Experimental Bookdesign & London's Little Presses

"'Short run': experimental book design & London's little presses" is an exhibition and illustrated talk showcasing the book design and production practices of five London-based little presses:

Stuart Montgomery's Fulcrum Press
Stefan & Franciszka Themerson's Gaberbocchus Press
Roy Lewis's Keepsake Press
Asa Benveniste's Trigram Press and
Bob Cobbing's Writers Forum.

This free exhibition, 12-30 January, at St Bride's Printing Library, London focuses on the heyday of little press publishing in London (1945-79), from the end of World War 2 to the beginning of Thatcher. *Additionally on Thursday 15 January, the curator Rathna Ramanathan will give a talk, 7.00pm (with exhibition open from 6.00pm). Admission £7, concs £5. Pay on the door.

Location & more info: http://www.stbride.org/
"Little presses are not Miniature Big Presses. Nor is the word 'Little' a term of endearment. [...] The difference between Little Presses and Big Presses is not in their respective sizes, nor in their loveability [sic], but in the Minds that are behind them. [...] Both minds may be most magnificent, but they start working from two opposite ends. A really Big Press Mind starts with Market Research. [...] The Minds behind Little Presses work in a different way. [...] They start with a Thought."
- Stefan Themerson, 'Introduction' to the 1974 "Catalogue of little press books in print published in the United Kingdom"

Poets Out Loud at Fordham University

Poets Out Loud
at Fordham University

presents

ALICIA OSTRIKER
Monday, September 15th, 2008, 7:00 pm

Alicia Ostriker is a major American poet and critic. Twice nominated for a National Book Award, she is author of eleven volumes of poetry, most recently No Heaven (2005). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Antaeus, The Nation, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The Atlantic, Tikkun, and many other journals, and have been widely anthologized. As a critic Ostriker is the author of two path-breaking volumes on women's poetry, Writing Like a Woman and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America. Her most recent critical book is Dancing at the Devil's Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics and the Erotic. Ostriker is Professor Emerita of Rutgers University.

RECEPTION & BOOK SIGNING to follow

FREE and open to the public

LOCATION:
Fordham University, Lincoln Center
140 West 62nd Street (Law School entrance)
McNally Amphitheater

DIRECTIONS:

A, B, C, D & 1 trains to Columbus Circle. Exit at 60th Street & Broadway. McNally Amphitheater is in the Fordham Law School at 140 West 62nd Street, just west of Columbus Ave. Upon entering the double glass doors and informing the security desk that you are attending the "Poets Out Loud" event, walk up the stairs and take a quick left. After going through another pair of double doors, take the first right and enter the Atrium through its glass doors. The Amphitheater will be ahead of you to your left.


CONTACT:

Poets Out Loud
Fordham University
113 W. 60th Street, Room 924i
New York, NY 10023
(212) 636-6792
www.fordham.edu/pol
pol@fordham.edu

Elisabeth Frost, Director

EARTH'S BODY: AN ECOPOETRY ANTHOLOGY

Coeditors Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street solicit submissions for an international anthology of ecopoetry. We are looking for a wide and varied array of submissions. Our working definition of "ecopoetry" is flexible; it includes not only what might be called nature poetry, and not only poetry that focuses on environmental issues, but also experimental poetry--poetry that explores language in its relations with the other-than-human. We welcome work by emerging as well as established poets. We welcome serious poems, playful poems, poems in open or traditional forms. Depending on limitations of space, we will consider not only short poems but also poems of several pages. The anthology will include only living poets or poets who were alive as of July 2007, and will include only poems either written in English or already translated into English; for poems not written in English, both the original and the translation must be submitted, and if accepted, both will be published. We will consider work that has been previously published, but the poet (and/or translator) MUST control rights to the work.

The deadline for submissions is DECEMBER 15, 2008. Please send up to six poems to BOTH Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street. You may send them as email text or by snail mail. If they come as email text, make sure the spacing and lineation travel accurately. WE WILL NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS AT THIS TIME. Please also include a short bio and a cover letter, and an SASE for our reply.

Ann Fisher-Wirth
English Department
Bondurant C-135
University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
afwirth@olemiss.edu

Laura-Gray Street
English Department
2500 Rivermont
Randolph College
Lynchburg, VA 24503
lstreet@randolphcollege.edu

We look forward to reading your wonderful, very best work!

