In which we talk to Tom Doig about his new book Moron to Moron, which is about what “happens when two young idiots set out on a gonzo ride across the wilds of Mongolia.” They discuss Tom’s own approach to travel writing and how he considers the canonical writers who have gone before him, as well as talking about what it is to be an ‘idiot’ traveller. We also feature the track ‘St Catherine’ by the fantastic JF Robitaille (@JFRobitaille).
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
I interviewed J.O. Morgan at his home in the Scottish Borders. His latest book, At Maldon by CB Editions, was launched on 8 October at Looking Glass Books in Edinburgh. We discuss his approach to writing and talk in detail about his first book length narrative poem, the award-winning Natural Mechanical. He also discusses the intriguing story of how At Maldon started out as a translation of an Anglo-Saxon poem and how he was fascinated by the fact that it is a form of historical document written by the losers rather than the winners of the battle.
I chatted to John Richards and Ben McKenzie at the Melbourne Fringe Festival about the two short plays about Eurovision they performed and produced there. We discuss Eurovision envy, how Eurovision figured in the Portuguese Carnation revolution and their own fantastic Doctor Who podcast, Splendid Chaps (@SplendidChaps). We also get to hear their track, The Universe is Big, a true Whovian delight sung by Petra Elliott.
My fascinating chat with Singapore poet Alvin Pang about the interaction of cultures in his home city, Singlish and his granny’s aphorisms has been published on the Prairie Schooner.
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.
Ryan Van Winkle discusses art and the current situation in Syria with artist Tammam Azzam. Tammam talks about his transition to digital art after moving to Dubai just over 2 year ago. Each of his artworks “coincides with a particular event of the Uprising, depicting a variety of fractured and wounded maps of Syria, fallen chess pawns and other symbols reconfigured in powerful reflections of the turmoil facing his countrymen.” See samples of his works at the Ayyam Gallery. We also feature the track Khabar Ajel (‘breaking news’) from Syrian musician Wael Alkak. His Album is NESHAMA which you can download from iTunes or visit his Soundcloud and Facebook page.
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.
Joe Sacco‘s comic-based journalism broke ground in establishing graphic novels as a serious art form, so we were very excited to get the chance to speak to him at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. The resulting conversation didn’t disappoint, as he gave us his thoughts on reportage (“truth is always just as interesting as any fabrication could be”) and the challenges of objectivity (“as a journalist you need to keep some distance; as a human being that is almost impossible”), amongst many other fascinating insights. Listen to the interview for much more.
Also on this podcast, the American author RJ Palacio tells us about her breakout young adult novel Wonder, which we featured on our book discussion podcast earlier this year. The book draws the reader into a compassionate portrayal of a boy with a serious facial disfigurement; Palacio tells us how she went about writing it, and how being a serial eavesdropper helps her to be a great writer.
And there’s more, including a preview of October’s Dundee Literary Festival and an interview and reading from Scottish author Zoe Vendetozzi, whose new novel Anywhere’s Better Than Here is in the running for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize 2013.
