Sunday, February 01, 2015

Robert Sheppard: Poems in Otoliths 36 and Unfinish forthcoming (plus old set list)

Today, I have some prose work published in Otoliths (see here for issue 36 of this e-magazine, and here for my page). My three pieces are from a manuscript called Unfinish: ‘Venus and Adonis’, ‘Interlude’, and ‘Excitation for Jo Blowers’.
Jo performing this piece at (up the side of actually) The Bluecoat

(Set list: ‘Excitation for Jo Blowers’ was first performed, in a performance text version, as a work-in-progress, at the Friends of cris cheek evening at the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 25th June 2013 by Jo Blowers and Mary Prestidge (dance), and Robert Sheppard and Patricia Farrell (voice). (See here for a later performance with Jo of a subsequent collaboration.) It was led by Jo Blowers. In the performance version it is possible to use the original sentences/lines of part two – they nearly all began, ‘The poem is like…’ – in any order. It is not possible to use them in no order. It is possible to use all of them or only one. Or to carry on re-using them without end. They have been per-formed into a page version for this showing to enable the performance of reading to be enacted more engagingly by a silent reader. The empty parentheses are to be filled by the reader(s), performer(s) or listeners, or accepted as unfinish.)

I say ‘manuscript’, but Unfinish is published by Veer and may be read about and obtained here.

Other published parts of Unfinish include ‘In Unadopted Space’, which was first published in the anthology Sculpted: Poetry of the North West, edited by Lindsey Holland and Angela Topping, Aughton: North West Poets, 2013; ‘Portrait and Portals’ was published, with images by Patricia Farrell, on the online part of the anthology The Dark Would, edited by Phil Davenport, Manchester: Apple Pie Editions, 2013. The piece I wrote for/to Sean Bonney, 'Bad Poems for Bad People' (whose earlier version may be read here) starts the whole thing off, but there has been a de-selection: ‘Sudley House’ has been pulled from the collection, but it may still be read here (another text that is a page-based version of a performance text; there's a link to that).

The rest is unpublished and shall remain a surprise.

 In this, the southern summer, 2015, issue of Otoliths you’ll also find exciting new work by:

Volodymyr Bilyk, George McKim, Lakey Comess, Stephen Bett, Greg McLaren, Philip Byron Oakes, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Robert Lietz, Stephen C. Middleton, Nick Ravo, Chase Gagnon, Owen Bullock, Caleb Puckett, Kyle Hemmings, Despo Magoni, Craig Cotter, J. Crouse, Michael Martrich, Bryan Young, Halvard Johnson, dan raphael, Jeff Dahlgren, Jeff Dahlgren and John Lowther, John Lowther, Pete Spence, Howie Good, A. J. Huffman, John M. Bennett, Jim Leftwich and John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett and Vittore Baroni, Thomas M. Cassidy and John M. Bennett, Thomas M. Cassidy and Cheryl Penn and John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, j4, Felino A. Soriano, Andrew Topel, Jürgen O. Olbrich & Andrew Topel, Jack Galmitz & Fotis Begetis, Joel Chace, Mark Melnicove, Sally Evans, James Sanders, Joe Balaz, John Martone, Raymond Farr, Carol Shillibeer, Carol Stetser, Natsuko Hirata, Cecelia Chapman and Jeff Crouch, Stuart Barnes, Michael Caylo-Baradi, Ric Carfagna, Nurul Wahidah, Anne Elvey, Jeff Harrison, Stephen Nelson, Cyriaco Lopes and Terri Witek, Daniel John Pilkington, Eryk Wenziak, SS Prasad, sean burn, Jonel Abellanosa, Michael O’Brien, Mark Pirie, Márton Koppány, Willie Smith, Kit Kennedy, Toby Finch, Naomi Buck Palagi, Marcello Diotallevi, Stu Hatton, Brendan Tang, John Pursch, Charles Freeland, Paul Pfleuger, Jr., Luc Fierens, Angad Arora, PT Davidson, Steven Alvarez, George J. Farrah, bruno neiva, Bob Heman, Richard Kostelanetz, Bogdan Puslenghea, hiromi suzuki, Tony Beyer, nick-e melville, Marilyn Stablein, Ria Masae, Susan Gangel, Michael Brandonisio, Katrinka Moore, Gian Luigi Braggio, Texas Fontanella, Aditya Bahl, Tom Snarsky, Trijita Mukherjee.