Nine Arches PressPosted by Jane Sat, March 07, 2009 18:07:15
The Terrors goes to print tonight, at approx. 20.00 BST, which is when I'll have eaten tea, done my very, very final read through of the typesetting and made sure I'm happy with everything and converted it all into to that very last PDF file.
Here's the cover artwork, in a sneak-preview! As it's the paper that is actually coloured, I've been trying, with varying degrees of sucess, to match the screen colour to the real one, but hopefully this one is fairly true.
We've kept the design very clean and simple on the cover, and Titanic Cafe will also be following a similar route.
Aside from pamphlets, Matt and myself have been juding the short story competition, so do watch this space, as we'll be announcing all on the website on 21st March. I won't say much more, as I don't want to ruin the tension....
I've been reading Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and feeling thoroughly depressed by the fact that so many things still ring a little too true and it seems certain things have not changed much (particularly when you look the current economy and game of financial cops and robbers we seem to have found ourselves in). Though it's honestly and pointedly written, and a thoroughly good read at the same time.
I'll also be doing an e-newsletter shortly - to receive this, all you need to do is email us at mail at ninearchespress dot com and ask to join the list. The newsletter comes out whenever we've got something good to tell you about our publications, events and plans!
Nine Arches PressPosted by Jane Wed, February 11, 2009 15:15:19(I typed out a long post here, then, stupidly, managed to paste something else entirely in its place and lose the whole thing. In frustration, I was just going to leave it, but I will now attempt to type it all again and hopefully say what I said last time!)
The thawing outside means something. As does the sound of the our returning Starlings, again nesting in the attic. I heard the scratch of scrabble of them this morning for the first time this year. We don't have the heart to evict them or plug up the gap they get in through. And anyway, it's good to hear them, and the fledglings when they hatch and begin to kick up and can be heard through the ceiling in the bathroom. They mean, like BST winding the clocks, that the spring is coming, maybe even is here. Now. A good feeling for someone who's missed the light for the past months (though I have enjoyed the snow, but am glad the slush has gone).
For Nine Arches, Spring brings our two special edition pamphlets nearer. We have decided, Matt and myself, to stop referring to them as mini-pamphlets. As both Tom Chiver's The Terrors and David Hart's Titanic Cafe closes its doors and hits the rocks have developed, it's become clearer that not all that 'mini' (though I should say that The Terrors is purposely sized like a small old-fashioned notebook, tactile, simple and compact, nearly pocket size) and that calling them this really misses the point - they're actually rather more 'special' than 'mini', with illustrations, complimentary artwork and the rather lovely paper I've sourced for the covers.
Speaking of which, I have become something of an anorak about paper of late. In London, Tom kindly directed me to an arts warehouse where I found a match for the paper I'd used for the prototype (I'd taken it from an artist's pastel sketchbook). It's dove grey/prison blue (quite appropriate for The Terrors, I think) and I'm now looking for something similar in a larger format of paper for David Hart's cover. It should be a particular shade of green, I think, maybe canal green. Or the colour of builder's tea. Either would compliment the subject content of the poem properly.
Like The Terrors, Titanic Cafe also reflects its contents in its form. I think this is an important point, and it relates to ideas about industrial design and the strain/balance between the aesthetics and intended purpose or functionality of any object you produce. It's no good to be create a handsome object if it can't fulfil the purpose for what you intend to best used for. Therefore, Titanic Cafe will be a square 7" format, both to accommodate and compliment the shape of the poems within, as well as room for sizeable images of the now-vanished Titanic Cafe. And The Terrors, hopefully, in its chapbook, jacket-pocket size (nearly - this obviously depends on the size of your pockets!) hopefully taps into the tradition from which pamphlets themselves emerged.
It's now darkening outside and the rain's coming down. I may have spoken too soon about the spring arriving today, but there's certainly a hint it might not be far off now.
Nine Arches PressPosted by Jane Sat, January 10, 2009 17:28:33A few days into the new year, and back at my desk, surveying a few poems from last year. Suddenly, what had seemed new and fresh a few months ago seems miles in the rear-view mirror. So I set up a new folder for my 2009 poems, drawing a line on what's been written so far and hopefully striking out on something new. I am hoping that strange blank-page phobia won't catch up with me before my enthusiasm starts to slow!
After much coffee and tea in Browns, Matt and myself spent Thursday outlining the year ahead. The quite gap in the summer became less worrying, and more of a welcome breath between two busy periods (Spring and Autumn) that will be bookending the year for us at Nine Arches.
Spring brings two new and very exciting publications in the form of Tom Chivers' The Terrors and David Hart's Titanic Cafe. These two mini-pamphlets explore lost landmarks, each in unique and absorbing detail, in their own methods and devices (Tom Chivers' poems take the form of imagined emails from Newgate Gaol prisoners, David Hart explores the demolished heart and soul of a city-suburb cafe with great energy, surrealism and vigour). Both will also include illustrations and photographs respectively, which will compliment their short but special format entirely.