SUSAN HOWE: A CELEBRATION

Birkbeck, University of London
Saturday 21st June, 9.25am-6.30pm

Susan Howe is a unique figure in twentieth-century poetry. Her work came to prominence in the early 1990s in association with the American Language poets, but quickly set its own agenda outside these parameters. From her first career as an artist, Howe brought an intense sensitivity to the visual dimensions of the text, producing a diverse body of work that has continually probed the borders between poetry and other disciplines and media. In its unorthodox readings of the American canon, its obsessive interest in history and what the official narratives of history exclude, and, more recently, in her collaborations with the experimental musician, David Grubbs, Howe’s work is unrelenting in its capacity to surprise and stimulate us.

In this one-day symposium, we aim to recognize the impact Susan Howe’s writing has had on contemporary poetics, and to provide a focus for new critical approaches to her poetry.

The conference begins with the keynote lecture by Elizabeth Willis at 9.30am, followed by four panels of papers, and finishing with a drinks reception at 6.30pm. This event is free and open to all.

Keynote Lecture: Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University)

Papers by: Stephen Collis, Drew Milne, Will Montgomery, Redell Olsen, Tony Lopez, Nick Selby, Carol Watts, William Watkin, William Rowe, Catherine Martin, Jess Wilkinson, Susan Nurmi-Schomers, Anna Reckin, Mandy Bloomfield.

To see the full programme please visit the conference webpage:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/cprc/news/newsitem1




John Tranter: edit@jacketmagazine.com

Conference: Lifting Belly High: Women’s Poetry Since 1900

Lifting Belly High: Women’s Poetry Since 1900 will be held at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 11, 12, & 13, 2008. This conference celebrates women poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through a national gathering of critics, scholars and poets, including Blau DuPlessis, Kathleen Fraser, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Lisa Samuels, Anne Finch, Dawn Lundy Martin, Cristanne Miller, Arielle Greenberg, Alan Golding, Susan Stanford Friedman, Debbie Mix, Adalaide Morris, Lynn Keller, Leslie Wheeler, Elizabeth Frost, and Cynthia Hogue. Exploring the rich and diverse textures of poetry and scholarship, the conference encourages discussion about the shape and direction of women’s poetry and discourse that can carry poetry into academic, social and political life. The conference will include a range of contexts for discussing and hearing poetry:

• Plenary panels featuring invited scholars and poets discussing “new directions in scholarship,” “poetry and the visual,” and “feminism, formalism and innovation.”
• Readings by contemporary poets
• Break-out sessions for submitted papers and panels
• Seminar discussions of pre-submitted papers on various topics
  

We invite panel, paper, and seminar topic proposals on women’s poetry since 1900, including but not limited to the direction of scholarship about women’s poetry; producing, accessing, and editing texts; pedagogical approaches to experimental writing; neglected issues in women’s poetry; spirituality and religion, and the separatist anthology.

• Individual paper submissions should be limited to abstracts of 300 words. Please include the name and contact information.
• Panel proposals should include a rationale as well as paper abstracts of no more than 300 words each.
  
• Seminar proposals should state the panel organizer(s), rationale for the topic, discussion format plans, and ideal number of participants.

Deadline for submissions (extended): May 16, 2008. Send submissions electronically to: womenspoetry@yahoo.com, or by mail to: Women Poets, Department of English, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282.

Questions and inquiries may be directed to Dr. Elisabeth Joyce, Dr. Linda Kinnahan, Dr. Elizabeth Savage, or Dr. Ellen McGrath Smith at womenspoetry@yahoo.com.

More information is available on the conference website: www.duq.edu/womenpoets

“Public Figures” New Submission: Frances Presley's “Anne R”

A new submission in response to Jena Osman's Public Figures project (featured in HOW2 Vol. 1 No. 1) is now up on the Public Figures submissions page.

Anne R

Submissions are ongoing. If you would like to respond to Public Figures, please see the submission guidelines and send your submission to Lauren Shufran <shufran.lauren@gmail.com>

Poets Out Loud: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Reginald Flood, Duriel Harris, Pamela Plummer & Evie Shockley

Poets Out Loud Presents: Cave Canem Poets Celebrate
The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South

PLEASE NOTE NEW STARTING TIME, LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS

Featuring Thomas Sayers Ellis, Reginald Flood, Duriel Harris, Pamela Plummer & Evie Shockley
Monday, April 21st, 2008
7:30 PM, 155 W. 60th Street, McMahon Hall, Room 205-6
Free and open to the public
Refreshments will be served

Directions: Enter at 155 W. 60th Street (between Columbus & Amsterdam). Go Left towards guard station. Follow corridor to elevators. Take elevators to 2nd floor. Go right, then left down the hallway to Room 205.


