So great of the Korean Cultural Centre UK to ask me to talk with Jack Jung about the brilliant Yi Sang : selected poetry recently for an online event. And even better, they recorded it and made it readily available to the world on youtube. I learned so much from this event, Jack spoke so generously, it was a pleasure all round. And what a poet Yi Sang was
A note on : poem of the day at National Poetry Library
https://www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk/online-poetry/poems/photographer
an unexpected thing, my poem The Photographer, taken from my 2014 book The Rottweiler’s Guide to the Dog Owner, has been featured on the National Poetry Library’s website as their poem of the day for May 5th 2021.
it’s an audio recording of the poem, one I gave years ago I think, I don’t remember. it’s a very short clipped work kind of about my friend alexander kell, who took the photo featured on the site, while we were both working at the british museum
A note on : Bristol - The Printed Poetry Project
Angie Butler at work
I am very lucky indeed to have been working on a project with Angie Butler and Sarah Bodman at UWE in Bristol over the last number of months, since the summer of 2020 really, that will come to fruition in multiple instances throughout this year 2021. The Printed Poetry Project will see some collaborations, teaching, publications, conversation, conferences and the like, and it begins with my going to Bristol next week and working with Angie at the Whittington Press in Cheltenham https://whittingtonpressshop.com. What we create is ahead of us, but it’s the kind of project I really love, where i get to learn and work collectively and drain other people’s experience to open up new avenues in my own work. As part of my time in Bristol, I’ll be chatting with Angie in this online talk, which anyone can watch!
Print in Conversation: The Printed Poetry Project with Steven J Fowler: poet, writer and artist (13 May 2021)
https://cfpr.uwe.ac.uk/the-printed-poetry-project-with-steven-j-fowler/
Thursday 13 May 12.30pm – 1.15pm A free, open session for anyone to join. Part of the Art of the Maker event series : An informal lunchtime public engagement session, talking candidly with poet, writer and artist, Steven J Fowler about his collaborative research project-in-progress with the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR), UWE, Bristol. We will discuss Steven’s experience so far, in terms of the development of our project ideas and how the work has developed during the course of the week. We will explain how we are using the craft of type-setting and the process of letterpress printing in relation to the haptic production of the printed word within contemporary publishing activities. They’ll be time for Q&A, too!
Published : reading list massage (If A Leaf Falls press)
Very happy to have a new pamphlet released with If a leaf falls press, in an edition of 60, entitled reading list massage.
It has sold out on the publisher’s site, Sam Riviere, but do go buy other titles https://www.samriviere.com/index.php?/together/if-a-leaf-falls-press/
I have a few copies spare, signed, and welcome enquiries if anyone wants one http://www.stevenjfowler.com/contact.
A few words on the book = “A succinct suite of minimal misspelled poems written for, and published by, Sam Riviere's If a leaf falls micropress. Fragments of speech, mis or unlabelled quotations and comforting typopoetry reference self-referentiality as a kind of brief, grim spectre descending upon writers and academics, in rare moments of lucidity, too clever by half.”
The booklette was written a few years ago, and is constructed, in parts, of quotations, with my poetry written through. The tone was meant to be different than most of my literary work, ironising a personal subjective involvement in the poems a little bit, following people like Paul Blackburn, Ed Dorn. and Tom Raworth, who weren’t ironic, but acknowledged themselves in their poems with a raised eyebrow.
❧ If a Leaf Falls Press publishes limited edition titles with an emphasis on appropriative and procedural writing processes.
A note on : Thomas Helm's The Mountain Where Nothing Happens
really happy for thomas helm to have his debut poetry book out with alien buddha press and i was happy to to contribute a comment on it, after reading early and final drafts. thomas is doing grand work at mercurius, his journal, so good to see his first come first and is available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Where-Nothing-Happens/dp/B093R5TGPX/
New film : Mallarme and Harriet Live Underground
The second in my new series of short poetry films centred on London and the poets who littered its streets has been released! It’s been included in the online video poetry festival hosted by KULTkolteszetnap in Hungary, edition 30, closing that program, which was curated by the brilliant Kornelia Deres. https://www.kulter.hu/2021/04/kultkolteszetnap-10-resz/
The film was shot in Kensal Green Cemetery, at the grave of Harriet Smyth https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/kensal-green-grave-hid-story-5965815 and in Knightsbridge where Mallarme stayed. / you can see it on youtube here for KULTköltészetnap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPbAN2SgZM or below on me new vimeo channel
A note on: Facial animations and the closing event of A History of Unnecessary Developments
A third and final restricted event for Tereza Stehlikova and I’s exhibition at Willesden Gallery, this was another grand one, curated ably by Tereza. These events, with a max of 7 people, create something obviously intimate but also beyond that, removing expectation of audience, something palpably focused and playful and relaxed. This night we had powerful poetry readings by Cristina Viti and Stephen Watts, alongside talks by Jo Gibbons, my old friend and an incredible landscape architect, as well as animation performances and more. For my own part I read again, for the second time ever, from my CAR GIANT pamphlet that I had written for Tereza and I’s film, which is the centrepiece of this exhibition. http://www.stevenjfowler.com/developments
I also, unexpectedly, and gladly (after spending the event filming with two cameras, for my youtube and tereza’s instagram live) got to collaborate with the animator and artist Birgitta Hosea. http://www.birgittahosea.co.uk/ Birgitta was projected neon asemic poems and lines and drawings upon my own asemic poems! A quite brilliant performance, and she allowed me, or urged me, to get in there, in the way, to be painted upon. At first I wrote on my works and then I just stood there, like a dummy, in the best role a collaborator can have, while she drew upon my visage. It was cool to see on video afterward.
