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This New Year season I’ll be taking Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel to sunny Australia for the Woodford Folk Festival! It will be warm, nay, HOT, it will be in a tent, it will be the festive season like you’ve never seen it.

We’re performing in Artisania from Friday 27 Dec – Wed 1 Jan, and on New Year’s Day 2014, enjoy a final feeding word frenzy with this post-NYE bain marie including the tender poetry wings of yours truly, the black pudding of punk-folk Billy Liar, and the sweet alphabet soup of Lady Rose. MC Ghostboy. It would be excellent if you came and joined us.

Enjoy a rare, intimate, one-on-one poetry reading with poet Ryan Van Winkle. Hide away in a cosy bed-sit, among trinkets, ephemera, artworks and an original score. Select your poems, lay back, make yourself at home, enjoy a snifter of port or a spot of Earl Grey, and drink in the specially created atmosphere.

I will be performing at Henry’s Cellar Bar Saturday 7 December with our good pals Hiva Oa at DECAGRAM, Ten Tracks Collective’s party night.

The DECAGRAM collective bring you a series of extended Saturday nights with short film and visuals, live music and club in one. Featuring DECAGRAM artists joined by very special guests …
GRNR :: NUMBERS ARE FUTILE :: HIVA OA :: RYAN VAN WINKLE :: ANIA URBANOWSKA :: SMALL FEET LITTLE TOES :: DAVID WHEATLEY :: EUAN MCKENZIE :: TRUDATSOUND :: KEVIN PICKERING :: DUNCAN COWLES

Tiered pricing ensures those most inquisitive for a bit of independent film and audio/visual collaboration (7pm) can stay right through the gig (9pm) to the club night (11pm) for only £3.

Whilst those arriving later for what they prefer about the night don’t pay an arm and a leg (gig £4; club £4/£6).

The headline band for the gig *is* the band for the club night, and plays at 11pm before the club price goes up to £6 (midnight) for the live electronic set and/or DJs.

What: DECAGRAM

When: Saturday 7 December, Short Films kick off at 7pm, Live music at 9, Club at midnight

Where: Henry’s Cellar Bar, 16 Morrison St, Edinburgh, EH3 8BJ

How Much: 7pm tickets £3, 9pm tickets £4, midnight tickets £6/4.

I’ll be in London this weekend working on a scratch theatre piece with Screen Bandita, cooking up some collage poems with your old photos and spools of super 8 film. It’s at the Battersea Arts Centre, Sunday 3 November, 10am-1pm, and it’s totally free. See you there!

Screen Bandita and Ryan Van Winkle invite you to contribute to their participatory, community gathering: a welcoming space in which to share, speak and see.

Do you have any spools of Super 8 film or old slides gathering dust in the attic? Bring them along and we’ll project them for you! And if you have any old photographs you’d like to share, come and display them in our pop-up gallery! Soundtracking the afternoon will be a pair of antiquated Russian gramophones and a myriad of interesting records from our collection.

Poet Ryan Van Winkle would be pleased to see any old newspaper clippings, scrapbooks or to talk about memorable local events. We’ll also have copies of posters and clippings from the BAC archive and Ryan will be leading a workshop on ‘collage poems’ melding your own history with that of the area.

Suitable for young and old, this friendly, informal session is a chance to rediscover films from your collection, as well as an opportunity share memories, recollections and stories.

What: Bring Your Own Archive with Screen Bandita

Where: Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, Battersea, London, SW11 5TN

When: Sunday 3 November, 10am-1pm

How Much: FREE

On Saturday 26 October I’ll be back in London at the Rich Mix Arts Centre for CamaradeFest, an all-day poetry collaboration extravaganza. Hope you can join us!

The Camarade poetry festival is a unique and unforgettable one day explosion of dynamic collaboration in contemporary avant garde and literary poetics. 100 poets align in 50 pairs, each writing an original collaborative work, written specifically for the festival and premiered on the day. The 5th Camarade event, and the crescendo of the Enemies project’s first year, this ambitious exploration of the possibilities of collaboration in poetry will evidence the true width and depth of poetry that is happening now.
Featuring:

​​​​Kirsty Irving & Jon Stone
Ahren Warner & Mark Waldron
Stephen Connolly & Emily Hasler
Chris McCabe & Tom Jenks
Carol Watts & George Szirtes
David Berridge & Mary Paterson
Chrissy Williams & Nia Davies
Giles Goodland & Alistair Noon
Ben Stainton & Nathan Hamilton
Sophie Collins & Rachael Allen

Sam Riviere & Joe Dunthorne
Becky Cremin & Ryan Ormonde
Deborah Pearson & Tamarin Norwood
Andy Spragg & Joe Kennedy
Ollie Evans & Robert Kiely
Stephen Watts & Will Rowe
James Davies & Philip Terry
Sean Bonney & Nick-e Melville
Tim Atkins & Jessica Pujol I Duran
Oli Hazzard & Caleb Klaces

​Ryan Van Winkle & William Letford
Jeff Hilson & Fabian MacPherson
Robert Sheppard & Robert Hampson
Jack Underwood & Alex MacDonald
Ekaterina Paronian & Sophie Mayer
Sarah Crewe & Jo Langdon
Matt Dalby & Steven Waling
James Byrne & Sandeep Parmar
Joel Shea & Ricardo Marques
​Matthew Gregory & Robert Herbert

