Monday, May 30, 2016

EUOIA; European Union of Imaginary Authors: update on progress

So far, the collaborations, either finished or currently underway, have been with colleagues, old friends, new friends, young poets, and female poets. I couple I’d not met before. Recent methods of collaboration range from two words at a time (with Philip Terry), whole lines (with Joanne Ashcroft) to whole poems (Kelvin Corcoran and S.J. Fowler). Some (with Jèssica Pujol i Duran and Alys Conran) leave me not quite sure who wrote what. Some were slow, and some (like Alan Baker) were really fast! Some are jests (with Tom Jenks); some poignant (with Jason Argleton). Every poet is now assigned and there are only a few to finish. Poets with no names next to them were created singly by me (they are the ones already featured as Rene Van Valckenborch's own inventions in A Translated Man and they are also featured together here.




The links below weill take you to their EU(OIA) pleadings and their biographies, or occasionally other sources.

Croatia Martina Marković (1982-) with James Byrne (and Damir Sodan) (see here)
Austria Sophie Poppmeier (1981-)  with Jason Argleton (see here)
Belgium Paul Coppens (1980-)  with Philip Terry (see here)
Bulgaria Ivaylo Dimitrov (1979-) with Patricia Farrell (see here)
Cyprus Gurkan Arnavut (1978-)   with Zoe Skoulding (see here for text and video)
Czech Republic Jitka Průchová (1978-) (see here)
Denmark Trine Kragelund (1979-) (see here)
Estonia Hermes (1975-) with Rupert Loydell (see here where there's a link to our full collaboration)
Finland Minna Kärkkäinen (1974-) with Allen Fisher (see here)
France Carte-Vitale (1973-)  with Sandeep Parmar (see here)
Germany Karla Schäfer (1972-) with Frances Kruk (see here)
Greece Eua Ionnou (1971-)  with Kelvin Corcoran (see here)
Hungary Ratsky József (1970-) with Jeff Hilson (see here)
Ireland Sean Eogan (1969-)  with Steve MacCaffery (see here)
Italy Lucia Ciancaglini (1968-2010) (See here for publication details and an unfinished poem)
Latvia Jānis Raups (1967?-) with Simon Perril (see here)
Lithuania Jurgita Zujūtė (1966-) (See here and read one of her poems)
Luxembourg Georg Bleinstein (1965-2046) with Tom Jenks (See here for his short biography and some illustrations, featuring Sabrina, Group Captain Carol Vorderman and sausage manufacture)
Malta Hubert Zuba (1964-2015; he died in the middle of Scott and me reading his poem, as can be seen here) with Scott Thurston (yet to be linked)
Netherlands Maarten De Zoete (1963-) with God’s Rude Wireless (a cut up machine).
Poland Jaroslav Biały (1962-) with Anamaria Crowe Serrano (see here for information and a further link)
Portugal Ana Cristina Pessao (1961-) with Jessica Pujol (see here)
Romania Sultana Nemoianu (1960-) with Robert Hampson (see here)
Slovakia Matúš Dobeš (1959-)  with Joanne Ashcroft (see here)
Slovenia A.B.C. Remič (1958-) with Alan Baker (read the two poems we created here). I also pause to consider the murder of Jo Cox MP during the EU Campaign and the role of this 'mad caper' here. 
Spain Cristòfol Subira (1957-) with Alys Conran (see here for biography and video of us reading the poems)
Sweden Kajsa Bergström (1956-) with S.J. Fowler (see here)
United Kingdom Robert Sheppard (1955-) with myself! (See here, principally, eventually, but here as well)

Read 'Robert Sheppard''s resignation speech from the EUOIA here. And Hermes' response here.

bonus track (outside the EU and reality):

Frisland Hróbjartur Ríkeyjarson af Dvala (1948- ) with Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl (see here)

The result of this mad caper is the developing anthology, which I hope will be published.

I am also posting posts about the project on my blog, beginning here. In the run up to the EU referendum I will be posting daily pleas from these poets for the Bremain campaign (except Hermes, who will recommend leaving), or actually to stop me being chucked out of my own fictional organisation!

If you think this book will be the end of it, it won’t. I’m already contemplating turning the EUOIA-idea inside out, and writing (by myself) a fictional collaboration between two of the poets, Sophie Poppmeier and Trine Krugelund.

SJ Fowler (see 1956 above) has his own post here

NEWS August 2017:

I am pleased to announce that Shearsman Books has published the EUOIA poets as  Twitters for a Lark. Here's the cover. Buy here: