The Golden Hour: Toronto

SATURDAY JANUARY 14TH AT PLACEBO SPACE. 9pm.

THIS EVENT IS PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.

Edinburgh’s Lit&Music Cabaret Comes to Toronto

Poets read. Musicians play. The audience is incited to revolution—or a stiff drink.

DAMIAN ROGERS: Electrifying. Damian’s poetry is rock’n’roll. Sample: “I say let’s keep wasting our lives and burn/our trash as we go.”

RYAN VAN WINKLE: Award-winning, Edinburgh-dwelling bearded poet. He’ll make you swoon. Sample: “We were fucking/our way up the tower and God saw us coming.”

MATTHEW J. TRAFFORD: Crafter of surreal short stories featuring Jesus clones & mermaids. Sample: “I was born library, where my parents read from opening until closing every day, where they met, where I assume they first coupled.”

TRAPLINESA: banjo. Some poems. Do we need to say more?Sample: “I got so fat they called a crane. Everyone was nice about it, but I was too fat to care.”

NEIL QUIN: The guitarist from Zeus will blow you away with his shiny solo act.

PHANTOM SHORES: Ottawa-based folk rockers with lush harmonies and blazing lyrics. Violin, sex & rock’n’roll.

CHLOE CHARLES: This hypnotizing songstress will leave you spellbound – just try to resist.

PLUS SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST.
THIS EVENT IS PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.

AT PLACEBO SPACE. 1409 Bloor Street West, Apt A

This Is Danseizure LP

Many years ago Dan and I sat down and recorded the poem ‘No Ideas But In Things’ which I’d kind of forgotten about. Luckily, Dan didn’t. He created a beautiful, 7 minute, electronic assault. You can download the whole album for FREE on bandcamp. Or listen to a taste below:

1000 thanks to Invisible Agent for this and for all their ongoing support, please check out their website for a treasure trove of Electronica wonderment from Ireland, Cambodia and beyond.

Ginsberg for the Georgians

Our good friend and Georgian Agent Provocateur – Zaza Koshkadze – translated a my long-ish poem which was part of the “Starry Rhymes” Anthology. If you would like to have a look at what Ryan looks Like in Georgian — go to HERE.

For my work and many others in full, bleeding English:

Starry Rhymes: 85 Years of Allen Ginsberg

My poem, indebted to Allen Ginsberg’s ‘America‘ (when will you send you eggs to India?), appears alongside many fine others in Read This Press’ limited edition chapbook. It is a great pleasure to be among so many international writers and friends celebrating one of my favourite influences. I should name some of the brilliant poets in this collection but then I would have to name them all. So, I’ll just say — buy the book. It looks great and the word on the street is — If you dig Allen, you’ll dig this. Go here and look for Allen’s face. He’ll sort you out.

A Million Miles Behind

In August I was pleased to have my poem ‘Last Night I Should Have Driven Straight Home‘ chosen as Poem of the Week in The Scotsman. Of course, that is pretty old news. However, the poem is still there if you haven’t read it. You could make it the poem of your week. Also, isn’t it nice that the Scotsman has a poem of the week and shouldn’t we support and encourage more of that kind of thing? Anyway, here is the link. Enjoy. x

I Chose to Listen

I Chose to Listen – New Translations from Reel Festivals 2011 FREE DOWNLOAD

One of the most spectacular things I’ve had a chance to do recently was to work with a cohort of fantastic poets from Lebanon, Scotland and Syria on new translations of each others work. Some of you, I hope, were able to come to our readings in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Beirut. However, if you weren’t, these new translations should give you a taste of contemporary poetry from the region. You’ll also find brand-new work in both English and Arabic from our  friends Tom Pow, William Letford, and Emily Ballou. I also have a few poems inside there. I encourage you to check out this free book.

This free to download e-book (published in association with Forest Publications) features brand new English and Arabic poetry translations from collaboration and performance with the Reel Festivals poets.

