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Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities: Amsterdam

I'm very pleased to be contributing to the Amsterdam edition of the Cities series of anthologies from Dostoyevsky Wannabe - publisher of this is no longer entertainment.

Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities is an open source, collaborative project hosted by the press where each book offers a snapshot of a selection of writing from and around one city at one time as chosen by a guest editor. So far there have been books from Bristol, Norwich, Manchester, Dundee, Nottingham, Santiago, Paris and others, and more are set to come along (Brooklyn, Berlin, Boston, Manhattan, Coventry, Glasgow, Dublin, Los Angeles etc).

DW Cities Amsterdam is edited by Nadia de Vries, and also features work by Lucia Dove, SJ Fowler, Helena Grande, Dominic Jaeckle, and Divya Nadkarni.

My contribution takes the form of a long hybrid poem with title 'you used to want to be a rock star' which in interlinked prose and verse sections incorporates and juxtaposes sampled material, self-appropriations and 'original' writing around themes including pedagogy, mental health and the globalised economy.

My thanks to Nadia for the invitation to contribute.

The book will launch on Sunday 1 March 2020 in the amazing Splendor (Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 116, 1011 LX Amsterdam). I'm excited to be participating in the launch, tickets for which are now available. The event serves as an English language pre-event to the Dutch National Book Week (Boekenweek) which has been held in March annually since 1932.

The anthology is available for sale through Dostoyevsky Wannabe.


photo: Nadia de Vries

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