SJ Fowler is a writer, poet and performer who lives in London.
His work explores an expansive idea of poetry and literature - the textual, visual, asemic, concrete, sonic, collaborative, performative, improvised, curatorial - through 50 publications, 400 performances in over 40 countries, 4 large scale event programs, numerous commissions, collaborations and more.
His work has been commissioned by The National Gallery, Tate Modern, BBC Radio 3, Somerset House, Tate Britain, London Sinfonietta, Southbank Centre, National Centre for Writing, National Poetry Library, Science Museum and Liverpool Biennial.
As of summer 2024, he has published eleven collections of poetry, nine of visual poetry, seven of collaborative poetry, a selected essays and two volumes of selected collaborations, as well as a novella. Including letterpress prints, posters, cassettes and pamphlets, he has worked with over 40 independent UK presses. His writing has explored prescription drugs, films, fight sports, museums, prisons and animals, often taking on satirical, conceptual and experimental forms. These publications were documented in a retrospective at the Small Publisher Fair’s 2022 exhibition.
He was part of the first ever Hub residency at Wellcome Collection, and is poet-in-residence at J&L Gibbons architects, Shaldon Wildlife Trust and formerly at Kensal Green Cemetery. He is associate artist at Rich Mix. He has won awards from Arts Council England, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Nordic Culture Fund, Arts Council Ireland and multiple other funding bodies.
He has been sent to Peru, Bangladesh, Iraq, Argentina, Georgia and other destinations by The British Council and has performed at over 50 international festivals including Hay on Wye, Cervantino Mexico, Struga Poetry Festival, Mumbai Times Lit Fest and Hay Xalapa.
His feature-length films have premiered at Whitechapel Gallery and his plays have been produced by Penned in the Margins and Dash Arts. He was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness prize, nominated for the White Review prize for Fiction and his short stories appear in anthologies such as ‘Liberating the Canon’. His visual art has been exhibited at the V&A, Hardy Tree Gallery, Jerwood Space and Mile End Art Pavilion, with installations at Kielder Forest and Tate St Ives. His librettos have been performed at LSO St Lukes, Wigmore Hall and Guildhall Music School. His articles and work have appeared in Nature, Vice Magazine, Sight and Sound and Jacket2.
Performing at St Johns on Bethnal Green, London
He’s been translated into over 30 languages and produced collaborations with over 200 writers and artists including Iain Sinclair, Eley Williams, Max Porter and Phil Minton. He has worked to develop the fields of performance literature, literary curation, collaborative poetry, asemic writing and neuropoetics in the UK. His sound poetry appeared in the Palais de Tokyo 100 years of Sound Poetry retrospective and his concrete poetry featured in The New Concrete anthology from the Hayward Gallery. Amidst readings, performance and lectures, he has given over 100 fully improvised, or talk poetry, performances at venues across the world.
Since 2010, he has organised nearly 700 public events and is the founder and curator of Poem Brut and The Enemies Project as well as poetry editor at 3am magazine and former executive editor at The Versopolis Review. He is lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at Kingston University, has taught at Tate Modern, Poetry School and Photographer's Gallery and is a Salzburg Global Fellow. He is the director of Writers' Kingston and European Poetry Festival.
at The National Gallery for a performance in 2023
Performing at Paviljonas Book Weekend, Vilnius 2019
This site is archived on The British Library’s UK Web Archive.
at the National Poetry Library, London for an exhibition 2014
Performing in Kyoto with Kyoko Yoshida 2023
Performing at Bucharest International Poetry Festival 2017
Performing at Rich Mix, London 2018
Performing Paviljonas BookWeekend, Vilnius 2020
Exhibiting at Poetry Society, London 2019
Performing at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 2018
At Matt’s Gallery, London 2015
Performing at Ignor Festival, Ljubljana 2018
as a video game avatar for Sidekick Books
Performing at Rich Mix, London 2015
Performing at St Georges Hall, Liverpool 2013
Portraits by Alexander Kell
Performing at A World Without Words, London 2014
Performing at 2018 Struga Poetry Festival, Macedonia
Teaching for the British Council in Chittagong, Bangladesh
Performing at The Horse Hospital, London 2012
Speaking at Hay Joven, for Hay Arequipa, Peru
Exhibiting at The Willesden Gallery, London
Performing with collaborators at St John on Bethnal Green, London
Performing at Hungarian Cultural Centre, St John on Bethnal Green, Kingston University, National Centre for Writing, Museum of Futures (UK) and Lyrik Kabinett (Germany)