News and blogs from Arc Publications http://www.arcpublications.co.uk Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:12:55 GMT Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:00:00 GMT
The obvious (to me) advantage is quality control. Books published by Arc and other strong publishers are not only endorsed by the selection process but are also books that have gone through a rigorous editorial process. The reader is secure in the knowledge that the writing will be of a high standard.

On the other hand the reader can take risks. Knowing a certain publisher is a sign of quality means you can dabble with other writers you may not have heard of. Experiment. Take a chance on discovering the work of someone new. We all know that thrill of discovering a writer who you just adore and that realisation you have a whole catalogue of new work to read and enjoy. Series are perfect mechanisms for readers to explore new writers within a certain criteria. We also have a 'If You Like...' tool on the website which connects loosely connectable books for readers.

Whole back catalogue. Yes, a good publisher is a loyal publisher (within the bounds of point 1). At Arc we pride ourselves in remaining loyal to our writers, and so will continue to publish work, beyond the first book - when they are 'new and exciting' to coin a popular phrase. And so be an integral part of a writer's development as they progress through their writing career, so delivering stronger and perhaps more experimental books to readers.

As I mentioned in the earlier post, we support the promotion of writers, so readers can meet them, hear them read their work, talk to them, question them. Not only do we liaise between writer and venue, but also publicise the event. As much as we can...

Through the above and our website, we do what we can to encourage and aid the writer in their own ways to connect with readers. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/publishers-for-readers-198 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/publishers-for-readers-198 Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:05:12 -0100
You say in the introduction to And Silk and Love and Flame after you read Yeryüzü Halleri you went on to read all Birhan's books over the next two years. What was it about this book that caught your imagination?

It's full of surprise: unexpected images, unusual language. As readers, we all know those moments when a poem suddenly jolts us from one state to another. In this book the poems are startlingly honest and intimate in ways that made them alive and relevant.

You also talk, in the introduction, of how through Birhan's corrections her poems emerged in your 'new language'. Can you expand a little more on this idea of a new language?

When I worked with the Turkish poet Ilhan Berk he'd always say "Yorgo, they're my poems in Turkish and your poems in English." He trusted me, enough to give me a kind of absolute freedom. What you do with it is another thing. But it was important to feel the fullness of those keys. In everything I did with Ilhan I could always recognize versions of my own language use. I knew exactly which key I'd used to unlock, say, this particular door. With Birhan it was very different. She was keenly involved in the details of the poems as they appeared in English. Often she was insistent about syntax, the way her grammatical structures mirrored back through the translations. So, when I talk about a new language, I mean new to me, rather than versions of my own voice. There were many times during the translation process when I felt utterly and completely naked, as if every resource of my own language had been stripped away, thrown out, deleted. Birhan wanted gerund for gerund, article for article, tooth for tooth. I'd never worked that way before. I bowed to it. I bent my neck. And then the inexplicable magic as the poems brought me back to life and gave me a voice.

As you say, Birhan's poems "inhabit a space between cognition and remembering". Once the poems have been translated into English, how much do you think the memory has changed? How much does the language affect the essence of the memory?

Memory is personal, by its nature, but in poems it can't stay that way, hermetically sealed in its own private world. Or if it did we probably wouldn't call it a poem. Birhan's poems often recall fractured states, moments of emotional tension, expressed very minimally in simple, uncluttered language. It was important for me as a translator to keep those pathways into memory clear, and to reflex her stylistic clarity even when the memories themselves are complex. But we don't own languages: the words aren't mine or hers, or yours or ours. We partake for a certain duration in this communion of common experience, where words are nothing if not shared. So, while they are Birhan's memories, already in Turkish they've taken up residence in language, and that is no longer private. From that moment on I think there is no essence unique to the memory that cannot be shared.

Birhan's use of line breaks is tremendously invigorating and you talk of punctuation being the key to giving you the flexibility to open up the poems. For those of us who don't read Turkish how much do you follow her line breaks? And to explore your thinking more, how did you make decisions in the English versions for the line breaks?

Unlike in English, Turkish doesn't follow any hard and fast punctuation rules. It's an odd idea to fully understand but it allows poems to be fluid and exact at one and the same time. It can sometimes be difficult to isolate lines and units of meaning in Birhan's poems. Not following the command of a comma or full stop allows a reader to carry sense holistically through the lines, into the verse, and into the poem. In this way Birhan's poems think and feel simultaneously and that moves the reader unexpectedly through several registers at once. It's difficult at first. But there's never a sense of being separated and then reconnected. It was important to closely tempo my lines to those of Birhan's in order to carry this across in English. Without the "dictatorship of the full stop", as Berk once called it, nothing really comes to an end. The poems change direction, expand and contract, and either fade away or blend into new beginnings. It sounds strange, and perhaps it is initially. But it doesn't take long before it starts to pull you in.

What would you say was the most difficult aspect of translating Birhan's work?

When an author turns to their translator and asks "In this part here, can you try to be a little less you and a little more me?" then you know that much of the task will involve a degree of introspection that goes far beyond the two languages. It was rewarding to work so intensely with Birhan's poems, but it was exhausting. With only the smallest revision, the things I'd tried so hard to make visible could suddenly disappear in a flash. It was difficult sometimes to get the rabbit out of the hat. But I think we did it eventually. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/in-conversation-with-george-messo-196 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/in-conversation-with-george-messo-196 Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:42:17 -0100
This is from today's Futurebook blog on the Bookseller

And comes in the same week that Salt have announced they're adding a "find your local bookshop" link to each book they sell, as a small protest against Amazon. Nice touch.

Of course we think publishers fulfil a hugely valuable role for both author and reader. Below is some of the service we offer writers whose work we publish (after we've worked with the writer and/or translator on the manuscript).

