We lure nimble young poets into a room without a view and lock the door until they grace us with lovely poetic mumblings. They almost always earn their freedom.
Gavin talks about his second novel, Made In Britain. "Connected by circumstance, the three sixteen-year-old narrators weave a twisted tale of love, lost youth and good old-fashioned violence spanning school, GCSEs and the longest summer holiday of their lives."
One of our favourite performance poets, Sabrina Mahfouz, treats us to three pieces from her upcoming solo show, 'Dry Ice', happening Wednesday 20 April 2011 - Saturday 23 April 2011 (bag your tickets now now now). Check out Sabrina's facebook page for details of other happenings & all sorts of other shiny things.
One o' them poems featured in the soon-to-be issue five finds its voice via Richard Watkins, who also tells us things about his recent collaborative project, 'Take it and Run'. Find out more here & here - http://takeitandrun.wordpress.com/ http://penpaperpause.wordpress.com/
Donna shares two tales of love, cliffs and apple trees. She has a website called donnabutlin.co.uk
Adam Kammerling drops by to treat you to no less than three of his poems - 'Responsible Tourism', 'Midnight At The Bakers' & 'The A2 Queen's Road' (we think). You can see him perform more poetic feats at Brighton Hammer and Tongue Slam Winners Slam @Brighton Komedia on Jan 6th, Poets vs MC's @Brighton Komedia on Jan 13th & Burn's Night @ The City Farm Cafe in Bristol on Jan 25th. We are very fond of his poem about the bins behind M&S.
Wordpress wouldn't let me embed audio, so it's gonna live here instead. http://www.handandstar.co.uk/?p=1087
As well as treating us to three of his poems, Graham tells talks about his writing over the past twelve years, his ongoing collaborative project with a graphic artist and (perhaps most importantly) how to avoid self indulgence when writing poetry.Graham's second collection, 'There is violence in these vapours', is published by Tall Lighthouse and can be purchased via their website (we recommend this). http://www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk/p_graham-buchan.html
Amy shares some thoughts and poems with us. Listen to more of her stuff via myspace: myspace.com/amyacre
'Dazed and Aroused' author GJB breaks into Sam's house and makes her read his book and then listen to him talk about it. The result is a (delightfully) disjointed account which includes the likes of His Novel (good or not so good?); places that aren't London; miscellaneous mishaps; twitter crimes; James Brown; second album anxiety; Jack Underwood's arse and the joy that is Literary Death Match. It's like opening a box on your birthday and finding something nicer than a dead kitten inside. Oh yes.
Nick field chats to Sam about the notorious Poetry Cafe patrons, The Word's A Stage, the fallacy of blank faced audience and all sorts of other lovely things. Check out his stuff here: http://nickfieldpoetic.co.uk/
Fresh off the Spilt Milk poet rack, Richard Marsh is let loose to throw some poetic shapes before we leave him alone to terrorise [imaginary] small creatures in the name of inspiration. From the end of September he's unleashing new and exciting things at The Nursery Festival (or so he tells us). Once they update their site more info can theoretically be found here: http://thenurseryfestival.com/
Pauline penned the ingenious 'Leftovers', which features in Issue Two. She very kindly spared some of her afternoon to share more delicious slices of flash fiction. More of Mazzy's creations live on her site: http://www.unfurling.net/ You may also want to have a listen to some short stories born in and around Bristol: http://www.headsandtales.org.uk/audiostories/
This week Sam is joined by Ben and Katie, two very different but equally amazing poets. They have kindly gifted us a slice of evening time to share some of their work, as well as thoughts about slams, theft and bad things that you may have said to girls and bad things that may have happened in restaurants. Details of all manner of jazzy poetry and lit events are posted on our lovely facebook page. Come see Katie and Ben perform over the summer - more fun than rollerblades, we promise. http://www.myspace.com/katiebonna
The poetic murmurings of the dashing Mr Rob and Mr John