Poets Out Load at Lincoln Center
113 West 60th St., Ste. 924-I
New York, NY 10023
(212) 636-6792

How to Make Europe Dream?: A Cultural Congress

The European community will only be built as an imaginative community. This two-day congress brings to London writers, artists, musicians, philosophers, filmmakers and others to discuss the future of the arts in Europe. Including workshops on: translation, the tradition, the Mediterranean and arts and engagement, and a special workshop coordinated by the research cluster Critical Practice by the title "What is Cultural about Economics?"

Highlights of the congress include What's Cultural About Economics?, 4-6pm on Sun 16 Mar. Based on the model of the ancient bazaar, Critical Practice will organise a Market of Ideas in which 'stalls' organised by artists, anthropologists, economists and others will exchange their knowledge with the milling crowd. Two evening debates will focus on Dreaming of Europe in the Arts and Towards a European Cultural Avant-Garde, featuring Hans Ulrich Obrist and Gianni Vattimo.

The congress will form a major part of the London Festival of Europe 2008, a series of free lectures, debates and art events running from 6th - 16th March, organised by the independent, non-profit group of writers, artists and activists European Alternatives. The London Festival of Europe is an annual two-week series of events engaging with contemporary European politics, society and cultures. It promotes public discussion of European issues and celebrates cultural exchange.

The first London Festival of Europe was in March 2007. Over 10 days some of London's most prestigious venues were host to debates, lectures and film screenings covering a wide range of topics from the environment and the European social model to artistic relations between Europe and China. Over 1500 people attended the 2007 festival, which was opened by Zygmunt Bauman.

In addition to the program in London, several outreach events will be staged in Warsaw, Milan and Rome, to add a trans-European aspect to the festival. To promote maximum participation from a diverse audience, most of the events at the Festival will be FREE to attend, but registration advised:
editors@euroalter.com


What: How to Make Europe Dream? - A Cultural Congress

Where: Banqueting Hall, Chelsea College of Art and Design, 16 John Islip Street, London, SW1P 4JU

When: Sat 15 Mar, 12.30 - 7pm and Sun 16 Mar, 1 - 7.30pm

Further Details:

• View full programme for the Cultural Congress
• View full programme for the Festival of Europe
  

Contact: register: editors@euroalter.com

Poets Out Loud: Claudia Rankine and Stephanie Strickland

Poets Out Loud presents an evening of visual and digital poetry with Claudia Rankine and Stephanie Strickland.

Thursday, February 14th, 2008. 7:00 PM. The reading will take place at McNally Amphitheater, Fordham Law School. 140 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023. The A, B, C, D, 1, and 9 subway trains all stop at 59th Street/Columbus Circle. The campus is located one block west. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (212) 636-6792 or visit www.fordham.edu/pol.

Poets Out Loud at Lincoln Center
113 West 60th St., Ste. 924-I
New York, NY 10023
(212) 636-6792

Call for Papers: Long Poems ::: Major Forms

The University of Sussex’s School of Humanities, in conjunction with the Centre for Modernist Studies, invites submissions for papers to be given at the following conference, scheduled for Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of May 2008:

Long Poems ::: Major Forms

The ‘long poem’ has been traditionally conceived of as the principal means by which poets confront political and aesthetic problems through sustained investigations. Beyond this general outline, or indeed perhaps because of it, there is little consensus as to either what the long poem is, or what it might be uniquely capable of. In ‘The Poetic Principle,’ Edgar Allen Poe went so far as to assert that “a long poem does not exist” since “the ultimate, aggregate, or absolute effect of even the best epic under the sun, is a nullity.” Years later, and seeking to resolve the technical and affective dilemmas that Poe identified, Charles Olson prescribed a ‘projective verse’ that he purported might carry “much larger material than it has carried in our language since the Elizabethans.” He thought Pound’s Cantos exemplified the beginnings of such poetry, displaying a methodology capable of solving “problems of larger content and of larger forms.”

This conference seeks to address the contemporary relevance of the long poem: how has it evolved, what standing does it currently hold, and who are now its readers? As both a poetic and a critical concept, the ‘long poem’ presents poets with the difficulty of articulating what Pound called “a compound of freedom and order” that “hangs between chaos on the one side and mechanics on the other.” We hope this conference will provide a forum for the consideration of ways in which comprehensive, often formally complex and expansive poems may respond, or fail to respond, to certain “obligations toward the difficult whole,” and to explore what these obligations might now entail for both poets and their readers. We therefore welcome proposals for presentations addressing aesthetic, formal, generic, compositional and literary-historical questions the ‘long poem’ brings into particular focus.

*

Papers should be no more than 20 minutes in length, and calibrated towards generating wider

discussion. Please send a 250-word abstract, along with a brief biographical note by 1st March 2008 to thelongpoemconference@sussex.ac.uk. We will send out notifications shortly thereafter.