Full bibliographic details of each book go to Nielsen, who feed the details to Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and UK wholesales, reaching bookshops worldwide.
Full details of your book and cover, plus any ancillary information (sound files, links to YouTube etc), go up on our website.
We send Advance Information sheets to our marketing and repping agency, Inpress Books, who pass this information to their regional reps, and include each title in their catalogue of forthcoming publications, which reaches every bookseller in the UK, and targeted bookshops in Europe and beyond.
All eligible manuscripts are submitted to the Poetry Book Society for consideration in their quarterly 'Choice / Recommendation'.
We send eligible manuscripts / published books to all prizes and awards.
Review copies are automatically sent to the major reviews and we'll send extra to specifically named contacts.
If the author is willing, we'll set up an interview for our blog.
Each book is featured on Facebook and Twitter, shared with our many friends and followers, and on our e-newsletters to even more.
From time to time we receive requests to reproduce poems for song texts, educational / workshop use, exam papers, in anthologies etc. We always inform the author of these requests and, wherever reasonable, give permission and, if appropriate, ask for a fee which we pass on.
We circulate details of each new title to literary festivals in the UK and abroad.
Working with each author, we arrange a launch of their book.
We arrange readings wherever we can, and for these readings provide printed materials as well as circulating details online.
Wherever possible we try to be present at events at which Arc authors are reading. Not only so that we can record the readings to post on the Arc website, but because we want to have the opportunity of getting to know our authors and their work better.

Phew ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/ask-not-what-your-publisher-can-do-for-you-but-what-you-191 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/ask-not-what-your-publisher-can-do-for-you-but-what-you-191 Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:32:19 -0100
We were up there to support Arc poets, Ludwig Steinherr (reading as part of an European Literature Night with Robert Şerban from Romania), Alvin Pang and Anna Crowe, the translator of our latest new Voices from Europe anthology: Six Catalan Poets. Other highlights were Deryn Rees-Jones, Charlotte Runcie and Matilda Södergran (one of the poets in our forthcoming Six Finnish Poets).

Reading work is, as we know, not as simple as following the lines on a page, nor is it as complicated as articulating every syllable with choreography. It's the opportunity to bring out the full intimacy of the words, their sense and sound, to the readers'/audience's deep consciousness. To play a bit. To hear familiar poems through a new filter of new listeners. To air new ones.

All these reasons and excuses (and more) were put into action by Astrid Alben and Sophie Mayer recently at an Enemies reading in London. And I love it. I love the energy of the collaboration - made all the more evident by having two on the stage - but the collaboration is there between reader and listener. I love the screen of text turned three-dimensional by voice.



We're just beginning to put together poets for another autumn tour this year and I hope the combination of poets we'll be touring will generate more reasons for reading and listening to poetry live. Armenia can drum up audiences of 2000 without batting an eyelid. Punjabis will roar at the end of lines they love and demand an encore, and another if they can't get enough. Surely there is enough of us in this country to generate more than the odd knowing 'hmm', an appreciative silence or applause? It's a rare and appreciative act when people go up to the poets to talk to them after a reading - although less so at festivals. It's not asking so much, is it? ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/performance-187 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/performance-187 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:15:49 -0100


In short he is just the kind of poet you'd want to accidentally wander into on a dismal Sunday afternoon down the pub - as several people did. Arriving with bemused looks on their faces, unable to turn tail and leave immediately and then fall, engrossed.

What Tony does so well is spin stories: from his poems, from the people in the poems, in the audience, from the train ride there, from the poems he didn't write. Part stand up comedian (he'll probably hate me for saying that), part wry poet, part Elizabeth Bishop afficionado, wholly engaged and egalitarian, compassionate and empathetic, you can see why he's invited to read all over the world, contribute to projects and anthologies. 45 haikus in one afternoon? He's your man.

And what a mine of information... Apparently, an unsigned Elizabeth Bishop first edition of poetry can be bought for $30, whereas signed $60000... Not that, he added, he was drawing any comparisons to his own book being available. And I doube he was. He's a modest man, whose purpose seems more driven by sharing a sense of humanity and making connections, which fires his poetry, rather than elevating himself. A rarity in such a charismatic performer.

Keep an eye out for his next appearance.

]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/tony-curtis-in-hebden-bridge-186 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/tony-curtis-in-hebden-bridge-186 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:33:43 -0100
Sponsored/Board and Lodging paid
Hedgebrook Women writers residency
Kamov Residency
Baltic Centre for Writers & Translators
Val Paraiso
Hald Hovedgaard
Cove Park (pictured above)
Bellagio Centre
Ucross Foundation
El Gouna (I'm not sure if this continues)
Fiskars
Hawthornden Castle, Mid Lothian
Kamov

A long long list of places/retreats available for writers to visit, where you need to contribute towards or pay entirely for their stay can also be found at Transartists and Nia at LAF has made a lovely looking gallery of subsidised and non-subsidised residencies here ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/writing-residencies-183 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/writing-residencies-183 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:29:52 -0100
While he enjoyed the whole visit immensely, when pressed he admitted the highlight was the poetry reading in Andrews Auditorium, Geddes Hall, a large auditorium with screens illustrated with poems and images. The lecture he gave was open to the public as well as students and professors from different faculties, where he was gratified to feel his work was put under great scrutiny and interest.

What is particularly satisfying, for us at Arc, is that Before the Invention of Paradise was published in December 2010. It seems the extent of its appreciation is only just becoming apparent. Steinherr is clearly stepping up to the Europe-wide (and beyond) recoginition he deserves. He is also appearing as part of the European Literature Night at StAnza on 8th March, alongside Robert Serban from Romania.

