A note on: Video interview with Michelle Moloney King for Beir Bua

This was a lovely, off the cuff video interview / podcast / chat with the Irish poet and editor Michelle Moloney King for her Beir Bua journal, in its new youtube channel. We chatted about asemic poetry, high and low art, authenticity and loads of other stuff. Michelle is exactly the kind of person I’m lucky to be able to meet through poetry, someone who has found their own way into it and won’t give up their own way of things, and is original for that fact.

Do go follow beir bua too, it’s a great magazine https://beirbuajournal.wordpress.com/

A note on : Hipoglote sound poetry podcasts ends with 200 editions

There’s been nothing like the Hipoglote podcast / interview series run by Tiago Swabl out of Portugal. It’s had 200 editions covering the history, and the current state, of sound poetry. I had the chance to chat to Tiago a few years ago for an edition, then in the summer of 2020 produce a special program discussing the way I got into sound poetry, and covering a full decade of work. Tiago has got a radio show now and Hipoglote has come to an end after 200 editions, please listen to the final show which features lots of clips from his guests. https://www.mixcloud.com/Hipoglote/200o-hipoglote-_a2h-43_2020-12-27_-o-%C3%A9ter-%C3%A9-aqui-ao-lado/

A note on : a conversation with Tom Jenks, recorded

A kind of video podcast to celebrate the launch of my THE SELECTED SCRIBBLING AND SCRAWLING OF SJ FOWLER (available here, please buy it and support Zimzalla as a great UK press). We did it in place of a launch, perhaps, but it became something else - an unplanned 90 minute chat. I admire Tom, he’s an influence on me, a long time collaborator, and the publisher of this book. This chat made me realise I had known Tom for 10 years, and a lot of people have written to me when they’ve listened to it with warm words. Maybe because Tom and I are friends, and we used the conversation to explore ideas without being too serious or technical, and we covered our whole journey with poetry, in a way. I enjoyed doing it anyway.

A note on : 10 years of sound poetry - HIPOGLOTE podcast

This is something I’m really happy with - a podcast in the remarkable HIPOGLOTE series, thanks entirely to the amazing Tiago Swabl - which recounts my ten years in sound poetry this year, 2010 to 2020. A unique audio document, I was invited to provide performances and commentary explaining my path though the noise poems as part of their Carte Blanche series.

It traces my first steps as part of the post Bob Cobbing Writers Forum, my early improvised vocalisation work with Ben Morris and Dylan Nyoukis and at the British Museum, then my travels around Europe working with Zuzana Husarova and Maja Jantar amongst others, then my Soundings project with Wellcome Library, my participation in the Palais de Tokyo sound poetry retrospective and works with British artists I admire like Nathan Walker and the legendary Phil Minton. All this with brand new works made for the show, loads of solo works I’ve dug out of my archive and cover versions of Cobbing and bp nichol, also new for this ambitious hour.

It’s pleasing to not only have had the invitation, but to have Tiago’s editorial assistance (he did it all!) in making this document. It succinctly looks back on so much work I’ve found myself doing in a field which has always intimidated / excited me and it’s made me realise things, in making this summation, that had escaped me. More than anything, it’s made me realise I want to do more sound poetry. https://www.mixcloud.com/Hipoglote/183o-hipoglote_2020-08-17_-carte-blanche_-steven-j-fowler/

A note on : Poet's Poem Podcast on Edward Lear

click the image or link below to listen

A really good experience appearing on Mischa Foster Poole’s great new podcast series - Poet’s Poem - where he asks the guest to choose a poem which is then explored over an hour. Well I chose a poem not because I have expertise in it, but because I wanted to explore its context, knowing how clever Mischa is, and how much more skill he has at certain kinds of analysis than I.

I explain in the talk how I have recently realised that nonsense poetry in Victorian England may be another link in a tradition I find myself in, that is so obviously known to be unknown to me. In a sense this chat was a chance for me to proof that idea, a bit. The poem resonates with my interests a lot too - a kind of muted surrealism, a pessimism and the use of animal imagery (in my case to ironise the anthropocence - with Lear, Mischa and I happily disagree on why he throws in Walrus after Crab…)

Moreover I think we had fun doing this, having a laugh, and going, not by design, 90 minutes, rather than 60. Please do give it a listen and support Mischa’s podcast in the future too. https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-n23ni-e669e1

this amazing term list from the cast that mischa made says it alll

Published : Penteract Podcast with Anthony Etherin, on Crayon Poems

To celebrate the launch of my new book CRAYON POEMS with PENTERACT PRESS, editor of the press Anthony Etherin and I had our second podcast conversation. It’s a grand one I think, open and relaxed and covering some new ideas.

Join us on Twitter, at 7pm UK time, Thursday July 9th, to help launch the book: Ask questions about the book, about topics raised in this podcast, and about poetry/publishing in general, using the hashtag #PenteractChat. https://penteractpress.com/p-p-p/2020/7/5/episode-10-sj-fowler-crayon-poems-launch

Published: speaking with Matthew Blunderfield on his Scaffold Podcast

Scaffold Podcast : Matthew Blunderfield's remarkable exploration of contemporary architecture and design veers off into a poetry wall with me. The podcast is available on itunes and soundcloud

We had a proper longform chat, the kind possible in the podcast realm, and while I wanted to veer into architecture, out of my room, Matthew was very generous and prepared and we stayed the course with some poetic focus. He allowed me to cover some of my more fundamental thoughts on my work and the field in general.

A note on: Poetry Magazine Podcast

Pleased my new poem in Poetry Magazine. Violence on the Internet is discussed by Don Share and Lindsay Garbutt on the Poetry Magazine podcast below. 

Penned in the Margins podcast: on poetry & performance

Really privileged to be invited to partake in a round table discussion on poetry and performance by Penned in the Margins, for their very first podcast. It was chaired by Tom Chivers and featured Hannah Silva and Sidd Bose. Quite an honour to be with them both, far greater than I in the performance realm. Certainly there was an interesting and proper difference in our approaches and general aesthetics. I was maybe a bit too harsh on spoken word, as I often am, I should be more mindful that the best of the medium is very good. It's just the case that the very average, or the very very poor, of the medium does parade as poetry, and userp it's resources, unfortunately. That tends to have me too trigger happy in smashing it. Anyway, a fine discussion, gentle and open, glad to be involved. 

Culture Laser podcast on Camarade

The Camaradefest was a unique one day explosion of dynamic collaboration in contemporary avant garde and literary poetics. 100 poets aligned in 50 pairs, each writing an original collaborative work, written specifically for the festival and premiered on the day. We feature 4 of the pairs - Marcus Slease & Claire Potter, Stephen Watts & Will Rowe, Julia Bird & Sarah Hesketh, Ghazal Mosadeq & Ricardo Marques - and discuss the thinking behind the process with SJ Fowler. http://www.weareenemies.com/camaradefest.html This episode includes electro-acoustic collaborative works from the EP 'Eye' from Bark Torch. More info at: