The Edge Hill University Poetry and Poetics Group

Robert Sheppard:

This fifth series of Pages is dedicated to ‘poetry and the difficult thinking that surrounds poetry’ (Badiou) that comes from a group I coordinate at Edge Hill University: the Poetry and Poetics Research Group. We first met on 21 October 1999 and have been meeting, growing, contracting, branching out, ever since. ... This year is the tenth anniversary of the Edge Hill University Poetry and Poetics Research Group. There are plans for a series of events to mark this occasion during autumn 2009.

Find out what they are here.

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BBC Poetry Season

The BBC's Poetry Season is in full swing. Documentaries such as Why Poetry Matters, featuring key talent Griff Rhys Jones, will expose to the public en masse the reasons why Poetry Matters, why we should Read Poetry and why Poetry Is Not Dead. You can also vote for your favourite poet of all-time, an inexplicable list. I'm trying not to be too cynical about the whole shebang - at least they're trying, but it seems like they're trying with their ring fingers when the rest of their fist is pressed against the table. One documentary I am looking forward to is Armando Iannucci on John Milton, mainly because I dig Milton and Iannucci. Still, it's all very conservative and a wasted opportunity - the Beeb does this stuff on Radio 4 every week anyway, if they're going to devote a whole season to poetry they should be as wide-ranging as possible. The offerings on show are a narrow segment of what poetry is and what it could become.

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@

Daniel Soar:

The new global battle for ownership of @ is in a way heartening: the old orthodoxy had it that it was merely a ligature used for accounting purposes. It was a combination of the letters ‘e’ and ‘a’ to designate ‘ea(ch)’, or of ‘a’ and ‘d’ for the Latin ad: ‘at’ or ‘to’ or something of equally diabolical simplicity. Either way, it had an aura of empire, whether derived from Britain or Rome. It was certainly in accounting for stuff that it made its way into the 20th century: it appeared as a key on the 1902 Lambert typewriter, made in New York, and it was as shorthand for pricing items – 60 widgets @ $2 = $120 – that it subsisted until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson of arpanet invented email. And now, of course, it’s ubiquitous. No one would know where anything was meant to go if it wasn’t for the amazing @.

Read the rest.

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Mackerelling by James Harvey

New from Intercapillary Space, available in print or as a free PDF.

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Caroline Bergvall Interview

James Davies:

Caroline Bergvall will answer your questions in issue 4 of if p then q due out in September 2009. If you have anything to ask her please email me at ifpthenq[at]fsmail[dot]net. Mundane and pop questions are encouraged.

via The Other Room

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Oxford Working Class Book Fair

'We are very pleased to announce the 1st Oxford Working Class Bookfair on SATURDAY 20TH JUNE between 11 am and 6 pm at Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford. Throughout the day there will be talks, workshops, films, music, culture & books! E-mail - oxfordworkingclassbookfair[at]googlemail[dot]com'

via Felicity Roberts

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The Glass Bell by Ian Patterson

_The Glass Bell_ by Ian Patterson £4 (£1 P&P) Barque Press

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Chlorine the Third

Monday 15th June, 8pm

• Cris Cheek
• Alan Hay
• Ian Patterson
• Anna Ticehurst

The Hope, Queens' Road, Brighton Admission £5 (waged) / £3 (conc.) via Vents

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UbuWeb Blog

UbuWeb now has a blog.

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Sundays at the Oto

Peter Philpott:

Sundays at the Oto is coming to a close, to fit in with Cafe Oto's requirement to be a cafe in the daytime, a venue only in the evening. I would like to continue something like Sundays at the Oto, but therefore on a slightly different basis, and welcome suggestions how to do this successfully.

Read his own thoughts and rules.

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