Above you can see Ludwig together with the philosopher Prof. Vittorio Hösle, director of the Institute of Advanced Study, in public discussion. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/ludwig-steinherr-a-neverending-tour-of-paradise-182 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/ludwig-steinherr-a-neverending-tour-of-paradise-182 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:31:14 -0100
What leads (or drives) you to write poetry?

I have attempted to write poems since I was a teenager, encouraged by my mother who was a great fan of John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins. I was born in 1955 and was 15 in 1970, reading Sylvia Plath, Geoffrey Hill, Dylan Thomas, the Liverpool poets, Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes and St John of the Cross. I had several friends who read poetry and aspired to write. So poetry has always been important in my life but it took me until my early 30s to try and write again after a degree in English and French literature. I was working as a reporter for a news agency in Reading, living in Guildford and there was a poetry workshop series at South Hill Park arts centre in Bracknell, on my way home. It was my treat for a job that had me chasing cruise missile convoys around Berkshire in the early hours of the morning - Greenham Common was on my patch. I signed up, the tutors were Matthew Sweeney and Peter Pegnall, and rediscovered a drive to write poems again, largely as a result of being introduced to the work of many poets I'd not read before. It's been with me ever since, only dipping from time to time for reasons that have nothing to do with poetry. In fact, rediscovering the pleasure of writing was one of the reasons I did an MA course in modern English literature, because I wanted to focus my reading of poetry.

How much do you see it as a having a spiritual or divine role?

The best poems go deep. I'm not religious but I know when I'm writing properly I'm in a different state. I'd never use the terms spiritual or divine to describe that state - meditative comes closest for me. As for reading poems, the good ones remind me of that state too and how important it is to being alive.

Poetry communicates human experience, the experience of the body and relationships. Czeslaw Milosz argued that spiritual questions canstill be dealt with by people who are not religious believers but that we struggle to find images of belief.

I ask that because, in Commandments, your last collection, you seed the 'commandment' poems between seemingly more commonplace subjects. And while you poke fun at the notion of 'commandments', I wonder what you consider the importance of religion and belief in daily life?

I know a number of people who are quietly devout and I respect the importance of their different religions in their lives. I was brought up a Catholic, educated in a convent and I rejected that convention when I was a teenager. However, belief is essential to life. I believe in many things! The commandment poems explore hypocrisy, fundamentalism, the weakness of dogmatic belief as well as alternative moral codes.

When Milosz addressed his belief in life after death, in an interview about the Polish poet Anna Swir, he said, "Personally I feel the dead are present and part of our lives, but being a modern poet, I am unable to put them in any imaginary space."

The Catholic religion, like most major religions, has formed its imagery over centuries. I live in one of the cities that was once defined as the most godless in the UK. Nonsense of course ... but think of all those saints, hell, damnation, purgatory, limbo, devils, the chants and the hymns - all of which I grew up with, infused with the delicious smell of frankincense, then think of the stories they contain. Even people I know who were brought up without a faith, turn to these sources of imagery in their poems, almost enviously. It's powerful, elemental and I wonder if the current return to nature as a source of imagery is the result of godlessness. Are some non-believers rediscovering animism?

What do you think is the role of poet in our society?

There are many poets, many roles. Carolyn Forche has championed the responsibility of poetry to bear witness. I think most poetry does that in its own way. Michael Longley has spoken about poetry shining a light on the lives of ordinary people and I hope my poems do that too.

A plumber fixes pipes and boilers, a poet tries to communicate experience and experiment with words. Perhaps a poet also reminds society of the importance of language.Basically, a poet's role is to write well, keep improving and share with as many people as possible the pleasure and scope of poetry. I hope I'm not misquoting Susan Sontag, but she argued that a poet's role was to create new metaphors for our time. I'll go along with that. Jane Hirshfield has said language discovers and creates itself through metaphor, and connects internal and external worlds. I think poets should be kind to one another, generous with praise, affirmative so we can be more confident in our role, too.

I feel quite strongly that poets should be independent, not too embedded in institutions or movements. But I'm perhaps being unrealistic. Academia has claimed many and put them in highly paid, full-time jobs, given them status and in return has its own expectations.

I guess, though, only an individual can decide what her or his role is and consequently it's probably always changing.I don't like to theorise about it too much.

How has your attitude or approach to your poetry changed over your publications?

I am more conscious of my ignorance, of the brilliant work of the past and the many poems being written now. I'm more critical than I used to be years ago but I trust the process more. I am less anxious if a poem doesn't work since I reached a point when I could barely write a thing and found my way out of it. My poems are becoming shorter, but tend to be more connected to one another. However, I find it hard to stand back and analyse my approach - if anything I take it day by day. I'm grateful if a poem suggests itself.

You were named as one of the top ten women poets of the decade in 2004 by Mslexia. Many of the other poets selected (for example, Deryn Rees-Jones, Pascale Petit, Catherine Smith, Polly Clarke) still mention this in their biographies, what do you think is the significance (or otherwise) of being on this listing?

It was the reason I was asked to be poet in residence at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 2004 and that was very significant for me. I loved working with the Poetry Trust team. Their generosity and attentiveness gave me a boost at a time when I needed one.

As for the listing itself, I am still honoured to be in the company of excellent poets whose work I admire and whose work is widely read and respected.

You are a writing tutor for many institutions and as freelance. How does this fit with your creative work?

I am working much less as a writing tutor - I have two very part-time posts: associate lecturer for the Open University and visiting tutor at Goldsmiths college, University of London. My freelance work has dropped to almost nothing but I'm hoping I'll pick up some commercial writing and journalism very, very soon. In May 2012 I finished three years of a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at Surrey and Sussex universities. During this time I cut out almost all freelance work because the fellowships gave me a secure income. The moment I started I was able to write again after a significant block. It was bliss to enjoy writing again. Now I have to learn how to live on even less. Like many women, I have always fitted my creative work around paid work and looking after my children.

What are you working on now, creatively? What ambitions do you have for it?

I have finished another collection, Woman's Head as Jug. I'm waiting to hear when/if it will be published. If it isn't, I'll keep on writing more poems. If it is, I'd love it to be read and enjoyed by many people. I'd like people to recommend it to others the way I recommend books and writers to my friends. I'd like someone to be reminded of a poem in it, randomly, just as poems I've read pop into my mind now and again. I'd like people who read it to feel satisfied and surprised and want to re-read it. I'd like readers to get the same pleasure from it as I do from books by writers I love.

At the same time, I'm continuing to work with the artist Jane Fordham. Our collaboration is one of two people approaching the same topic. We don't illustrate one another's work, we use the same sources. We've been documenting our collaboration for several years on a closed blog - it was originally inspired by a collaboration we saw at Avignon between choreographer Josef Nadj and artist Miquel Barcello.

Thank you, Jackie ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/in--conversation-with-jackie-wills-181 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/in--conversation-with-jackie-wills-181 Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:41:59 -0100
The issue's guiding theme is recovery...

re-cov-er-y
/ri'kəvəri/
1. A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength
2. The action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost

Submissions for the fifth issue of the journal, which will be published in September 2013 are being called for. The issue aims, in particular, to explore a broad range of perspectives on Asia. Alvin Pang is working with the Axon editorial team on this issue.

Among other themes and topics, they invite contributions that address:

* Pain, convalescence and resilience as a way of apprehending the Asia-Pacific region and its return to the centre of world affairs, in the context of its complex tapestry of historical humiliation, political turmoil, personal suffering, natural disaster, economic imbalance, cultural amnesia.
* The perceived value of literature - e.g. as a form of intellectual, moral and spiritual tonic, or opposing questions about its material or utilitarian worth.
* The role of the marketplace in defining or challenging received notions of cultural identity and expression.
* The challenges and opportunities of language and translation.
* Dynamic, diverse and different forms of cultural engagement - with, within and across Asia - that deserve wider attention.

Contributions that are off-theme, though still in line with the scope of the journal, are also welcome.

They also welcome papers that range into the fields of the visual and/or performing arts.

Submissions: scholarly articles, essays and interviews, visual, sonic and other digital media are invited. Final revised articles, papers, essays and interviews (including endnotes) will be between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length. All scholarly contributions are double-blind peer reviewed. (Please note that while Axon publishes poetry, all poetry contributions will be directly solicited by the journal's editors.)

Submissions should be previously unpublished, although works previously published in a workshop or conference proceedings may be submitted for consideration if they have been substantially revised.

Please contribute by entering your email address and writing a message at the very bottom of the AXON webpage here. Deadline: 31 March 2013. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/alvin-pang-wants-you-180 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/alvin-pang-wants-you-180 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:14:12 -0100
"The tour of Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets was an incredible experience for all involved, myself included, and I know poets that are still facebooking about it from London to Yangon. I'd contend that the fact these events occurred at all disproves Auden's humbuggish idea that 'poetry makes nothing happen'. This was the first ever tour of poets from Burma to promote the first ever anthology of Burmese poetry published in the West. For me, poetry is always an active thing and - even in the 21st Century - it can be still be pioneering. As Khin Aung Aye pointed out after our opening event at SOAS 'this tour is a tour of firsts'.

The tour began and ended in London, with terrific events at SOAS and the Free Word Centre set a week apart. In between there are so many good memories which I am still trying to parcel out in my brain. But I would like to draw your attention to two events in Edinburgh, one with the Scottish Poetry Library and the other an intimate setting above the Edinburgh Writers' Museum, to a selection of PEN members. Before the SPL event we'd driven up from Newcastle where leading Burmese female poet Eaindra, having never experienced the cold snap of Europe, was beginning to get a little poorly in the car (strangely my attempts to blast some new breakbeats from Mali didn't seem to help!). By the time we got to the outskirts of the city she was suffering all the more. As it transpired, after physically being sick Eaindra gave one of the most outstanding readings that I have ever seen, beginning with her trademark poem about oppressed barwoman 'Lily' and concluding with 'The Day (Before that Day)', a clearly painful love poem for Eaindra to recite, which she did bravely, right through to the astonishing final stanza as tears streamed down her face:

The day before that day
I poisoned the arrowhead
That would shoot me down.

(Ruth Padel read Lily with Eaindra at the SOAS event, recorded here)

The next morning at The Writers' Museum, all three poets read a selection of their own poetry finishing with one piece from another poet in Bones Will Crow. Khin Aung Aye read 'Shall I Plunge into a Big Bummer' by Maung Pyiyt Min. This is an elegy for Maung Chaw Nwe, arguably the most loved and celebrated poet in Burma for decades. Maung Chaw Nwe lived an itinerant life, frequently in poverty, before dying prematurely in 2002. Khin Aung Aye's own poetics are influenced by his friend and 'Seya' and he was one of the poets who was with him around the time he passed away. Ko Pyiyt Min's poem, which is set inside the hospital room of Maung Chaw Nwe could have been written by Khin Aung Aye himself. Again there were tears during the delivery of this poem - not just from Khin Aung Aye, I noticed people in the audience too were wiping at their eyes.