Nathan Jones & Sam Skinner
Sarah Kelly & Gabriele Lebanauskaite
Mendoza & Nat Raha
Rhy Trimble & Harry Gilonis
Pascal O’Laughlin & Scott Thurston
Marcus Slease & Claire Potter
Daniele Pantano & Nikolai Duffy
Holly Pester & Emma Bennett
​Tom Chivers &Amy Cutler
Marek Kazmierski &Wioletta Grzegorzewska

​​Joanna​ Rzadkowska & Kristen Kreider
Bea Colley & Francine Elena
Zoe Skoulding & Ondrej Buddeus
Christodoulos Makris &Kim Campanello
Reza Mohammedi & Ana Seferovic
​​Sophie Herxheimer &​​
Julia Bird & ​
​​​James Wilkes &
Ross Sutherland &
​
Gratitude too to the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England for making it possible, and the Rich Mix, as ever, for their generosity.

What: CamaradeFest

When: Saturday 26 October, 2pm-10pm

Where: Rich Mix Arts Centre, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London, Greater London E1 6LA

How Much: FREE

I’m in Glasgow on November 1st for the celebration of Valve Journal’s third birthday! Do come along.

Our beloved Valve is celebrating its third birthday with the launch of issue number 3!

Filled with experimental prose and fiction from well-kent faces including Michael Pedersen, Katy McAulay and Ryan Van Winkle, Valve III also features work from emerging writers like Scott Morris, Chelsea Cargill and Fiona Inglis. It’s even home to a debut or two.

Valve III came about due to the generosity of, well, you. You all came and supported us at our fundraising event, donated money from afar, bought back issues and dug deep for cake at our previous nights. So, we’re throwing you a party to say thank you, in Glasgow’s super-cool Poetry Club.

It’s all on us: complimentary entry, free booze behind the bar for the first batch of attendees and performances from some mighty fine writers (to be confirmed) as well as a few surprises along the way. It would be rude not mix things up in a venue with a train shaped, wall-mounted smoke machine and a fried egg table. Someone will probably make pork pies, too.

It will be the first chance to get your hands on the shiny new journal itself for only a fiver, so join us from 8pm on November 1st for revelry and readings, then tunes and dancing ’til 2am.

What: Valve Journal III Launch

Where: The Poetry Club, 100 Eastvale Place, G3 8 Glasgow.

When: Friday 1 November, 8pm-2am.

How Much: FREE ENTRY, FREE BOOZE.

In a couple of weeks I’ll be down in London town, collaborating  with Screen Bandita as part of the Battersea Arts Centre’s Scratch series.

ADRIFT IN THE ARCHIVE: A SPECTRUM OF SUPER 8 AND WORDS: SCRATCH
Screen Bandita & Ryan Van Winkle

18 – 19 Oct
8:30pm
Running Time: 30 mins

Price: Pay What You Can
Harnessing spoken word, found celluloid film, slides, vintage ephemera and gramophones, Van Winkle and Screen Bandita conjure forth a mesmerising and surreal piece that unfolds and unpacks suitcases of memory, place and experience.

Drawing inspiration from the stories springing from the resonant walls and dusty corners of Battersea Town Hall, these archival inquisitors weave a new audio visual tapestry before your very eyes; unravelling stories and episodes suspended in time and illuminating those fragments of presence and memory lingering in and about the space, left behind by the rich cast of characters who have passed through.

Developed at Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN.

During my continued adventures around the globe, I’ll be in Artistry in Singapore as part of their Speakeasy series. If you’re in town come join us!

What: Speakeasy #6

Where: 17 Jalan Pinang, Singapore 199149.

When: 12 October 2013, 19:00 – 22:00.

Irish poet Paula Meehan has been called “that rare and precious thing – a vocational poet of courage and integrity” by Carol Ann Duffy, and in this wide ranging interview you will see why. “I think poetry acts as lightning rod to earth the energies of the Zeitgeist that you are living through… Often to get real, true peace you have to actually nearly reopen the wound to clean it.” We discuss the Troubles in Ireland, issues with the priesthood, witchcraft, abuse and suicide, but at all times Paula remains sparklingly eloquent, thoughtful and maintains a sense of intense wonder and joy with the world. Her many accolades include the Irish American Cultural Institute’s Butler Award, the Denis Devlin Award and the Marten Toonder Award.

Shortly after my voyage to Australia I’ll be hitting Singapore for a show alongside Alvin Pang, an awesome poet and thoroughly personable fellow.

World Voices features Ryan Van Winkle

 9 October, 7.30pm, Earshot Café, 1 Old Parliament Lane, Singapore.

Ryan Van Winkle is an American poet who resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. His incredibly personal and intimate poetry-theatre experiment Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel, which has been showcased at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe amongst other places, has been known to captivate even those who shun poetry.

Join us as he reads from his evocative poetry, and presents a treat in the form of his ViewMaster. Ryan’s ViewMaster is a personal slide-show performance that is at times surprising and surreal, and offers viewers a chance to travel through scenes with your eyes and ears.

This session will be moderated by Alvin Pang, a noted and award winning poet.

Very pleased to be part of The Guardian’s second podcast for the Brisbane Festival! Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel is part of the Festival’s Basement Late Night series, it would be lovely to see you there.