest’s Director, first asked for suggestions we drew up a long list – poets whose work we admire but haven’t heard read; poets we’ve heard read once or twice and wish were better known so more people could enjoy their work; or poets who are already well-known but haven’t come to Litfest before. And then, as we studied the list, certain names seemed to fall into pairs quite naturally.
To begin with there are the Irish. John McAuliffe’s first collection A Better Life (Gallery Press) had been shortlisted for a Forward prize in 2004. It’s highly rated by August Kleinzhaler, no less. There’s a facility and music on the page that makes us want to hear him. We’d heard Jim Caruth reading from his first collection A Stone’s Throw (Staple First Editions) a couple of years ago. The economy and directness of his writing is very moving, and his voice gives it all an understated and particular music. He’s from Ulster, while John’s from Eire but both live in England – another thing that made them a natural pairing.
Luke Kennard’s first small collection, The Solex Brothers (Stride), introduced a fresh, offbeat and surreal voice. With The Harbour Beyond the Movie (Salt) he became the youngest writer ever to have been shortlisted for the Forward prize. Hearing him read, his work became even funnier and richer in its unpredictable imagery. David Grubb’s writing seems to complement this with its fluency and pace and idiosyncratic syntax. While both take a slant view of life and events, David’s is a serious world seriously addressed in matters of family, faith and his experiences working in conflict zones throughout the world. He’s written many collections – the latest, The Man Who Spoke to Owls (Shearsman) – all of which carry an emotional punch as powerful as Luke Kennard’s surprises and belly laughs.
Paula Jennings’s poetry is carefully crafted, passionate and often brave. Her first collection Singing Lucifer (Onlywomen Press) sold out in the first print run. Last year Happenstance published From The Body of the Green Girl. She writes with compassion about people and relationships and a strong and individual spirituality comes through. Ann Sansom has two full collections from Bloodaxe, Romance and In Praise of Men and Other People. She also writes powerfully of people and relationships, but hers is a more complex and ambiguous world rendered in rhythmic and graphic language.
Since James Lasdun’s here as a short story writer, it’s a brilliant opportunity to hear his poetry too. Born in England, he now lives in New York and his finely crafted collection Landscape with Chainsaw (Cape) deals with identity and belonging and the everyday realities of making a home in strange territory. Michael Laskey, well known as poet, facilitator, editor and founder of Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, has a recent New and Selected, The Man Alone (Smiths Doorstop). He too writes about home, the everyday, the domestic with a perceptive and sympathetic eye and ear. We’re hoping that two skilled English poets from different sides of the Atlantic on the same stage will prove a serendipitous occasion.
Wet outside, dry inside. Tuesday night’s early doors at the festival was an informal event of poets Joe Harding, Judy Sowter, David Borrott, Philip Burton and Teresa Robson from the Pennine Stanza group.
No big names meant a small audience but that didn’t affect the quality. In fact it probably heightened the quality of listening. There was a papable intensity to the readings – on the theme of family.
What I love about events such as these is the diversity of voice, the clash and counterpoint of tone and relationship to the poem. So we had strict forms rubbing up against free verse, narrative alongside imagist poetry and comic with tragic.
Each poet read for five minutes, a pattern that rolled round twice and then ended with a haiku from each – a lovely simple structure to the evening that kept me attending to the variety within the group.
I look forward to hearing or reading more from these poets in the future
I was a little nervous about the launch last week, given that it was following the wonderful launch of Unsaid Undone at Carnforth train station, which was a lovely relaxed affair in the gorgeous tea rooms.
However, I needn’t have been. With Harrogate Brass Band (not in person, sadly) setting the proceedings off, we (or at least I was and hope others) were propelled into a space of strength, melancholy and uplift.
Which is exactly the kind of resonance the poems within The Crowd Without also have. All the poets gave highly personalised readings of their work, which emphasised the distinctions between their work.
From the lyric narratives of Segun Lee-French, via the exhuberent celebrations of nature of Polly Atkin, the quieter rhythmic observations of Ruth Allen, the sobering commentry on mental health from Chris Culshaw, the unsettlingly sad humour of Andrew McMillan we ended the evening with the askew world of childhood as seen by Jennifer Copley.
Coo, what a lot of adjectives.
The auditorium was also a star worth mentioning – it manged to provide a warm, informal space for the poets to project their work, and to chat with the audience. It was the first evening we’d had use of the bar and (despite my freezing the white wine) people clearly enjoyed the sliding between the two spaces during the interval, giving a sense of expanse and digestion for the poems we were told.
And with it being the last event/anthology with Martin Chester in situ as designer for Flax, I’m glad it went off so well and was a fine showcase for his brilliant work.
The Crowd Without, Flax018, our most recent digital anthology, is now live and ready for download. http://tinyurl.com/mz7uo5
Packed with delicately written poetry, this anthology features new work by poets from around the North West, including Segun Lee-French, Polly Atkin, Ruth Allen, Chris Culshaw, Andrew McMillan and Jennifer Copley.
And it features a lovely bison on the cover, doesn’t get better than that.
Unless, you happen to be in or near Lancaster tonight at 7.30, in which case you can see the the lovely writers reading their work live, at the Auditorium at the Storey (formerly the Storey Institute). See you there.
cover for flax018
If you were having a great night with the SixPoets last night then you’ll definately want to watch again the brilliant programme Griff Rhys Jones hosted on Why Poetry Matters
And if you weren’t there, and aren’t a passionate reader of poetry, I’d recommend it for its enthusiastic, straightforward exploration of the range and value of poetry. And for the soundtrack – The Stranglers, The Smiths?
Oh, yes, poetry is such a broad church the sky’s its roof
Mai Cheng has had to cancel his trip to the Uk and will be unable to come and share his work. It’s always disappointing when this happens, but I’m very pleased to announce that the The Long Walk Chinese Ensemble will take part in the event setting the scene for what I’m sure will be a fascinating evening.
The Long Walk ensemble arose as part of More Music’s musical response to the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy of 2004.
Working in partnership with Lancaster and Morecambe Bay Chinese Community Association, More Music raised funding to purchase a set of traditional Chinese instruments from Beijing, and then to train a group of local musicians to play them. The Chinese Ensemble now meets weekly to play traditional Chinese music, and has also started weekly sessions to teach local Chinese children to play traditional Chinese instruments.
The Ensemble features:
Diane Mott – Erhu (2 string violin) and Zhong Ruan (moon guitar)
James Wood – Liuqin (small lute) and Zhong Ruan (moon guitar)
Phil Keen – Erhu (2 string violin)
Catherine Goss – Dizi (flute), Guzheng (harp)
Rick Middleton – Pipa (lute) and Da Ruan (bass moon guitar)
A big thanks to Ben McCabe for making arrangements for the ensemble to be part of the event.
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