But, I should reassure you, not all the readings ended in tears! Laughter was a daily (often minute-by-minute!) experience. New friendships were built between our poets, their English counterparts and the wider audience, many of whom I'm sure didn't know what to expect from hearing Burmese poetry. Also, important friendships were resumed between all three poets, who consider themselves to be part of a wider 'family' of Burmese poets, those who have collectively struggled and fought for free expression for fifty years since Ne Win's brutal takeover. As members of this family the Burmese community came out in full force. I can only imagine what this must have been like for them to meet poets like Thitsar Ni, having read him whilst in exile, via materials smuggled out of a country under the watchtower of military censorship. During variously pertinent discussions, the poets and myself helped to explain how quickly Burma is changing and warn of the hugely significant political, educational, social and economic challenges that remain.

Crucially, through the expression of all three poets - who are consistently modern and innovative (they had to be to avoid the censorship board) - it appeared Western audiences might have grasped something vital and new about the longstanding cultural importance of Burmese literature. While Burma has been on media agendas for some time now - quite rightly from a human rights perspective - the importance of its national literature has been largely ignored. Perhaps the tour has planted an important seed in this respect. The British, so long the colonial gatekeepers of Burma, might finally be able to understand the country they handed over that led to militaristic terror. Again Mr Auden... plenty happening here because of poetry!

There are many I'd like to thank. But to avoid going on too long, I'll acknowledge just a few. Firstly I thank ko ko thett for working with me on Bones all these years. All anthologies are never straightforward and the groundwork to this project meant for no exception, it being the prototype for Burmese poetry in translation and with few texts already suitably translated. We put everything we could into the translational and editorial work behind this anthology and ko ko translated something like half the canon of modern Burmese poetry, with me checking the English over his shoulder. Unfortunately ko ko couldn't be with us on tour because of teaching commitments, so it was fitting to read his poem, 'the burden of being bama', at our final event at the Free Word Centre in London (and what a finale that night was!)

Thanks also to Sarah Hymas at Arc who, as ever, was a real pleasure to work alongside. Along with Tony Ward and Angela Jarman, Sarah put a lot of time and effort into this anthology. It was she who finally ensured the poets would all be here, then subsequently had enough drive to get behind the wheel of the proverbial bus! As for the anthology itself, Arc should be credited for being one of the few publishers in England who would even turn their heads towards a publication of such local and international significance. I'm very grateful to them in helping to get the anthology over the line, coincidentally at such a delicately precipiced moment for the Burmese themselves.

Finally I thank the poets, all of those in the anthology, but in respect of the tour the three that were able to join us. Six years ago, slowly beginning to get a foothold on Burmese poetry, I could never have even considered that I'd be eating haggis, neeps and tatties with Khin Aung Aye below the castle slopes of Edinburgh, shopping for jewelry with Eaindra in the malls of Newcastle and catching Thitsar Ni strut through Bloomsbury looking like Asia's don of hip-hop! Yes, I have come to know the quality of your poems, which I treasure and continue to learn from, but the readings you gave to this tour were some of the most powerful I have ever witnessed from any poet, in any language. We must do it again sometime..." ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/bones-will-crow-a-tour-of-firsts-179 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/bones-will-crow-a-tour-of-firsts-179 Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:26:15 -0100
The special things about this tour are: to travel around town by town East, West, South and North of England, going together with male and female poet friends from the same country and experiencing together the different landscapes and natures, are such astonishing moments for all participants. In addition to this, poems written in our mother language have been recited in our original voices to people from western culture and in translations. That we can introduce our Burmese poetry to the UK audience is a precious opportunity for us.

We had quiet and peaceful times in Hebden Bridge where Arc Publication is located, unforgettable delightful moments for us. Moreover, getting a chance to visit Arc's office, the place where Bones will Crow was born, and also going to see the tomb of poet Sylvia Plath are such priceless chances for us. In Hebden Bridge Tony and Angela took care of us greatly. I treasure their warmth.

The farewell party held on 31 Oct at Free Word Center (London), where English PEN, a supporter of this tour, is located, included the incredible slideshow work of Craig Ritchie and the performance artist Htein Lin's surprise performance, both also unforgettable memories of lifetime.

I would like to express thanks on behalf of all Burmese poets, to Sarah and Ben, who helped us throughout the whole tour, and to James Byrne, who contributed his precious time for us to recite the translated poems, asking questions, introducing us to audiences.

Khin Aung Aye
10 November 2012, Cheldan Grove, London, 16:20 PM. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/khin-aung-aye-reflects-178 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/khin-aung-aye-reflects-178 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:15:04 -0100
It seems that the poets taking part in the tour gained equally off stage as they did from reading their work to new audiences and talking to them... By visiting new cities and galleries with other poets they had never met before and sharing responses and meals, it is inevitable we learn more about how we see the world, in context to the past and to others' we share the moment with.

I am looking forward to reading some poems I expect will arise from Amarjit's experience...

]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/amarjit-chandans-tour-177 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/amarjit-chandans-tour-177 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:46:13 -0100
24th to 31th October, 2012...
My journey to England made me quite fatigued. It was terribly cold, a whistle-stop tour. England is a grand and mythically constructed country of legendary events.

For me,
I had never been in such cold weather as theirs.
I had never been as warmed as by their welcome.
I had never been as exhausted as by that long journey.
In my life,
I had never been as excited and stimulated.
It was as beautiful as a poem, an epic as well.


+++

It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
Then the trees may touch me for once, and
the flowers have time for me.
Sylvia Plath.... From "I Am Vertical"


Within the tour programme, which was extraordinary thanks to Arc, I had the opportunity to recite a poem at the final resting place of Sylvia Plath. I was bowed with the flowers' time for Sylvia, at the place where she lay down, finally at peace as in the last sentence from her poem "I am vertical"

I'd never dreamt of such a thing in my whole life.

