It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that SJ Fowler has charged the poetry scene in London (and elsewhere) with a fresh vitality. Since he entered the ring of writing, editing and, particularly, event-organising some years ago, the diverse factions that poetry habitually splinters into seem to have converged that little bit. The scene(s) have brightened that little bit. It's probably for his relentless curatorial efforts that he is known best - for Steven a worthy and totally valid way to grapple with poetry. The byproduct being that he has created fertile ground for those working under the umbrella of avant-garde and literary writing to begin conversing anew. His poetics, residing squarely in the avant-garde, are not altogether distinct from his role as event organiser. Enemies , his recently-published book from Penned In The Margins, which collects extracts from his numerous collaborations, is a comprehensive statement on his perspective on writing. Benefit...
Great Poets Steal: a collaborative writing workshop with Christodoulos Makris Blanchardstown Library, Dublin 15 2pm, Saturday 20 April 2013 "The act of choosing and reframing tells us as much about ourselves as a story about our mother’s cancer operation" - Kenneth Goldsmith , 'Uncreative Writing' Its concept stolen from Steven Fowler's Patchwork Renga workshop conducted at the Poetry Library in London last June, and its title from the famous (mis)quote attributed to TS Eliot, this collaborative writing workshop aims to exercise the faculties of selecting and connecting text. My intention is to encourage a lively environment in which participants will work together towards composing a series of poems out of material 'borrowed' from the shelves of Blanchardstown Library. (In the first part all participants will go hunting among the library shelves and steal lines of their choice out of books of their choice from predetermined sections of the libr...
The second issue of gorse , a wonderful print journal of literature edited in Dublin by Susan Tomaselli, was published last week and includes a new long poem of mine. gorse publishes high quality work in the form of essays, fiction, interviews, poetry, variations of these and much else. It's distinguished by top production values with beautiful cover art, extended knowledge of and interest in a diversity of writing traditions and movements, an experimentalist thrust, cosmopolitanism and wit combined with seriousness of attention, and an interrogative outlook - a confluence of dimensions generally lacking from other Ireland-based journals. Issue 2 also includes work by Claire-Louise Bennett, Matthew Jakubowski, Rob Doyle, Colm O'Shea, SJ Fowler, Dylan Brennan and Lies Van Gasse among others. My poem has title 'Civilisation's Golden Dawn: A Slide Show' and is composed out of specifically-written captions to old family photos of trips to Greece, with fragmen...
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