Arachne Poets at London Book Fair

The London Book Fair is a cacophonous place, it’s hard to hear anything even when addressed through a microphone. None the less, we had a go. Here is pictorial evidence, of Bernie Math & Jeremy reading, in the Poetry Pavilion miniature Globe theatre, their wildly diverse takes on narrative poetry from The Other Side of Sleep. The video sound is unfortunately atrocious and I wouldn’t want to inflict it on you.

LBF continues to make noise today, and when it’s over anyone with the energy can totter round the corner to Brompton Library for Cherry Potts’ reading & workshop Rebellion: Writing Fantasy.

Bernie Howley

Bernie Howley

Jeremy Dixon

Jeremy Dixon

Jeremy photographing the audience for his 'every' audience' project

Jeremy photographing the audience for his ‘every’ audience’ project

Math Jones

Math Jones

Video of the launch of The Don’t Touch Garden

Rather out of focus video of Kate reading and Ian & Sarah (and the audience) singing.

recordings from Grange-over-Sands readings from The Other Side of Sleep

We had a grand and lively audience and a beautiful day for our trip to Grange-over-Sands. Here are some recordings of poems read by poets at the event

Judi Sutherland

Adrienne Silcock

Geraldine Green

If you would like to hear more from The Other Side of Sleep, head to the Oxfam Bookshop in Cheltenham this Saturday,25th April at 2:30 for a completely different collection of poets.

Arachne Goes West part 1 the north – Grange-over-Sands

We’ve been meaning to get out of London for a while, and the furthest we’ve managed so far has been Brighton and Oxford, but over the next couple of months we have three gigs further afield, and towards the west.

We are starting in Cumbria:

Thursday afternoon 16/4/15 14:30-16:00
Grange over Sands Library, Grange Fell Road, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria LA11 6BQ

Discover diverse approaches to telling stories through poetry. Every poem guaranteed over 40 lines: long, narrative, but by no means traditional poems, by contemporary voices from poets featured in our anthology of Narrative Poems, The Other Side of Sleep.
Geraldine Green, Judi Sutherland (if she can manage a day off work), and Cherry Potts (editor). Plus local poet showcase.

A small charge of £1 is made which includes refreshments.

come along and say hello, and join in if you feel so inclined.

The Story Sessions November 2014 Narrative Poems the video

Goodness, it’s taken a long time to get back to this, apologies if you were waiting, but I’ve been caught up in the Solstice Shorts preparations. Just over a week to go…!

Here is Anne Macaulay reading I Went to the Market and I bought…

and here is Inua Elams reading Faith in a Time of Double Dip Recessions

Jennifer A McGowan reads Troy: Seven Voices

and finally, Bernie Howley reads I Have no Feet

If you like these poems, you might like to buy a copy of The Other Side of Sleep!

 

The Story Sessions: Short Story Week

Osos story sessions flyerSHORT STORY WEEK: Wednesday 19th November 7.30pm South London:
The Story Sessions, Cafe of Good Hope, 216 Hither Green Lane, SE13 6RT £3

Yes, we know its short story week – so why are we reading poetry? – because this is narrative poetry – it tells stories!
Readings from Arachne Poets featured in The Other Side of Sleep: Anne Macaulay, Inua Ellams Jennifer A McGowan, Bernie Howley.
Also reading but not in the book: Anny Knight and Gloria Sanders and hopefully a couple more poets,including you? Join in with flash from the floor.
PLUS! We will be announcing the WINNERS of the SOLSTICE SHORTS FESTIVAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION.

November Readings for The Other Side of Sleep

We are continuing to launch The Other Side of Sleep with more events through November.

Saturday 8th November MiddlesboroughWestgarth Social Club, 99 Southfield Rd, Middlesbrough, TS1 3EZ. Doors open 7pm. £3 entry. Readings from Adrienne Silcock, p.a. morbid (accompanied by Kev Howard), Judi Sutherland. Also performing are Kirsten Luckins and Emma Whitehall.

Saturday 15th November Amsterdam: The English Bookshop, Lauriergracht 71  Amsterdam 4pm. Readings from Kate Foley, Robin Winckel-Mellish, Simon Brod, Sam Small, plus music from Daniel Brouns.

SHORT STORY WEEK: Wednesday 19th November 7.30pm South London:
The Story Sessions, Cafe of Good Hope, 216 Hither Green Lane, SE13 6RT £3
Readings from  Anne Macaulay, Inua Ellams Jennifer A McGowan, Bernie Howley.
Also reading but not in the book,  Anny Knight and Gloria Sanders and hopefully a couple more poets,including you? Join in with flash from the floor.
PLUS! We will be announcing the WINNERS of the SOLSTICE SHORTS FESTIVAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION.

 

Narrative Poetry – a short introduction by Kate Foley

Kate Foley is the author of the title poem in our first poetry collection, The Other Side of Sleep: Narrative Poems. Kate recently won the Second Light long poem award with this poem. In fact it was Kate’s work that inspired the book in the first place, so it seems only right to let her tell us a bit about her approach to narrative poetry.

Here we reproduce an extract from the introduction to her workshop Sing & Tell

Narrative is a word that covers everything from The Odyssey to Baa Baa Black Sheep . Narrative poetry has come to be synonymous with ‘long’ and in many people’s view, ‘boring’ but even Pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a long short story which because of its compression may be extended by our own imagination. There is no such thing as a poem that doesn’t tell a story. A poem spray painted on a wall, ‘found’ on the pavement or scattered on the page, will still from the resonance of one word against another, recount its meaning as a narrative.

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet black bough.

 Ezra Pound.

Many of us were reared in the honourable tradition of the Romantic poets who unabashed, set out to entertain with rattling good yarns or to instruct by musings on Grecian Urns, Nightingales, Lakeland landscapes  – and foreshadowing Douglas Adams – the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. Today, although we leapfrog over the traditions of epic and elegy, we are aware of the perennial elements of narrative that bring our stories to life.

It took the computer Deep Thought 7 ½  million years to reach the admirably concise and poetic answer to the Meaning of Everything, which is, of course, the number 42. We hope to arrive, in a rather shorter time span, at the answer to the question of what makes a good story and how to sing as well as tell it – in other words, to make an extended poem.

 

 

Ezra Pound.

Launching The Other Side of Sleep: London, Lauderdale House

We’ve already posted some of the video from the London Launch of The Other Side of Sleep for Simon, Alwyn and Kate.

Here are snippets of the other performances from the evening.

Adrienne Silcock, Rhythms

Jeremy Dixon, In Retail (XXIII)

Sarah Lawson, Revenant

Anne Macaulay, I went to the market and I bought…

Lisa Rose reading Troy: Seven Voices on behalf Jennifer A McGowan

Launching The Other Side of Sleep – Brighton

Huge thanks to Jane at Bom-Bane‘s for hosting us for our Brighton launch, and for singing!

A couple of the recordings have already been posted, but here are the rest of the readings from the evening – it was too dark to film!

Jonathan Rice reading Grass was Taller by j.lewis

 

Jonathan Rice reading On the Hunt With Mr Actaeon by Jill Sharp

 

Kevin Cherry reading Hamnavoe by Andrew McCallum

 

And Jane singing one of her own compositions.