Coming back to myself

(Weirdly, after writing the first draft of this, I found I’d written a very similar post around this time last year – perhaps its part of my annual cycle - though it does make me think that I haven't learned anything.)

For most of this year a lot of my non-day-job work has been publishing stuff – I’ve been wearing my publisher hat with JAAM magazine, and as Seraph Press I’ve published a record two books this year – Watching for Smoke by Helen Heath, and Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima, by Vana Manasiadis. (I’ve previously averaged about one book every year-and-a-half.) And it isn’t that my publishing responsibilities are over – there’s still my attempts at publicity and distribution for those aforementioned publications, and the next issue of JAAM to prepare for, but ever since I signed off the print proofs for Ithaca I started feeling like it was time to take a look at my own writing again, and, even, that I had a little bit of spare time in which I could do that. Since then I’ve written a few things – mostly poems and mostly fairly mediocre, but that’s ok. I think what what to do now is take stock of where I’m at, and what I have.

One of my goals for this year was to have finished a draft of Cinema – my movie-inspired poems that I hope will become my next collection. I’m pretty sure I haven’t done that – I think I probably have enough-ish poems, but not enough poems that are good enough, and that work together to do what I want them to do. What I want them to do is work individually and together to create something of meaning.

When I started on this project I was kind of steering clear of the personal in my poetry. I’ve been reluctant to write too much about myself, because it feels self-indulgent. I guess that probably comes from having written so many dreadful teen-angst poems about how I felt (usually misunderstood, disappointed, unappreciated and frequently infatuated). But lately, considering what I really love in other people’s poetry (and even some of my own) is when they manage to turn personal stories or details into something bigger than themselves. I’ve appreciated that in both the books I’ve just published. The personal can give you, the reader, something to connect to (though it can also alienate you, of course, if it doesn’t work for you). I think that connection is maybe what I want a bit more of in Cinema.

Something I didn’t expect to do this year was write a long poem sequence about a (literal and kind of psychological) journey. But I did. In one day. One of my next tasks is to revise that and then kick it out for a reader or two to have a read of it, and then see what is to be done with it.

Another thing I need to do is send out some more submissions to literary journals – it’s been a while.

And I think it’s time to restart my ‘weekly’ writing reports to Clare (my last one was in August – I think they were mostly sort of bi-monthly before that). I find they help me keep track of what I’m up to and keep me motivated.

So, yeah, I’m back on the wagon.

Places to buy Ithaca

Excitingly, you can now buy Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima by Vana Manasiadis not only from me, and from the wonderful Unity Books in Wellington, but also from the PaperGraphica website. PaperGraphica is the gallery that represents Marian Maguire, who is the artist whose work features on the front cover of the book, and amongst whose artwork we launched Ithaca last week. Hopefully some people who are interested in Marian's art might be interested in Vana's book.

It's particularly cool, because Vana is listed as one of the artists. The other cool thing is that because it's an e-commerce site, from this page about the book people can just click 'purchase, and buy it. I hope lots of people do!

Also, you could waltz in to your local bookshop and ask them to order it for you. They might want to know the ISBN, which is: 978-0-473-15235-2.

Ithaca launched

The author arrived from Crete on Monday, the book arrived from the printers on Tuesday, and we launched Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima by Vana Manasiadis on Wednesday - last night. It was great.

The Adam Art Gallery was the perfect venue, as the launch took place among Greek vases and Greek-vase-inspired lithographs (by Marian Maguire, whose artwork, as I've said before, graces the cover of Ithaca).

Damien Wilkins, who was the course convener of Vana's masters in creative writing class, launched the book. He had been around during its genesis, and so it was appropriate he should send it out into the world. He'd read it in its earlier incarnation as Vana's masters portfolio, and said that, reading it again, it seemed to have gotten younger. I think I know what he means. While it was almost all there in that earlier form, the work Vana has done on it over the last few years have made each poem sharper, more of what it is.

Vana got lots of compliments on her poems, and I got lots of compliments for how beautiful the book looks, Marian (who was able to be at the launch, which was lovely) got lots of compliments about her artwork (both on the wall and on the book), and me and my mum got lots of compliments about the catering. Yay!

Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us, and thanks for buying so many books. I really hope this book finds the audience it deserves (a big one), and we've made a good start so far.

Copies of Ithaca are now available from Unity Books in Wellington (I dropped them off today), can be ordered through bookshops, or can be ordered directly through me (email me at seraphpress@paradise.net.nz).

Ok, it's been an exhausting week, and now it's time to go to bed...

JAAM 28 call for submissions

Just briefly (cos I'm busy getting myself together for the launch of Ithaca Island Bay Leaves on Wednesday (pleased to hear the author has arrived safe and sound from Crete today!)) I wanted to let you all know that we've (finally) put out the call for submissions for JAAM 28.

It's going to be called DanceDanceDance, and we're looking for dancing words and images. Read the call for submissions on the JAAM site, and interpret it as you will.

This issue is going to be edited by Clare Needham and me (we're the co-managing editors of JAAM). We've been planning and plotting it for a while. Clare is going to write a fuller blog post about the genesis of this idea soon, but basically she's worked as a dance producer and got interested in the metaphorical, and actual, possibilities of dance.

Don't be put off if you have two left feet - in fact you could even write about that!

More here: http://jaam.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/call-for-submissions-for-jaam-28-dancedancedance/.

Ithaca Island Bay Leaves launching

The venue is all confirmed, the book has gone to the printers (just need to sign off the final proof on Monday), and I'm starting to plan the refreshments.

We're going to be launching Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: a mythistorima - the debut poetry collection of Vana Manasiadis, on Wednesday 2nd December, at 6.30 pm, at the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University.

As I said in a previous post, we'll be launching it amongst ancient Greek vases and modern New Zealand lithographs by Marian Maguire (whose art we're using on the cover of Ithaca) that combine ancient-Greek-vase-ish imagery with 19th-century New Zealand history.

Damien Wilkins will be doing the launching honours. And Vana, who will have just gotten back from Crete where she's been living for the last almost 3 years (I can't believe it's been so long since I've seen her!) will read some poems. I'm really looking forward to this launch, and getting this book out into the world. It's had a long journey.

Come help us celebrate.

Where can I get me a copy of Watching for Smoke?

Well, seeing as you asked: if you don't already have one, you can get yourself your very own, made-with-love copy of Watching for Smoke, by Helen Heath by:

• buying a copy off either myself or Helen, if you should be lucky enough to know one or other or both of us personally
• emailing me at seraphpressATparadise.net.nz to order a copy
• buying it off Helen's Etsy shop - she just popped it up today, complete with some lovely, lovely photos
• buying it Unity Books Wellington, if you wait a few more days until I take in the copies for them
• asking your nice, friendly local bookshop to order a copy from me - they might like to know the ISBN, which is 978-0-473-15379-3.

I've also just updated my Seraph Press website - an uncommon occurrence I'm afraid - to include information about Watching for Smoke, and the upcoming (soon!) Ithaca Island Bay Leaves, by Vana Manasiadis.

Ithaca Island Bay Leaves update

As I mentioned below, I've been pretty busy getting Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: a mythistorima by Vana Manasiadis all finished so I can get it printed. I'm almost, almost there.

I can now present the cover, which features a wonderful lithograph by Christchurch artist Marian Maguire, entitled Athena Observes a Fracas. This image is particularly appropriate as it introduces Greek mythology into a New Zealand context in a similar way to what Vana does in many of her poems.

Marian does this in quite a few of her works, including the series this print comes from (The Odyssey of Captain Cook), and also in a more recent series, The Labours of Herakles, in which Herakles ends up in colonial New Zealand. I'm totally delighted that we're going to be able to launch Ithaca in the middle of The Labours of Herakles (and several ancient Greek vases - safely housed in sturdy cabinets) in the Adam Art Gallery. What could be more perfect! You can see some more of Marian's work on the Papergraphica gallery website.

