#Arachne10 In Retail Jeremy Dixon

Yesterday was the third anniversary of Jeremy Dixon’s first pamphlet, In Retail. to celebrate, here is a video of Jeremy reading (along with the audience) from one of the first poems from the collection that he shared with us, published in The Other Side of Sleep, and read here at our 5th anniversay celbrations!

The combination of our enthusiasm for LGBTQ writing and of this being LGBT History Month, and our wily marketing plans means there are going to be a few more LGBT posts this week.

Watch this space, for this and other anniversary news.

You can vote for your favourite poem from this collection, and others VERY soon, to help us plan the programme for our anniversary party.

Arachneversary video 5: In Retail with Jeremy Dixon

Continuing our celebrations, a laughter filled conversation between poet Jeremy Dixon and editor Cherry Potts on all things retail.

you can buy In Retail (on sale throughout August) from our Webshop

Just put in ARACHNEVERSARY at checkout to get your discount.

join us tomorrow at the same time for Let Out the Djinn with Jane Aldous!

 

Lockdown Interviews: No16 Jeremy Dixon, Interviewed by Jane Aldous

Jeremy Dixon (In Retail, The Other Side of Sleep, Liberty Tales, Dusk) interviewed by fellow poet Jane Aldous (Let Out the Djinn, Dusk, An Outbreak of Peace, Noon, Time and Tide)

Jane Aldous reading

Jane:     I’d love to know about your first piece of published writing?

Jeremy:              My first experience of poetry as an adult was from being involved in the Bristol poetry scene, which was extremely active in the 1990s. A friend secretly entered me for a weekly slam competition and then told me that as I was always talking about how I wanted to write poetry, I now had one whole week to compose and perform two poems. I made it through the first round of the competition and was awarded a Bristol Poetry Slam pen (which I still own, and I still know the compere who gave it to me). So leading on from that my earliest pieces of published writing are two (not those first two) poems included in the 270 page Bristol Poetry Slam Anthology, published by the Pimps of the Alphabet in 1998. One of the published poems was about bumping into a man in the park late at night and the other was about being called names because I was a Take That fan, so as you can see the path of my poetry was determined at a very early stage!

Jane:     What’s your favourite poem in IN RETAIL and why?

Jeremy:              I just want to say how grateful I am to Cherry for showing such faith in my work and for agreeing to publish my debut poetry collection IN RETAIL. It came out last year and my relationship to the published book is still evolving, once the poems become a physical object they seems to take on a life of their own. I see the book as a complete work in it’s own right and so every poem is contributing it’s part and needs to be there. However in the process of going out (or now, staying in) and reading the poems in public there are a few that have grown very dear to me due to the way they seem to bloom and change in front of an audience. A great example of this is 00/10 in which every couplet begins with the line; This is a customer announcement. When I read the poem I love the repetition that this line allows me, meaning I can change how I perform this set of words nine times in terms of timing and emphasis and voice. I have also realised that the poem and delivery prompts a much more humorous response from an audience than I ever imagined it contained when I was writing it down and then having it printed on the page. This poem has made me push my goals when reading and to see that there are many more possibilities open to me as a performer of my own work.

Jane:     Is the Coronavirus crisis having an impact on your writing?

Jeremy:              Initially when the lockdown began I found myself making lots of lists of things to do and then getting involved in lots of tidying up around the flat. I seemed to be able to do a task if it was physical, but doing anything that involved any kind of mental or creative concentration was impossible. I also found that I could only really do one thing a day and then I would be totally wiped out and have no energy. This started to change when I moved teaching my physical Yoga classes onto the online Zoom platform. The discipline of Yoga helped restore my energy levels and the classes gave me a tiny routine and structure to the week and slowly the desire and ability to write began to return. At first it was through revising and editing existing work but now I have actually begun some new poems. I am also attending a lot of Zoom poetry readings, lectures and workshops and again this has given support and an impetus to my creativity.

Jane:     What writing project would you like to fulfill long term?

Jeremy:              The long-term writing project I am working on at the moment is a much more personal project then IN RETAIL, but it actually has it’s beginning in one of the book’s poems, 00/13. This poem was the first time I had successfully (in my own terms) written about being bullied as a teenager and the process of writing it and then publishing the book has given me the confidence to develop this idea further. I am calling the current work-in-progress A VOICE COMING FROM HIM and it will deal with the long-lasting and ongoing effect on a gay person’s life of experiencing childhood homophobia, bullying and in my case, a teenage suicide attempt. Now that all sounds really heavy and depressing, and in some ways it has to be, but in my opinion the topics involved need to addressed and acknowledged. However I also want the book to be hopeful and optimistic and to reflect (as does IN RETAIL) my interests as a maker of artists’ books. So in that respect I’m looking to include Found poems, health records, photographs, statistics etc to give the book more a sense of a whole life or lives. Some of these new poems already been published and performed and have met with positive responses, so I feel I am on the right track with the project.

Jane:     What person or object would you most like to collaborate with creatively?