I feel there are not enough words to acknowledge Arc Publications.

And... Sarah, who treated me with kindheartedness. She could recite my poems with the voice of her inner space, from somewhere deep within her heart.
And... James, who I'd never seen before; fanatical about and addicted to poetry, had given a huge effort to our book. Moreover, he encouraged me.
And... Tony, who said that they'd considered deeply whether not or to publish the book, but Bones Will Crow was a special decision.
And... Angela, who could dramatically read the poems, whose glances and movements were all made with poetic manners.
And... ko ko thett, who I wished was involved in the tour, but unfortunately couldn't be. Throughout the entire journey, I was thinking of him.

++++

I never thought the British were interested not only in Burmese poetry but also politics, culture, language and traditional costume. I saw how they gave their attention to such things and was endlessly proud of my country. A lovely mannerism of theirs was to be warm and deeply encouraging to others. I have to say a very special thank you to all the people who supported this wonderful experience for me as a Burmese female poet, who could stand tall among Anglo Saxon readers for the first time.

Ruth Padel, Sarah, Angela and Astrid Alben all displayed their excellent poetic mood when they read my poems. A reward I'd never received before. Although I did my best, I believe my poems wouldn't have hit the audience if these women had not been there. If someone had said I'd had some success then, I would say my effort was only 20%, the translators' role 40%. The rest made by the sharply emotional voices of Ruth Padel, Sarah, Angela and Astrid Alben.

++++

I wouldn't describe what I've done as extraordinary. I'd say it wasn't much at all. I expressed the aesthetics of my poetry as much as I could. I just let people see that we, Burmese female poets, have also been struggling and holding hands together in the contemporary poetic ocean. What I was pleased by was that I could answer questions with satisfactory facts.

I could say I got too much from the trip. While I can't comment like some can, I'd like to write down what I've gained. There was no differentiation nor arguments between the types and forms of poetry. There was an audience who was willing to pay to attend those events on chilled autumn evenings. Yes, there was an audience who loved poetry. Yes, there were poetry libraries, poetry magazines like The Wolf, recitals and workshops for poetry specifically, which I saw in England. We have to try to emulate these habits in my country. I admire how some universities specialize in poetry, where students can learn about poetry and scholars can make their critics on poetry. Given our transitional political situation, I think we'd make better effort to build our knowledge of poetry for standing tall among other countries and regaining the vote of confidence.

The door has been opened by Bones will Crow, from England. I feel I have responsibilities for Burmese poetry. We need a bridge, where Burmese poetry cross over it to meet with the real world.

I wish I could be a small brick or a particle of sand which is constructed in that bridge.


Eaindra
Translated by Zaw Zaw Htun ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/eaindra---standing-tall-176 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/eaindra---standing-tall-176 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:09:59 -0100
While the audience sizes were often much larger, engaged audiences and an atmosphere of intimacy and exchange was the story of the tour as a whole. I lost count of the number of strangers that approached me after events to tell me how much they enjoyed hearing our poets read and speak about their own history and culture, how 'magical' the atmosphere had been, or how glad they were that they hadn't just stayed at home and had ventured forth into what was often, to them, the unknown world of live contemporary poetry. It has been a great privilege for me to bear witness to the different ways poets can captivate an audience, and to the moving effect poetry can have on people when read with heart and energy by its author.

The workshops and seminars have been a fantastic addition to the readings during the tour. The best out of those at which I was present was the translation seminar at Leeds University, the day after the reading. We had organised it with the Centre for Translation Studies' MA in Audiovisual Translation Studies, as one of a series of extra-curricular seminars for which students could earn supernumerary credits for attending. The turnout was excellent and the students were very attentive - for many of them, it seemed like this was the first time they had ever engaged with the concept of poetry translation, and I wouldn't be surprised if one or two future poetry translators were inspired into being that morning. Thrown into the deep end, I was asked to talk about poetry translation from the publishing intern's point of view, but in fact I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience of what had been for me a brand new environment, and a new way of thinking about poetry and language. Of particular interest to the students was the possibility of collaboration when translating a living poet. There also seemed to be a certain amount of surprise that many poetry translations are not commissioned - that often someone will translate a poet's work for the joy of it, and only later contemplate publication.

Meeting poets from eight different countries has been fascinating and an unrivalled insight into the variety of poetic styles and attitudes to creativity that exist around the world. It has also been a humbling reminder of the difficulties artists face - difficulties that are alien to me and my British upbringing. Being able to help in the process of promoting and encouraging these poets in the UK has been extremely rewarding. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/intimacy-and-exchange--a-reflection-on-the-ventures-tour-175 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/intimacy-and-exchange--a-reflection-on-the-ventures-tour-175 Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:40:16 -0100
The publication, in English, of poems which kept being written through decades when an apparently unmeltable ice sheet of silence, censorship, fear and repression lay over the whole country of Burma, is a testament to the power of poetry, to the universal need for the "free words" of poetry, and to the bravery and imagination of the individual poets.

As Portia says in The Merchant of Venice:

How far that little candle throws his beams.
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

In our own dark world, the work of Thitsar Ni, Eaindra, and their colleagues - and of their poet-translators - should be celebrated everywhere."

A note from Ruth Padel to the final event on the Burmese tour at the Free Word Centre 31st October 2012

And below is photographer Craig Ritchie's contribution to the FWC event: a wonderful slideshow from his photos and quotes from Bones Will Crow

]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/a-note-from-the-free-word-centre-174 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/a-note-from-the-free-word-centre-174 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:00:45 -0100
The Icelandic Embassy hosted my first reading. I was fortunate to have my translator Rory McTurk there so he read his translation of the book. Rory attended also to the reading in Leeds. The audience was often very interested in the translation process and Rory answered their many questions.