As a taster for Ithaca, here's the blurb from the back cover:

the ocean is what I’m standing in – one tiptoe on the Pacific rim and one not.
(‘Talking Tectonics’)

Part family exploration, part personal narrative, this haunting and delicate debut collection weaves the mythic into the everyday.

Drawing on her Greek heritage, Vana Manasiadis has Icarus crashing in Wellington storm, Theseus as a DOC ranger, and her grandfather, grandmother and mother threading their way through times, places and incarnations.

Exploring the ex patria feeling of ‘being here and being there,’ she sews together Greece and New Zealand to create a playful and deeply moving journey.

Charlotte Simmonds at this month's Poetry Society meeting

This month's Poetry Society meeting is actually tomorrow, which seems to have come rather quickly. (This whole year has gone terrifyingly quickly, and this next less-than-three weeks before we launch Ithaca Island Bay Leaves will go very quickly. It's almost ready to go to the printers though, so I'm confident that it will all be done in good time.)

Charlotte Simmonds, this month's guest reader, is the author of The World's Fastest Flower, which was published last year and was a finalist in the Best First Book category of the book awards. I had heard good things about it from my friend Emma, who, when she first read it, enjoyed it so much that as soon as she finished it she started reading it again from the beginning.

I realised, after hearing that she was the next guest reader, that I'd seen/heard her read at a couple of open-mic poetry readings, and had been really impressed both times. So I decided I'd read her book before the reading, and I really enjoyed it.

How to describe it? It's a bit different, and thank goodness for that. It's like a breath of fresh, youthful air. It's not all necessarily easy poetry, but it isn't dense or dry. It isn't what you'd expect - or, at least, it isn't what I've come to expect.

There's a prose-poetryness about many of the poems, with lots of long lines, little narratives. But the language is playful and intense. Sometimes the poems were clear, sometimes they made no sense, but only a few didn't grab me. Many of the poems seemed very personal, raw even, but the narrative voices/personas are different from each other, and many are clearly not the poet (or at least not a straight-forward version of the poet), so it's a bit more complicated.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing her read. If you want to go along too, the details are:

Monday 16 November, 7.30 pm
The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St
Entry: $2
The meeting will open, as always, with an open mic.

Two new reviews of My Iron Spine

I’ve had two more (favourable) reviews of My Iron Spine recently.

The first was a brief review by the lovely Siobhan Harvey in Poetry NZ 39. She says it ‘underpins its author’s feminist concerns with a forceful poeticism’ and I am ‘at her best when lyrically reinventing the voices, lives and difficulties of the famous and infamous.’ She mentions ‘Handicrafts with Minnie Dean’, ‘Kate Sheppard and I go for a ride’ and ‘Partying with Katherine Mansfield’ as ‘just a few examples of Rickerby’s success throughout My Iron Spine in breathing new and cadent life into a faux-mythical cast.’

The second review was on the blog of Jennifer Sullivan, a US poet I’ve gotten to know on the net, due to our common interest in poet Anne Carson. So you can read the whole thing over there. But to make myself feel happy I’m going to quote my fav bits. She says that My Iron Spine is: ‘poignant, witty, tender, fun, and moving’, and says about the first section, ‘Flashes of déjà vu’: A charming voice waltzes through the narrative, saying things like, ‘I was playing hungry / hungry hippos / when my grandmother died’ or ‘I wonder / if the Kingdom of Heaven / is like the Titanic– / not enough lifeboats.’ Then she goes on to say lovely things about the other two sections, and even says that sometimes the book is akin to the work of our common idol, Anne Carson. High praise indeed.

Watching for Smoke launch, and my Poetry Society reading

I’ve been a bit quiet lately. While this has partly been because my computer is still being fixed (Dad has replaced so many bits of it, in order to find out what wasn’t working, it’s going to end up as a different computer altogether), mainly I’ve just been recovering from a whole bunch of things, including the launch we had for the latest Seraph Press book, Watching for Smoke by Helen Heath (and getting lots of books made beforehand), and the reading I did at the Poetry Society the day after.

