My pamphlet The Terrors was launched last night at The Market Trader, Middlesex Street and is now available to purchase from my terrific publishers Nine Arches Press for £5. (Go, do it now!) The Terrors is a sequence of imagined emails to inmates at Newgate Prison in the eighteenth century. It’s been described by Iain SinclairContinue reading “The Terrors – OUT NOW”
Mad, Bad and Downright Unlucky
Matt Merritt has reviewed The Terrors on Polyolbion. He liked it. This is my first ever review.
Mandeville / Monochrome / Voodoo
Oi, oi – the Spring 2009 issue of Poetry London is out. Amongst other things, it contains my review of Mandeville by Matthew Francis, Bloodshot Monochrome by Patience Agbabi and Hoodoo Voodoo by D.S. Marriott. Here’s an excerpt: The railway is figured as a brooding Hades, commuter trains hammering through ‘the seven circles’. Death isContinue reading “Mandeville / Monochrome / Voodoo”
The McGanns of Dundee
Family history is something of a popular interest nowadays with TV shows such as Who Do You Think You Are and an entire industry of research tools and resources online devoted to it. Genealogy’s come a long way since the days of nosing through encyclopedia of common surnames. I spent most of last Sunday emptyingContinue reading “The McGanns of Dundee”
Gravestones & duffil coats
The Terrors, my sequence of Newgate e-missives, has been completed and sent to the publisher, Nine Arches. It’ll be launched on March 29th. Artist Emma Robertson (who is, amongst other things, behind Littlest Birds) has created some beautiful line-drawings to illustrate the pamphlet. See above. Also, writer/filmmaker Iain Sinclair has read the sequence and endorses itContinue reading “Gravestones & duffil coats”
Tears in the Fence Number 49
The latest issue of Tears in the Fence has arrived. Number 49. Beautifully typeset, as always, by Westrow Cooper, and edited by the illustrious David Caddy. I must confess this is a real treat. New poems by Tom Lowenstein (above), Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Tamsin Kendrick, Siddhartha Bose, A.F. Harrold, Matt Merritt, Ross Sutherland, Todd Swift,Continue reading “Tears in the Fence Number 49”
Two quick updates
At work, I’ve recently refitted the Penned in the Margins website (see screenshot, above). Do leave a comment over there if you like it (or not!). Also, London Word Festival 2009 has been announced. The lineup includes Iain Sinclair (sold out already), Phill Jupitus, Bishi, Mary Hampton, Inua Ellams and much, much more. That’s it forContinue reading “Two quick updates”
“Pure, unadulterated, genius”
That’s what Matty Czaczkes of Oxford’s Daily Information website thought about Found in Translation, the live literature adventure show that I’m producing, starring Joe Dunthorne, Tim Clare and Ross Sutherland (above). It’s on at Vibe Live, Brick Lane tonight (Monday 16th February), from 8pm. Tim Key of BBC 4’s Cowards is in support, with choonsContinue reading ““Pure, unadulterated, genius””
You are invited to a party…
… to celebrate the launch of The Terrors. Sunday 29th March 2009, from 7pm The Market Trader, Middlesex Street, London There will be short readings by Tim Wells, James Wilkes, Jane Holland and Jane Commane of Nine Arches Press, who will host. I will read some of The Terrors and the pamphlets themselves, beautifully produced byContinue reading “You are invited to a party…”
Snow by Louis MacNeice
Snow The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was Spawning snow and pink roses against it Soundlessly collateral and incompatible: World is suddener than we fancy it. World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion A tangerine and spit the pips and feel The drunkennessContinue reading “Snow by Louis MacNeice”
Tom Chivers 