Author: Jon Stone

I have a new poem, ‘Lightning Conductor’, published in the second of two special 30th anniversary issues of the Alaska Quarterly Review! Maybe this is the year I break America. </delusion>

Many thanks to guest editor Todd Boss for asking me to submit something. Other poets published in the rather hefty issue include ex-US poet laureate Kay Ryan, Billy Collins and the UK’s own Lorraine Mariner.

Our features and reviews section is alive and kicking once more from this moment on. Under the editorship of ‘The Judge’, a raft of new reviewers will be setting their critical sights on new and recently released poetry books, with a new review going up every Sunday. Features will be posted on Wednesdays but may be a little more intermittent.

A new review of School of Forgery is up at The Parrish Lantern blog. Gary Moon, the reviewer, writes:

“… beneath all that artifice, beneath the games there is a candour that resonates, a passion that hooks you in past the word-bothering puzzles and clever facade, past the glitter-ball and the wizard of Oz contrivances, you find the poet, obsessed with language, and who has the ability to use it, not just as poetic gesture but with a depth, a strangeness and a beauty that beguiles.” 

Thanks, Parrish Lantern!

The final of my 15 simple/weird formal exercises is up on Young Poets’ Network today and the deadline for mini-collection submissions is tomorrow!

Here, then, to recap are the 15 challenges, with examples by yours truly:

1. Bookshelf Poem
2. Squid Poem
3. Censorship Poem
4. Helicopter Poem
5. Skeleton Poem
6. Jungle Trail Poem
7. Hollywood Remake Poem
8. U-Boat Poem
9. DVD Extra Poem
10. Manga Poem
11. Scoop! Poem
12. Google Search Poem
13. Vampire Aubade
14. Earthquake Poem
15: Chinese Whisper Poem

Both Kirsty and I will be reading at this next week in support of the imprisoned members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot.

With the news that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich of the Russian punk collective, Pussy Riot, were sentenced to two years in prison for a wholly necessary and valid political protest, contemporary poets in London will come together in a unique evening of readings, featuring original poetry and text, as well as the words of Pussy Riot themselves. This event is an act of solidarity through the medium of poetry – a celebration of the courage and spirit of fellow writers of this generation, writing for real political change in a country that needs it.

Featuring readings from over 30 poets including Tim Atkins, David Berridge, Becky Cremin, Kirsty Irving, Francesca Lisette, Chris McCabe, Reza Mohammadi, Sandeep Parmar, Tom Raworth, Jack Underwood, James Wilkes and many others. 

Email: steven@sjfowlerpoetry.com for further details

This Saturday, The Camden School of Enlightenment is coming to the International Alternative Press Festival, at London’s Conway Hall. The show’s at 1:45 sharp and will include your dearly beloved editors, Jon and Kirsty, on the interface between poetry and computer games. It will also feature
Abi Palmer, with a new What’s New, Pussycat? update on her favourite compulsive amazon.com cat calendar critic. Tony Hickson, former paparazzo, knife-thrower and star of Byker Grove, will offer true stories and lifestyle tips. I shall be talking about Sir Henry Newbolt: Victorian balladeer, naval weaponry designer and menage-a-trois-er.

The festival is on Saturday and Sunday 4th-5th August, and other spoken word events include

• live storysketching
• Listen Softly, an afternoon of storytelling with words and handmade fabrics, presented by Ceri May
• left-field poetry collective Vintage Poison, maybe in collaboration with Michael Horovitz
• Structo magazine‘s So Bad it’s Good – Adventures in Terrible Writing

There will also be workshops on felt-making, set design, linoprinting and bookbinding. And then, of course, there are all the weird and wonderful comics and artworks that are the main point of the festival. Come and have fun!

Back in April, I wrote a series of 15 simple formal ideas (some original, some derivative) with example pieces for National Poetry Writing Month. This month, the Young Poets Network is going to be publishing one every two days as a prompt for young writers, with an accompanying mini-anthology contest.

Day 1, together with a fuller explanation, is up here.

This month, I’m featured on Poetry International Web alongside two other poets – Shazea Quraishi from Pakistan (now living in London), and the UK’s Helen Ivory.

Here is the feature profile, in which I am generously described thusly:

His accomplishments include not only the writing of formal, voraciously experimental, precociously accomplished poetry but (along with his partner, Kirsten Irving) a boundary-breaking small magazine and a standard-setting small press – and an array of websites built by him to support all this activity.

They’ve also put up three poems: The Procedure (from School of Forgery), Eisenstangen (a version of Rilke’s Der Panther)  and Meat.

I was commissioned by new literary journal B O D Y to write a short article on a poem that has had a particular impact or influence on me/my writing. Here is the resulting article. I call Rimbaud a “sexy, amoral Tintin”. With nits.