Though the exhibition runs for another week, it was this event that cemented Tereza and I’s feeling that the whole endeavour, run without much footfall as the lockdown trace remains, was wholly worthwhile.
A note on : my art-poems in A History of Unnecessary Developments
I had a friend who can take photos come into to see my new, brief, exhibition at Willesden Gallery, and try to turn chicken beaks into gold. The photos are excellent, and improve my works when seen in the flesh. In a sense, these works do consolidate a lot of my recent explorations in visual poetry - especially in the art poems field, which I’ve loosely theorised in a lot of my teaching. They were all made for the exhibition, on wallpaper paper, with indian ink and some acryllic paint. Tonnes more photos of the exhibition are at……. www.stevenjfowler.com/developments
A note on : Edwin Morgan Centenary Concrete Poetry Poster
Such a pleasure to have been a tiny part of the 101 WORDS FOR EDWIN MORGAN CENTENARY concrete poetry POSTER OF 101 ONE WORD POEMS, edited brilliantly by Julie Johnstone and Greg Thomas.
“101 poets, artists, publishers, editors and researchers were invited to send a word or a one word poem for Edwin Morgan on the occasion of his centenary. This poster is published on what would have been his 101st birthday, 27 April 2021. The contributors were given the following instructions: Each “word” must be a straight horizontal line, fifteen characters maximum in length (no minimum length), and must not include any spaces. Each letter and punctuation mark counts as a character (think of it as having fifteen presses of a typewriter’s keys to work with, except for the return key and space bar). The poster design is based on an initial arrangement of words by character count, with each group of words then arranged in alphabetical order.”
My word was URSIGN, check out all contributors and more info https://juliejohnstone.com/edwinmorgan/
Published : Virtual Oasis, an AI anthology from Trickhouse Press
Very good yes to have a poem in a new anthology from Trickhouse Press, edited by Dan Power, who are publishing my new visual poetry brut book Sticker Poems soon in 2021. The anthology is entitled VIRTUAL OASIS and “is a collaboration between human writers and AI artists, a dream shared between machines both fleshy and fibre-optic. This anthology contains 23 original poems responding to automatically generated images.” Some brilliant people within, such as James Knight, Matthew Haigh, Robin Boothroyd, Sam Riviere, and Vik Shirley. Buy one here https://www.trickhousepress.com/product/virtual-oasis-/5?cs=true&cst=custom
A note on : blurbing the apocalypse
Delighted to offer a supportive quote for a new, hugely ambitious anthology of apocalyptic visual poetry edited by James Knight for his press Steel Incisors, who will publish my selected collages - Bastard Poems - later in 2021.
The anthology is called The Mouth of a Lion, and is available https://steelincisorsvispo.wordpress.com/ with some brilliant poets within.
A note on : The popogrou collective at A History of Unnecessary Developments
The second event to take place, away from the public with the seven person restriction of pseudo lockdown, during my exhibition with Tereza Stehlikova at Willesden Gallery www.stevenjfowler.com/developments
This was the inaugural public showing of a new collective I am lucky to be a part of. POPOGROU - featuring Martin Wakefield, Susie Campbell, Bob Bright, Simon Tyrrell, Patrick Cosgrove (all of whom were present on the day) and Sylee Gore, Emma Hellyer, Victoria Kaye (who provided a brand new hand made publication of intersemiotic translations to rep themselves from beyond).
The performances were extraordinary, and the sense of it being somewhere between a workshop, a catch up of friends after so long without such things, and a high level literary endeavour exploring what is possible with the reading and performances really was uplifting. / For my own part I gave a reading from my 2020 short fiction pamphlet, which was written for the film Tereza and I made, which was screened at the whitechapel and I had realised that I had never read out loud before. https://sampsonlow.co/2020/01/29/the-car-giant-sj-fowler/
A note on : Beir Bua vispo edition - sticker poem cover art
A new issue of Beir Bua, edited by Michelle Moloney King, has arrived, a secret issue https://beirbuajournal.wordpress.com/issue-iii-2/
It features many poets whom I’ve had the chance to work with on my courses or collaborate with. Michelle has very kindly suggested the impetus for this issue in my seen as read visual poetry course, and the issue features one of my incoming Sticker Poems for the cover too. Well worth a look
A note on: Vik Shirley's Disrupted Blue
Really worth a punt https://hesterglock.net/Vik-Shirley Vik Shirley’s new book from the always brilliant Hesterglock press is powerful poetry and an important work in the 21st century take up of photo poetry and it’s possibilities.