In Hebden Bridge we read with two local poets, Amanda Dalton and Anne Caldwell, which was very nice. I really liked meeting them and hearing their poetry. Amanda happened to be as interested about the Finnish Moomin-books as me. In Hull I met among others the poet Shane Rhodes. We found out that we both love Charles Bukowski's poem 'For Jane': "225 days under grass and you know more than I. they have long taken your blood ..." When you can talk about beautiful poetry you don't have to discuss the cod war.

One of many highlights of the tour was visiting the Brontë museum in Haworth and Sylvia Plath's grave in Heptonstall where people have left hundreds of pens. I found a lipstick there too - a cheap one. We will probably not get any fancy stuff from Chanel or Dior after we are dead and gone. I do hope there is some kind of a tax-free store at the end of the tunnel where we can get some luxury on our way to our new dwellings. When Angela Jarman, of Arc, knew that I had been at Sylvia's grave she asked me if I had resisted the temptation to put a Moomin sticker on the headstone and yes, actually I did! I didn't leave anything there. On the other hand I would have preferred tidying up a bit there.

The last reading was in Bangor in Wales. The audience was great and a lot of copies of Bloodhoof were sold but that is not what makes this day so memorable. It was on the 24th of October - the day Oscar was born, Angela Jarman's grandson. I did not even try to resist the temptation to send the new born a soft Moomin. They might need each other. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/not-mentioning-the-war-173 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/not-mentioning-the-war-173 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:44:42 -0100 _____

How would you describe your poetry?

I have been asked this question many times and each time I evade it saying: I write about any thing - from God to the tomato. I've written a poem about the latter and I rather like it.

I think contemporary poets and literary critics including readers are better in describing a poet's work.

When did you begin writing poetry?

I inherited poetry from my father who was a poet. My first poem was published in the prestigious Punjabi magazine Preet Lari when I was 20.

How have you developed and improved your poetry since you started? What is your writing process? Do you write alone or with the help of others?

One learns all the time. I write alone. It is revealed to me. It can happen any time, anywhere. I have written walking the streets scribbling on pieces of paper.

What encouraged you to take part in the Arc tour? What do you hope to achieve? What are you most looking forward to?

My publishers encouraged me! I'd like to reach more people who appreciate poetry. I'd talk about how the Punjabi listeners respond to poets reading in public. Unlike the English scene it is always lively. They respond to each word, image or a line they like by saying aloud like: Wow! Great! Marvelous! Mukarar - say it again! Bravo! The English tend to reach out to the poet after the reading, saying simply: that poem or line I really liked. A woman in Lancaster (34th Litfest 20th October) came to me telling how she was touched by my poem 'To Father' and could not control her tears.

How much does reading in new contexts change the way you think about your work?

Readers' and listeners' response is what really matters. I have read in all sorts of contexts - from large gatherings to intimate circles - amongst my own community and non-Punjabis. I feel rewarded even if there is a single person present who you know is touched by your words or a silent pause in your poem.

Sometimes I've a weird feeling while reading, which I have shared with my close friends, a parallel track runs in my thoughts that I shouldn't be doing this - making public my innermost thoughts like a love poem or poems written about my loved ones. It wasn't meant to be like this. My friends comfort me that it is sharing - that's what poetry is all about.

Reading while recording in a semi-dark studio is bizarre and overwhelming - the subjects of your poems appear before your eyes and you talk face-to-face with them.

What do you think is most important in a poetry translation? Is fidelity to the original the most important thing, for example?

The original is crucial. The translation has to be faithful to the original in its own way.

What place do you think poetry has in contemporary culture?

Poetry has certain contemporariness about it by its very nature - it's momentary, immediate, and urgent. It has the central place where our hearts are. It has always been the case and will ever be.

Are there any British poets you have been inspired by or you particularly admire?

I particularly admire John Berger. He is the master. As a man and a writer he is so inspiring. My writing is very much influenced by his work. Other English poets who are my favourite: Dannie Abse, Adrian Mitchell, Owen Sheers and Jackie Kay.

What are the difficulties facing poets in the Punjab?

Their main difficulty is to get published. There are no funding bodies like Arts Council etc. Most of the poets are into self-publishing or they have to pay the publishers and the readership is also shrinking. The poets in West Punjab Pakistan are in dire straits. It is the most populous province of Pakistan, with more than 55% of the country's total population. Unlike the Indian Punjab, Punjabi has no status there: it has no official recognition in the Constitution of Pakistan. It is not taught at the primary school level. Even Punjabi members of national assembly are not allowed to make speeches in their own mother tongue.

Amarjit Chandan
22 October 2012 ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/momentary-immediate-and-urgent-amarjit-chandan-172 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/momentary-immediate-and-urgent-amarjit-chandan-172 Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:41:05 -0100
"This is the first time I've been in the UK, and launching a book in another country, translated into its language is very exciting, very rewarding, I think, for any writer or poet. It is a form of recognition that any artist receives with satisfaction.

To participate a tour through several cities is more interesting still. It gives me the opportunity to not only hear their work in another language, but also to feel a close dialogue with and the direct perception that the public speaking the language into which my language was poured, holds for my work.

I've had experience as a translator, Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Cesar Vallejo and can say that translation work is mainly poetry, a kind of frustration. For in the case of poetry, there are idioms that are irreplaceable. If in a poem there is the possibility of a synonym in own language it is written, how do you find a similar term in another language? So. The translation works better the closer one can get to the original as possible. I think the best aproximation occurs when the translator achieves a sort of echo in the three main pillars that sustain poetry: sound, image and sense.

