Happy New Year everyone! 2017 was fantastic for us at Sidekick Books, and we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has supported, hosted and read our work this year.
Huge thanks in particular to Arts Council England (ACE) for funding our next run of alchemical misadventures – thank you for supporting us!
Here’s a whistlestop rundown of our 2017 highlights, and some things to look forward to in 2018, including calls for new poetry:
Aquanauts
Aquanauts was the first in our Headbooks series: a set of interactive, highly visual complete-me-yourself books aimed at taking poetry out of one corner and inviting readers to become collaborators.
To launch Aquanauts, we joined forces with live artist and poet Abi Palmer to host Aquanautica, a deep dive into a post-flood world. Participants followed the signal of the mysterious Captain Nautilla to find a cavern of merbartenders, scientists, sirens, signs, sceptics and sculptures.
Image by John Canfield, 2017Image by John Canfield, 2017Image by Abi Palmer, 2017
Enjoy more of poet John Canfield’s photos on our Instagram channel.
And you can find Aquanautsright here!
Bad Kid Catullus
Bad Kid Catullus, aka Headbook #2, takes Rome’s filthiest bard as its starting point, but this is no ordinary series of translations. In BKC, an orgy of poets transports Catullus through genre, time and form: sashay from noir to high fantasy to western, spy some pointed graffiti or study a sex position calligram of those famous carmina…
Get down and dirty with Bad Kid Catullusright here.
Headbooks exhibition
The Headbooks launch took place at the Poetry Café, Covent Garden, included wine, grape, figs and honey cake, as well as fauns, fornication and a forum of toga-clad poets.
Instagram /ianjmclachlanInstagram /ianjmclachlanInstagram /ianjmclachlan
Visit Ian McLachlan’s Instagram for more decadent photos (Ian was the faun in question!).
The Headbooks exhibition features art from Kid Catullus and Aquanauts, and is on for free at the beautifully refurbished Poetry Café until 31 January 2018.BUT ALSO! Got some poems hanging around that need a good Frankensteining? Come and join us for Sidekick Remixathon, a workshop to go along with the exhibition, in which Jon and K will show you how to make gold from “gah!”
More information here!
Advent Calendar
Finally for 2017, we invited poets to send us aperture poems for our Advent Calendar. The aperture poem was invented by James Midgley, and involves taking an existing text (or inventing one), and placing an imaginary window frame over part of it, leaving only a portion visible to create a new micro-poem.
Like so!
Julia Rose Lewis opens a window for us.
View all 26 (yes, we got carried away) aperture poems here!
COMING UP!
That was all dandy, but this is the exciting bit. What comes next?
Do your resolutions include writing more? Then get yourself in a mechanical or echolocatory frame of mind! We’ll be issuing calls for two new Sidekick Headbooks! Follow us on Twitter or Facebook or sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of the page to get the first alerts!
Ahem!
1. No, Robot, No! will be a celebration of real and fictional robots. Philosophy, ethics, mechanics, automation – choose your mode!
2. Battalion will explore the dark and delightful world of bats. We’re after biology, ecology, myth and movement – keep your ears open!
Have a Happy New Year, one and all – look forward to playing with you all in 2018!
Jon and Kirsty
OK, we know most advent calendars only have 24 days, but we couldn’t resist joining the party. For our Christmas Day 25th window, Jon and K have opened two enchanted bonus windows! Magic and mystery are part of our history, after all…
Thank you for following this aperture poetry advent calendar, and thank you to all of our supporters and friends for a wonderful year. We hope you are ensconced in warmth, companionship and fine reading. Have a lovely holiday and a mischievous new year!
Day 23 of the Sidekick Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar, and things are getting distinctly more festive, as Polly Atkin brings some yuletide spirit – the dark, spiced kind. Think Santa channelling David Lynch and Werner Herzog. Get in and get your Krampus on…
Day 22 of the Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar, and Claire Crowther is pushing aside the brambles and furze to show us the changing seasons, the shifting of colours and the patterns cast on our own bodies. Read on to follow her tracks…
Day 21 of the Aperture Poetry #AdventCalendar and we’re going deep-sea diving with the godfather of the aperture poetry form, James Midgley! Peep through the porthole, or between the fronds and see what treasure you find in the depths…
Day 20 of the Sidekick Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar and we’re escaping to the country with Sandra Horn. As we gaze out onto the frozen fields, and what might be crows or gulls beaking about the turned earth, what else might we spy?
Day 19 of the Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar and Jill Munro is peering at a turbulent state of affairs. A Frank O’Hara state, no less, but also a 1997 state, when the news got turned upside down. A glimpse through a car window or a window out on the media landscape? Read on…
Could we? Should we? Would we? Day 18 of the Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar and through Richard Westcott‘s chosen window, someone’s regrets are flitting about like butterflies. Peer through and see who is wringing their hands…
“It is only through writing that I become myself.”
― Werner Herzog
Day 17 of the Aperture Poetry Advent Calendar and Astra Papachristodoulou is giving us the director’s cut. Are we gazing through a window or down the lens of a camera? Either way, once you have read the original poem, scan the QR code backdrop with your phone to read the expanded sequel.
Here’s a whistlestop rundown of our 2017 highlights, and some things to look forward to in 2018, including calls for new poetry:
Aquanauts was the first in our Headbooks series: a set of interactive, highly visual complete-me-yourself books aimed at taking poetry out of one corner and inviting readers to become collaborators.
To launch Aquanauts, we joined forces with live artist and poet Abi Palmer to host Aquanautica, a deep dive into a post-flood world. Participants followed the signal of the mysterious Captain Nautilla to find a cavern of merbartenders, scientists, sirens, signs, sceptics and sculptures.
Bad Kid Catullus, aka Headbook #2, takes Rome’s filthiest bard as its starting point, but this is no ordinary series of translations. In BKC, an orgy of poets transports Catullus through genre, time and form: sashay from noir to high fantasy to western, spy some pointed graffiti or study a sex position calligram of those famous carmina…
Get down and dirty with Bad Kid Catullus right here.
2. Battalion will explore the dark and delightful world of bats. We’re after biology, ecology, myth and movement – keep your ears open!
Have a Happy New Year, one and all – look forward to playing with you all in 2018!
Jon and Kirsty 