I was happy to offer a quote onto the back of the book, proud even, and had the pleasure to publish some of these works on 3am magazine a few years ago https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/poem-brut-74-disrupted-blue-on-sepia/
A note on: Writers Kingston poetry films back online
After an inexplicable struggle with youtube deletion, which has led me to archive every video i have on my youtubes for the stores of the National Poetry Library, I am happy to say the Writers Kingston Online poetry films - over 40 of them commissioned this year - are back in the land of the semi living online world. Worth checking a set of new ones now up, from Sylee Gore, Stephen Sunderland, Charlie Baylis et al. And this, from the legendary Bohman Brothers… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LmXtC6HArB9k2QSLWQGJA/videos
More on the series https://www.writerskingston.com/online
A note on : Opening night at A History of Unnecessary Developments
In one day Tereza Stehlikova and I managed to get up a rather ambitious exhibition in the Willesden Gallery, in Willesden Green Library, just in time to welcome in a non-public opening night. A future post shall be dedicated to the works in the exhibition, which balances huge asemics and art poems with Tereza’s brilliant frottage, photos and our film screened on a loop. For now, the opening night, where we could have 7 people in the gallery, masked and socially distanced, with each of the 7 being a poet / artist, who presented readings and performances, including 3 books from If a Leaf Falls press. A kind of poetry lock-in, and the first event for many in 13 months or so. With Lavinia Singer, Dan Power, Emma Filtness, David Spittle, Tereza Stehlikova, myself and Chris Kerr, it was a really lovely evening. Visit http://www.stevenjfowler.com/developments for all the videos of the performances. My own performance included a rubber elephant balloon, poems and the writing on the wall. Tereza’s included a group frottage. It was intimate.
Published : Aliens on Mercurius
Brilliant to have new poems shared from my latest book, Come and See the Songs of Strange Days : Poems on Films https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days on the constantly excellent Mercurius, edited by Thomas Helm. / These five are probably the last set from the book I’ll share, and each celebrates or commiserates on a film in the ALIEN franchise, utilising a slightly deranged illustrative technique. I’ve long been interested in memes as poems, and in this case they sit alongside clipart, alien font and photoshopped cinemas. Quietly inventive and weird perhaps. https://www.mercurius.one/home/aliens-poems-on-films
New course : The Writing Eye
EXPLORING PHOTOPOETRY & FILMPOETRY
An online course. Begins May 2nd 2021, running for 7 weeks.
All information and booking here www.poembrut.com/courses
The potential of image and text is an endless field of creative exploration. Yet, despite the ubiquitous access we have to cameras, it remains underexplored and underappreciated as its own medium. This course traces the history of photopoetry and filmpoetry and draws it into the 21st century, rooted in making over theory, method over all else - it aims to provoke questions while exploring examples from a variety of fields - from conceptual art to surrealism, collage to concrete poetry, from modernism to collaborative practice.
We ask what makes up the essence of photography, film and poetry, and how might they interact to move beyond traditions in both fields, as something new, a true photopoetry or filmpoetry? We ask what is hybridity, truly, and simultaneity, and photoliteracy, and illustration? What is a poem in time, on film? How has the technology needed for the cinema and video evolved what a poem might be? What is the line between documentation and artwork?
Poet-photographer-filmmakers featured on the course will range from the historical to the contemporary, from canonical modern figures to "outsider" artists, from Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to Barbara Kruger, Francesca Woodman to August Strindberg, Peter Greenaway to Hamish Fulton, Blaise Cendrars to Martha Rosler, Susan Hiller to Yamamoto Kansuke, Paul Muldoon / Norman McBeath to Paul Eluard / Man Ray.
A note on : an interview with David Spittle
oo i don’t half go on… the person encouraging me here, a friend and peer, david spittle, an expert no less in cinema and poetry, interviewed me for the specific purpose of helping me share context and knowledge on my new book COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS : POEMS ON FILMS www.stevenjfowler.com/comeandsee
however we talked not just on that but on many things, and my history of publishing particularly, drawing back to my book fights, from ten long years ago. if you’ve a spare hour, well parts may entertain
A note on: launching Come and See the Songs of Strange Days...
Needs must and to launch a book in the times of the lockdown one must digital. The monthly broken sleep online readings, hosted by press editor aaron kent, was a fine place to share some of my poems on films in order to launch my new collection which can be snaffled up here https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days
I like to perform but i think what is entertaining in person can be smug down the camera hole lens. Not that smugness is often avoided with me goings on, but it seemed fairy lights did the right trick and people seemed to enjoy. Judge for yourself