Also, April will welcome the special Short Story issue of Under the Radar. If you haven't heard yet about our competition, now's the time to take a look!
Summer will see us getting ourselves out and about as much as possible, and using the time we have to travel, perform and meet more people. It will also see a further issue of Under the Radar in August, as it seems the magazine has settled nicely into the three-issues-a-year rota.
And finally to Autumn, when Matt Nunn will be publishing his third collection, Sounds in the Grass. Something of a real treat, if you did get a copy of Happy Cos I'm Blue and thoroughly enjoyed it, this will be more than a fitting follow up! I will be saying more on this as the year progresses too. There are also one or two other things in the pipeline for Autumn, but we're currently working on those.
So now I can see the year a little clearly. And returning to the notebook, I'm finding the lines are filling with my own chaotic handwriting once again.
Here's to 2009.
Nine Arches PressPosted by Jane Mon, November 24, 2008 22:18:33
Hopefully this picture says everything!
Lady Godiva and Me is now ready, Under the Radar 2 is printing now and we're all ready for December to arrive.
There's something wonderful about a box full of books or pamphlets, the finished product. And it's not the end, but really only just the realisation of it.
Nine Arches PressPosted by Jane Thu, November 06, 2008 21:27:03I realise that since September, I've sadly neglected this poor old blog, having set out with the best of intentions to fill it with all the exciting news and goings-on here. Apologies to anyone who has been checking it out in the hope of me posting something new and interesting, as I know I've disapointed on this count
I hope it's not too early to be making New Year's resolutions, but my first is to give more time to posting here and making it a good place to stop off and catch up with us online. I am also planning more reviews in this space, so we can have some elements of Under the Radar online as well as in print.
So, as an attempt to make up for the absence of new posts, a quick summary of what we've been up to of late.
Lady G is nearly ready. I have been typesetting all week, the cover artwork's sorted. I am currently arranging launch event venues (possibly The Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry, which certainly seems fitting for this title). I am still amazed that it is so suddenly November and the year seems to be hurtling to a close. Nine Arches is now officially six months old.
Under the Radar Two is now also nearly ready to go. All submissions now will be for issue three (do keep them coming, it's always cheering and enjoyable to read through what we've been sent, and exciting to read so much good, promising new work).
We will shortly be announcing our 2009 plans. I won't say too much here, but will save it for the news section on the website. But I will be a tease and say it involves prisons, greasy spoons, turning over new leaves and getting grass stains....
In between , I've been working, eating, sleeping, taking photographs and sneaking off to the occasional gig.
But in the meantime, here's to my new resolution to spend more time blogging at Under the Arches...
Under the Radar magazinePosted by Jane Thu, August 07, 2008 09:52:40As previously promised, here's the news on our launch event for Under the Radar:
SHINDIG! - a night of live poetry, music and celebration
Tuesday August 19th from 7.30 pm.
Kozi Bar, Market Place, Warwick
Join us to launch the first issue of Under the Radar, and to celebrate the founding of Nine Arches Press - there well be poets aplenty, with special guest readings from:
Jane Holland - Warwick poet Laureate, blogger and live poetry aficianado. Jane's third collection of poetry, Camper Van Blues, will be published by Salt this Autumn. As well as running live poetry listings site, Poets on Fire, Jane is editor of Salt's in-house e-magazine, Horizon Review. Her previous collection, Boudicca & Co. was published by Salt in 2006. She is currently working on a collection of poems about Warwick Castle, to be published by Nine Arches Press and launched at the Warwick Words festival in October.
Matt Nunn - Birmingham's best poetic export, a prolific writer of poems that are at times both riotous and tender, bursting with the life and soul of the songs of the West Midland's towns, streets and football grounds. Matt's second collection, Happy Cos I'm Blue, was published by the Heaventree Press in 2006. He is currently working on a third collection, and is co-editor of Under the Radar.
Simon Turner - Leamington-based new modernist poet delves into the undergrowth of language with poems that playfully explore, among many other themes, garden birds, John Cage, summer storms and urban geographies. His debut collection, You Are Here, was published by the Heaventree Press in 2007. Simon is co-editor of the online journal, Gists and Piths.
There will also be music and copies of the magazine on sale.
Hope to see you there!
OtherPosted by Jane Tue, July 29, 2008 22:07:35I visited a small comunity library today in the midlands and felt moved to write about the experience, as it put into practice so much of what is thought, said and written of our often-maligned public library services.
In an impossibly small space, crammed with neat shelves of orderly books, the tight-knit team of librarians had lovingly created a warm, friendly and well-stocked haven of books and much, much more.