Jeremy:              What a very timely question! I have just sent out to a local festival a proposal for a collaborative event between myself and a friend who works at Cardiff University as a Senior Assurance Advisor. We have known each other since the mid-1980s and last year we each published our first books. Our collaboration would look at our experiences since then as a female BAME writer and as a male queer poet, from dealing with labels and categorisation, underrepresentation and how it can be addressed, to creating safe spaces through creative work and the unexpected outcomes that result from publication. We are still in the very early planning stages but are aiming to create a joint performance of both of our work, trying to include different types of media and to develop new collaborative writing especially for it.

You can buy IN RETAIL and all other books mentioned, from our Webshop

If you would prefer eBooks, all these books are available from your usual retailer. we recommend Hive for ePub.

You can see Jeremy perform poems from IN RETAIL here:

00/10

https://youtu.be/SzNgu1tskaE

 

00/13

https://youtu.be/BFjipnCmNdI 

Follow Jeremy on Twitter @HazardPressUK

Poetry goes Eeeeee

ALL our poetry books are now available as eBooks!

With the booktrade suffering, we wanted to make it as easy for you to get lovely things to read as possible, so we have worked very hard to get these in the vitual shops for you. Thanks to Inpress for organising conversions and uploading!

Find these gorgeous words as Kindles on Amazon

and ePub on Hive

In case you were wondering, all our fiction is already available as ebooks. We aren’t set up to sell them ourselves, yet. Working on it.

Anthologies The Other Side of Sleep, and Vindication: poems from six women poets

With Paper for Feet Jennifer A McGowan

A Gift of Rivers, and The Don’t Touch Garden, Kate Foley

Foraging , Joy Howard

Erratics, Cathy Bryant

In Retail, Jeremy Dixon

The Knotsman, Math Jones

Mamiaith, Ness Owen

Let out the Djinn, Jane Aldous

The Significance of a Dress, Emma Lee.

 

Mamiaith gets a mention and Jeremy travels

Actually a bit more than just a mention, on Poetry Book Society blog on Translation.

head over and see!

In other Wales related news, Jeremy Dixon is heading over the bridge a couple of times this month…

Queer Words with Queer Poets

  • LIGHTHOUSE – Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop (map)

spoken word with AR Crow, Jeremy Dixon + Freddie Alexander

 

and then

Thursday 15 August, 6.30-7.30pm
Arnolfini Bookshop, Bristol
reading from IN RETAIL, plus some new poems! FREE EVENT!

In Retail at Edinburgh Book Fringe

Jeremy Dixon likes to travel and he is off to Edinburgh for Book Fringe

The Book Fringe is a free, community book festival run by two independent Edinburgh bookshops, Lighthouse in Southside, and Golden Hare Books in Stockbridge.

Lunchtime at Lighthouse: These start at 1pm and run for 30 minutes.
Evenings at Golden Hare: These start at 6.30pm and run for 1 hour.

ALL events are FREE: no tickets, no ticket booking!

Jeremy is taking In Retail to Lighthouse on Sat 3rd August. 1pm for their event QUEER WORDS WITH QUEER POETS

In Retail front cover copy

More info about the bookfringe

Polari gig for In Retail

Jeremy Dixon will be reading from In Retail
at Polari on Tour,
Waterstones, 11A Union Galleries,
Broadmead Bristol, BS1 3XD.
1st June 7pm

FREE but ticketed: tickets

 

In Retail customer feedback

The launch of Jeremy Dixon‘s poetry collection, In Retail seems to have met management guidelines for a successful promotion, we hope to bring you photos and video shortly, but as these were outsourced from Arachne’s web, to local operatives, I can’t tell you exactly when.

Don’t forget, for the whole of February you can get special offers on our other LGBT books when you buy In retail, check out the second page of our Special offers

In the meantime, we’ve been getting some feedback over on our shop page, with universal 5 star reviews. (Of course, these are all from people who pre-ordered, so we can assume they were quite keen in the first place) but you can now not only buy a copy from us direct, but leave your thoughts afterwards, like these lovely folk.

Jeremy’s poems are like stars in a bleak landscape, beautiful, funny and life affirming
Jane A. Verified buyer February 11, 2019

A warm, witty, and observant little collection. Well done, Jeremy !
Alan D. Verified buyer January 25, 2019

Arrived much quicker than I was expecting – and what a treat it was. Perfect purchase!
Rob W. Verified buyer January 23, 2019

Love it
Heather W. Verified buyer January 18, 2019

What a great little book, brilliantly observed with laugh out loud moments. Highly recommended
Celia D. Verified buyer January 16, 2019

I loved this book.  The poems give a humorous insight into the trials and tribulations of working in a retail shop. Love it!
Mrs C. Verified buyer December 23, 2018

By the way, there is ONE pre-order badge left. first to order gets it.

There’s lovely.

It’s all go… new books!

It’s a busy day: just sent the files for Math JonesThe Knotsman to the printer, and confirmed the launch: Wednesday 10th April 7.30 at Nell of Old Drury (this link is quite flakey you might find their Facebook page easier) 29 Catherine Street, Covent Garden, London WC2B 5JS

just TAKEN DELIVERY of Noon… (launch(es) still being tied down, but expect Aberdeen London and possibly Cork)

and tomorrow is the launch in Wales, of Jeremy Dixon‘s In Retail.

 

 

 

First review for In Retail

Review on London Grip ‘subversively humorous’

Thanks for understanding the design, Emma Lee!

You can preorder here, and get a free badge, we have a couple left.