Even so, the importance of translation and the translator's role in the scenario is immense in expanding dialogue and exchange between different cultures.

It's hard to talk about poetry. Any poetry. The word poetry is by nature anti-descriptive. There's an essay Claudio Daniel, actually an introductory Spanish for a future edition, which speaks very well about my poetry called "Reimagining the Flood." But, c'mon. In my first two books, Ten and Hong Kong, where there is a concentration on the more extreme experimentation with language, there's a quest to break concepts, procedures and poetic themes. This leads to a certain diction that, while addressing themes often common to all, created what the philosopher Benedito Nunes, in the preface of Hong Kong, called this "the language of Antônio Moura ". Over the next two books, Rio Silence and Shadow of Absence, the focus is shifting to a macro-structure of language and thought, bringing poetry to a meeting and a closer dialogue with thought. [Silence River is a collected of these titles]

What piqued my interest in poetry was the greater nuance of sound that appears in poetry and isn't presented in other types of text. The library in my childhood home was fueled mainly by my older brothers - much older than me. With that came the desire to read the great poets who were there, like Baudelaire, for example. Then came more reading and the world with its throbbing and its bangs and silence.

Yet the poem is formed in silence, a tenuous exchange between unconscious and conscious, almost imperceptive after it jumps into the conscious and it's not long out the fingers, in the form of writing. And when it leaves the fingers it is already almost all formed. What is missing has to be accepted as part of its existence.

I do not know if you can change the way you think about the work, not in general, which involves the complete abandonment of its essence, the anima, the foundation of its art. But I believe that a perception of language can make you or your art leap, and spiral in form, which does imply a transformation.

The role of poetry never was and never will be to have a working function in society. It does not lend itself to that. But I think at certain times, and we need not go back very far in time, just to the first half of the twentieth century, to realize that poetry and art in general, had a penetration, visibility, presence and much greater influence in the world - and I'm not speaking here of an engaged art or pamphleteering - which was much more intense and rebounded much louder in the world than today.

I think that poets and artists today are a community facing an apocalypse in trying to fight barbarism and the banality of technique, which they must resist and carry the flame forward.

Brazil has become the realm of banality, the rise of the disposable and trivia. The media is disgusting. Sloth occupies the place where people could take shelter in cultural quality, not only in the field of poetry. Another major problem is the difficulty that one has to get financial support from the institutions which should have the obligation to literature and other arts. But these institutions usually give their support, for political reasons, to folk and traditional areas of cultural production, which also has its importance but are only one point in the constellation of possible culture."

Antônio Moura, October 2012 ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/introducing-antonio-moura-and-his-world-of-bangs-and-silence-171 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/introducing-antonio-moura-and-his-world-of-bangs-and-silence-171 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:09:18 -0100


Bejan Matur - petite, dark-haired, soft-voiced, clear-eyed, intense. I hadn't met her before, had only seen her picture on the Arc website and in posters.

She begins her reading with a resumé of her early life, born of an Alevi Kurdish family in 1968 in South-east Turkey. She remarks how this Anatolian background has marked her forever, marked her poetry, and stayed with her as has the year she spent in prison. She mentions this last in passing - stated as part of the introduction to her reading from her second book, How Abraham Abandoned Me, recently published in bilingual edition by Arc Publications. As she reads, her poetry gathers a lyrical intensity, effects echoed by Angela Jarman in Ruth Christie's superb translations.

Matur's book is described as a philosophical pilgrimage in the Anatolian desert, a collection rich in landscape and Islamic iconography - and it is this narrative that is combed through with her ideas. It is no surprise to hear that she devotes all her time to writing poetry alongside political activism, contributing to newspapers, writing on Kurdish politics, Armenian and women's issues.

Later, during questions, the discussion turns to the role and value of translation; we celebrate it, know that our increasingly global world depends on it. ]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/bejan-matur-in-london-170 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/bejan-matur-in-london-170 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:04:15 -0100
The organizers tried their best for this book. Although the title said this book is written by contemporary poets, the poems are not only by contemporary poets but also by neo-romantic poets like Sayar Tin Moe and Modernist poets like Thitsar Ni, Aung Chemt and Moe Zaw. 'Language' orientated poems which is also a catagory of contemporary poems by Zeyar Lynn and Mg Yu Paing are in this book too.

Moreover this book covers poets of different ages and poems under different -isms. It is a great help to foreigners who want to start learning about Myanmar poets. Female poets, Eaindra and Pandora, are young, smart and independent women wo will be able to support the Myanmar women's poetry which is still the narrow space out of the whole. Although there is diversity in poetic expression, all of the poems in this book have one thing in common. That is, reflecting the actual situations of current society. It is implicity saying that Myanmar poets are the witnesses of history. Publishing a bi-lingual book is also pleasing for those (poets) who have concern for their mother tongue.

Last but not least, Id like to say that although 15 poets of this book are among the best in their own catagory, it is impossible to represent the flourishing Myanmar poetry today. Moreover, there are also some poets whose poems are not in this book, but who are as great and intellectual as those in this book, for instance, older poets such as Nay Mya, Min Htet Maung, Sai Win Myint, Lu San, Hla Than, Win Myint, Khayapyar Htet Lu, Laung Lin Yeikm and younger poets who write online - blogger poets and those who write in old media.

I believe this book knocks at the door of Western poetry/knocks the western poetry dead!

Thitsar Ni, October 2012

This post was written before the tour began.
Below is an extract from Fergal Keane's introduction to the first event on the tour, at SOAS, London 24 October
]]> http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/thitsar-ni-on-bones-will-crow-169 http://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blogs/thitsar-ni-on-bones-will-crow-169 Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:40:20 -0100