-With Charles Whalley- Dave Coates, writing on his blog (davepoems.wordpress.com) and elsewhere, is becoming known as one of the most consistently entertaining, wide-ranging and prolific reviewers writing online, giving detailed and good-natured appraisal of high profile new collections. Paul McMenemy, editor of Lunar Poetry magazine, recently described his work as “possibly the best poetry reviews…
-In Conversation with Tim Wells about his Ranting Project- I did a separate couple of interviews last year for creative writing students who kept asking me about the influence of hip hop on my poetry. One of them was non-plussed by answer that there isn’t any, and the other chose to ignore it. The fact that I…
- with James Webster – Nathan Jones is co-curator of Torque, a literature/performance/technology hybrid who are holding an event Friday 6 June (tonight!) at the Rich Mix (more info here). His previous project, Electric Voice Phenomena, was an experimental literature and new media project, exploring contemporary approaches to sound, voice, technology and writing that was…
-In conversation with Julie Zackova- Michael Farrell is the current BR Whiting studio resident in Rome. His recent publications are Open Sesame (Giramondo), same! same! same! same! (Sus) and the thorn with the boy in its side (oystercatcher). Michael is a guest of the 2014 Prague Microfestival, and also read here in 2009. JZ: What…
Writer Alex Nicholson and musician Pam Shaffer launch their new multimedia story-telling experience this month, a collaboration that has brought them together across the Atlantic. Metalalia, an immersive app for tablet and smartphone devices, will give its audience fairytales with a modern twist, accompanied by a unique soundtrack and visual art. They’ve already made a…
-In conversation with James Webster- A few days ago I had the chance to interview Rosie Wilby, the utterly personable award-winning comedian, musician, writer and feminist about her new show Nineties Woman. Rosie came to prominence through a series of strong performances at comedy competitions like Laughing Horse and Funny Women, and she’s since toured…
-With Jonathan Aldridge- Emma Wright founded the Emma Press, an independent small publisher, in 2012. The press’ titles include The Flower and the Plough, the debut pamphlet from Rachel Piercey, The Emma Press Anthology Of Mildly Erotic Verse and The Emmores, a pamphlet by Richard O’Brien. The Emma Press Anthology of Motherhood is publishing on…
-Reviewed by David Clarke- The Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin once argued that the distinguishing feature of the novel was its multi-voiced-ness. This distinguished it from the lyric mode, which, he claimed, addressed the reader as a single, undivided voice. Whereas the lyric is a mode of identity, Bakhtin suggested, the novel is multiple, orchestrating…
-In conversation with Claire Trévien- Ira Lightman makes public art around the UK, regularly appears on BBC Radio 3’s The Verbs, writes and performs, and spent a lot of 2013 tracking poetry plagiarism. Claire Trévien: It’s been a busy year for you – it began with the Christian Ward scandal – you quickly became known as the ‘poetry sleuth’…
-In conversation with Claire Trévien- Helen Ivory is a poet and artist. Her fourth Bloodaxe Books collection is Waiting for Bluebeard (May 2013) She has co-edited with George Szirtes In Their Own Words: Contemporary Poets on their Poetry Salt 2012. She teaches for the Arvon Foundation, The Poetry School and mentors for the Poetry Society. She edits the webzine Ink…