Imaginative displays, posters advertising forthcoming readings and, unexpectedly, a plate of cakes for the children, all went towards this great atmosphere of communal book-sharing. It's worth noting that this library is situated in a low-income area, of which the librarians themselves were acutely aware.
These same librarians knew many of their borrowers on first name terms and worked tirelessly the whole time I was in there. Families contendedly browsed the shelves, adults busily used the internet services. People came and went quietly about their business. There was a healthily-sized poetry section too, stocked with many modern poetry collections from Salt and Bloodaxe.
Inside an unassuming, slightly run-down municipal building, I had found a small corner of something wonderful. I've had some less than good experiences in larger libraries, but somehow this place restored my faith in what libraries are and what they should do, and why they are part of the lifeblood of any town or suburb.
And all of this served to remind me what a fantastic service many libraries in our towns and cities provide, and how we should praise them and those who work in them (often for quite modest wages, it should be said too).
See, libraries provide more than books. They provide a safe, communal space for people to meet, for parents and children on rainy days. A place to access information, but also a space in which to go and share in it, to browse peacefully and take a few minutes out of the day for yourself, and borrow a dozen books absolutely free of charge. They enrich the communities in which they exist and are a service which we should all defend as if our lives depend on it.
Yes, there is debate about an increasing focus on internet and multimedia services and other non-book related provisions, that libraries are neglecting and moving away from their duty to provide education and enlightenment through literature. I'd never want to see libraries merely as internet cafes, but I would also argue that libraries must reflect the changing internet age we live in, and that by providing free (or at the very least, cheap) internet access, they are continuing to serve the same duty they have always done. That is to ensure that all sections of our society, regardless of personal circumstance, are able to access and utilise information. Whether that is online or on the printed page is really no longer the point. That it is there at all is a testament to those who founded our public libraries with the cornerstone belief in information and education for all.
We should salute them, and all those who continue to work in the belief of public libraries. Long may we wave our borrowing tickets with pride.
PoetryPosted by Jane Sat, July 12, 2008 18:36:26I'd reached a bit of an impasse with a poem, and started thinking about random word poetry.
I know that other poets have used the words or phrases found in spam mail as a starting point, a cyberspace 'objet trouve', if you like. I've also heard of poets using Google or Babelfish as tools for doing strange and wonderful things with language. I supposed that somewhere on the web there MUST be some kind of random word generator.....
The above generator is a fascinating language tool. You can alter the type of word you would like, as well as how common or rare the usage of said word. This means you could get something as fantastic as 'Organomagnesium' or as mundane as 'noisy'. If it's true randomness you're after, a dictionary and an index finger would probably work just as well. But would it provide something workable, or just too random?
I decided to impose some rules in order to use the random word generator in a way which might produce poetry. I was interested to see how I would work around these random words, what strictures they might impose, and whether it's possible to produce a poem from such a device that can stand alone and show none of the signs of its origins.
The rules were these:
Generate twelve words using the generator. Select several nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and prepositions (I decided to leave out interjections for the time being.) I used the common usage criteria for all of these.
Take the first twelve words and don't quibble - no matter what they are.
Then, use one each of the twelve words as the first word of each line of a twelve line poem.
The words can be used in any order, but must stay exactly as chosen and should not be altered - as by making them plural, for example.
The lines could be of any length, stanzas of any form and anything else could apply, as long as those twelve words stayed just as they are.
Line breaks should at least try to seem natural or logical, the 'chosen' words should blend in and seem as if they belong, and in doing so attempt to make a poem that works by itself.
My twelve words were:
entire, fight, inside, talking, he, amidst, pause, disclaimer, between, distinct, bored, dash
Did it work??
Judge for yourselves - twenty five minutes of quick fire writing later...
_
Talking of twilight – pungent and damp, even in June,
he steps out into the silent streets, his footsteps
distinct for a hundred yards, then sound falters.
.
Amidst the brick-terraced sundown, the black
dash-and-dot of swallows form a swift hail against
entire clouds the golden colour of heaven.
.
Inside, at the landing window, a child will
pause, listening to a parent’s ever-mellowing
fight in the kitchen, words echoing in chipboard.
.
Between sounds, the man in the street looks up,
bored eyes connecting in the dusk - he offers a
disclaimer, a shrug, one finger to his lips.
.
(please excuse the dots - they're they only way I can get the formatting to recognise the stanzas.)
I don't think it's entirely successful as a stand alone poem. The last stanza just doesn't seem to work - it's too clumsy in its attempts to work around the chosen words - particularly bored (which I was going to use in its other sense, but couldn't seem to work it into place in the time allowed).
But there are things that I like about this poem, and I intend to work on it further. And anyway, the next stage is the really good bit.
It's where you get to break the rules.