From Syria, Golan Haji and Rasha Omran, from Lebanon, Yehya Jaber  and Mazen Maarouf and from Scotland, Tom Pow, Emily Ballou, William Letford and Ryan Van Winkle, along with beautiful Arabic Calligraphy by Everitte Barbee.

We are immensely thankful to Creative Scotland for making this book and all these outcomes possible through the Vital Sparks funding, to the British Council for their sponsorship and ongoing support and to the Scottish Poetry Library, Literature Across Frontiers and all Reel Festivals supporters. Some of these poems, artwork and an exclusive essay by Tom Pow originally appeared in ANON Magazine 8.

As the poet Andrew Philip said: ‘it fairly makes a difference when you know the poetry makes a difference’. We couldn’t agree more and hope you do too.

DJ Dolphin Boy – Ghazi by Reel Festivals

And new films from Roxana Vilk including this one with the mercurial Yehya Jaber:

The Confession a short film by Roxana Vilk from Roxana Vilk on Vimeo.

There’s lots more on the Reel Festivals website including writing from Bill Drummond, more films, live footage etc — make sure to check it out!

One Fine Degna

Degna Stone is an amazing poet whom I was very lucky to meet randomly at Luchars train station after the StAnza Festival in St. Andrews. You’ll feel lucky too. She’s making a lot of noise in Newcastle, has won a Northern Promise Award, and has been working with BBC’s ‘The Verb‘ as part of a new voices project. She is definitely one to hear. So, tune in friends — it is a pleasure to introduce you to Degna Stone.

*****

Ryan chats with the wonderful Degna Stone at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. They discuss feminism, rejecting poetry, rediscovering poetry, the relationship between a poet and her poetry, performance and developing as a writer. We also get the chance to hear a number of Degna’s poems. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email: splpodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @anonpoetry

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Or Follow This Link To Listen: Now

Who’s a Featured Poet?

This Guy!

Read Raw is a lovely site which does the good work of promoting new writing in Scotland. I had the pleasure of meeting them in Glasgow at my Poetry @ The Ivory reading. On the site you’ll find a couple poems from ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here’ and one uncollected poem you might want to check out. Plus, some other stuff you might be interested in. Or not. Either way – it is there. On the internet. For now. Check it out here.

New Poems For Free!

I was very pleased to be part of the “American Indy All-Stars” edition of the groovy on-line lit-love-in known as Beat the Dust.

You can do directly to reading those poems now, but make sure to poke around the site as well because it has some quality new stuff curated by our pal Jarred McGinnis and The Special Relationship.

From the site:

“The Special Relationship is a monthly literary event in London set up by the American Brothers and two English chaps as part of YARNfest. One of the American Brothers, Jarred McGinnis has curated a special edition of BTD to showcase new work from a talented tribe of US indy writers. We’ve got poetry, short fiction, novel extracts and an essay on the current state of American indy literature.

You can read Beat the Dust cyberspacially or print out the chapbook edition and have a gander at your leeeeeeisure.”

Crowe for your lucky ears!

Not only is Anna Crowe’s poetry intriguing, informed and captivatingly beautiful, but she’s also a fascinating and candid interview. If you are a fan of Anna’s — you’ll already want to hear this. However, if you just want to hear some new and wonderful poems — this is the podcast for your lucky ears.

Ryan chats with translator and poet Anna Crowe about her award winning pamphlet ‘Figure in Landscape’. Anna reads from the collection, discusses the need for distance in writing about place, the influence of art in poetry (especially Catalan artist Andreu Maimó) and the process of self-translation. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean. Mail: splpodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @anonpoetry

Just a quick update to let friends in Auckland know I’ll be reading at Poetry Live. You can find details here: http://www.poetrylive.co.nz/. The event kicks off at 8pm and in central Auckland – on Karangehape Road at the Thirsty Dog – which is at the top end. Hope to see folk there.