SOUNDOUT! in Berlin. Longlisted for Emily Dickinson

I’m really delighted that SOUNDOUT! (a live literature festival based in Berlin) have long-listed my ‘Subject Index’ performance for their May festival. This is the piece where I read all of Emily Dickinson’s poems over several days, in quasi-isolation, while making a mind-map of their apparent connections to each other and to her life. I presented it at Forest Centre+ last year, and am now hoping to develop it further in Berlin in May.

I’ve made it onto this long-list, out of 106 entries from 33 countries. I wait to find out if I actually get selected for inclusion, but I’m hopeful. The recognition is a confidence boost either way! And proof that Emily Dickinson’s work carries a charge even into non English-speaking countries. Not that that proof was needed – to me she’s clearly in the roots of much contemporary culture.

Read a little bit about SOUNDOUT! here: http://lettretage.de/Lettretagebuch/category/soundout/  (in German, but should autotranslate)

 

 

 

First reading of the year ’10 Red’ Wednesday 5th February 2014

Delighted to have been invited back by that notorious Lazarus, Kevin Cadwallender, to read at his poetry-night-with-a-twist 10 Red on Wednedsay.

It’s a crazy idea for a regular night, involving no doubt huge administrative wranglings and perpetual persuasions to bring together ten different poets to each read from their work for ten minutes apiece.

Last time I read, I loved the resulting mix/clash of registers that ensued from the form. An evening so constrained, it’s the very villanelle of the poetry calendar.

More details here.