Wintering
Wind & Wuthering
Hello, I hope this blog post finds you well. It’s not generally the season of wellness, and there’s been a lot of sickness recently in my household. I feel myself slowing down, crawling towards the bat cave and getting ready to hibernate for a good long while. It’s been an incredible year of poetry, publications, projects and people (most of all people) for which I’m very grateful. But this isn’t one of those end of year list things. At least not yet.
Before we get to all that end of year reflection stuff - which to be honest, I tend to find a bit of a turn off so I’ll try not to be too annoying about it - here’s an update of stuff I’ve been up to recently.
Books
There’s been a threesome of marvellous anthologies published over the last couple of months that I’m delighted to appear in.
OBJECTS from Dunlin Press, in which I have an extract of a longer collaborative (chapbook-length) work called Felt Cute Might Delete Later with the experimental wizard Richard Capener. Richard approached me in early 2022 and we embarked on an improvisational and somewhat haphazard piece, with no particular ‘plan’ or constraints in mind, other than being inspired by jazz experimentalism, in particular Derek Bailey’s writings on Improvisation, and writers/creatives such as Caroline Bergvall, Bernadette Mayer and Charles Bernstein. Richard and I hadn’t even met at this point, and all our communication about the project was done via Google Docs. More info about Richard via his substack here: Richard Capener
Apocalyptic Landscape published by Valley Press and edited by Steve Ely, which emerged from his creative writing course 'Writing the Apocalyptic Landscape'. I didn’t attend, but it sounds brilliant, where participants were encouraged to generate visionary responses to the crisis of the Anthropocene in the context of landscapes important to them. More info on the VP substack here: By the Book: Jamie McGarry at Valley Press
Take the Fruit: An Anthology of Religious Trauma published by Listen to Your Skin Press. Its subtitle describes pretty well the contents, but here’s the blurb for further revelation - “a collection of stories concerning the social and personal effects of high-control religion, and survivors' attempts to heal, spanning many religions, and many genres.”
These are all books I’d want to buy and read even if I wasn’t lucky enough to be included within their pages. Do check them out and support indie presses.
Poems
I have a perverse little poem out in Perverse this week, alongside some of my absolute sheroes of poetry. Do check them all out here:
The latest issue of Under The Radar published by Nine Arches Press is out now(ish) with the theme of Sound, edited by Caleb Parkin, and I’m delighted to be appearing in its pages for the second time around.
And I’m not sure if its been officially announced yet, but it is now live on their website - I’m one of The Poetry Archive Now Worldview 2024 Winners. You can watch all 20 of the selected winners here: https://poetryarchive.org/collections/poetry-archive-now-wordview-2024-winners/
And my offering (recorded quickly in one take whilst sitting in the bath) is here for your amusement/enjoyment/bafflement.
What I’ve been reading
An altogether incomplete list of some of the things I’ve been reading recently:
And these rather splendid written conversations between Maggie Nelson and Moyra Davey available in Artforum. Part one: Yours, Truly and part two.
What I’ve been listening to
An even more selective list of some of the sounds on heavy rotation at my place over the last month.
The latest volume of soundscapes from Plastic Language curated by Will Rene: www.nts.live/shows/plastic-language/episodes/plastic-language-27th-november-2024
And random, but I guess prompted by the arse-end of Storm Darragh, I woke up this morning with Genesis’ LP lesser known 1976 album Wind and Wuthering in my head. I’ve not listened to it for at least 20 years, but it’s got some gold on it. Prog rock for Emily Bronte fans.
Events
I have three reading events this week!
Tomorrow (Tuesday 10th) I’ll be going to the prize and performance night of the Forest Poets competition (my local Poetry Stanza, run by the effervescent Paul McGrane. It’s at Trades Hall, Walthamstow, my favourite local super queer-friendly Trades Union members club. Free to attend, more info here.
On Friday 13th I have my last in-person reading at the fantastic Polari Literary Salon, run by the superstar showman and author Paul Burston. This is their last show of the year and is a special one, in collaboration with Steven Appleby's latest exhibition, Nothing Is Real at Space Station Sixty-Five. It features Paul, Stephen, Harry Nicholas, Barbara Brownskirt and yours truly. Camp as Christmas! Tickets here: www.outsavvy.com/event/23785/polari-at-space-station-sixty-five (includes drinks reception from 6.30pm with complementary beers, wine and soft options).
And on Sunday 15th I’m supporting a double book launch of my fellow Atomic Bohemian writer David Hay with fellow readers Lou Mach, Briony Collins and Stuart McPherson. Free and online - tickets and more info here.
And last, but by no means least, eff-able closes its doors for submissions at midnight tomorrow (Tuesday 10th December). I wrote all about this Arts Council funded project to publish an anthology with fourteen poems of sexy queer crip poetry and roadshow in this blog post. It’s a super exciting project that I’m lucky to get to run with the rather marvellous George Parker, and if this applies to you, you should get yer subs in fast!
We’ve held three free online workshops over the subs window and you can watch them all back on the eff-able website here: https://effable.uk/blog
Ta ta for now!
JP x