Watching for Smoke launch

This was lots of fun. I’d gotten a bit anxious because instead of arriving an hour beforehand to set up, as I planned, we got there with 15 minutes to spare due to a girl falling off her motorbike close to our place, and my kind friends bringing her up to the house to have a cup of tea and attend to her grazes. I needn’t have worried though – there were already people in the kitchen putting jam and cream on pikelets, and my team of family and friends helped us finishing setting up in record time (thanks guys!).

Being in an old church hall (St Peters in Paekakariki), and with treats such as the aforementioned pikelets, it had the feeling of a ‘ladies-a-plate’ sort of event, but in the best possible way. Kids ran around, or danced to the fabulous music of Dan, Stefan, and another musician whose name I’m afraid I didn’t catch.

Dinah Hawken launched the book. As well as being a poet admired both Helen and myself, Dinah is Helen’s supervisor for her MA in creative writing. (Helen will be putting the finishing touches to her portfolio, perhaps at this very moment.) Dinah said lots of lovely things about the book and about Helen’s poetry in general. She also said that she kind of wished that all poetry books could be just little books, like this chapbook, rather than having to be larger volumes. While I’m a fan of larger poetry books too, there is something very satisfying about the smallness and concentration of a chapbook.

Helen then talked and read a few poems, including one not from Watching for Smoke which she read especially for her father. We sold quite a few books, but I still have a few left (and a few left to make – though not too many). If you want to buy one, I’ll sell them to you for $15 direct – just email me at Helen.RickerbyATparadise.net.nz. Unity Books in Wellington will have some soon, where they’ll be $20.

Voyagers event and my reading at the Poetry Society

It was a bit of a busy day – immediately before my reading I attended the Wellington event for the Voyagers New Zealand science fiction poetry anthology publicity tour. (This must be the best-publicised book in NZ in recent history – and it’s actually published by an Australian

company.) Co-editor Tim Jones, who was MCing, kindly let me read first, so I could sneak off early to get myself together. I was very sorry to have missed most of the other readers, but I did end up really needing the time to get a bite to eat and, mainly, spend ages mucking around with my friend Angelina’s computer to get the datashow working. Actually, I didn’t muck around with it much, it was mainly my new heroes Angelina and Poetry-Society attendee Lonnard, who finally beat it into submission – or rather facilitated communication between the computer and the projector.

As always, the reading began with an open mic, and I thought it an especially good one. One of the highlights was Harvey Molloy reciting 'Caedmon’s Hymn' in Old English.

Everyone was wondering what I was going to do with the datashow, but I started off my reading low-tech, so they had to wait. I read some of my new poems that are playing with various ideas related to cinema, and then I showed them my wee video poem, ‘Calling you home’.

The main thing I used the datashow for was just to show an image while I read my poems. I’d tried this at my reading in Palmerston North in May, and it seemed to go well. So I expanded it a bit this time and while reading poems from My Iron Spine about women from history, I showed an image of the woman the poem was about (except Marie Curie, for whom I was unable to find a picture before my borrowed computer refused to connect to the internet any more that afternoon). So I had pictures of Kate Sheppard, Minnie Dean, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath. My final poem was ‘Artemisia Gentileschi’, which is basically talking about her life while talking about her paintings, so it was really great to be able to have people look at the paintings while listening to the poem. It made a lot more sense to a lot of people, and I think helped them to get the funny bits (there are one or two) in the middle of what is mostly a fairly grim, raw poem (it gets much more hopeful at the end).

We had quite a lively question time, and my favourite question I think, was ‘Did you realise that all those women looked like you?’ I didn’t, and I still don’t really think they do.

Invitations to stuff

If I haven't yet invited you to either the Watching for Smoke book launch (Sunday 3.30 St Peter's Hall Paekakariki) or my reading at the Poetry Society on Monday (7.30 Thistle Inn 3 Mulgrave Steet Thorndon), then I have probably lost your email address (hopefully temporarily) when my computer died (but the hard drive is hopefully ok), or you live out of town and I thought it was to far for you to come. I have discovered that, while Facebook is kind of a bit waste of time, it is really good for inviting people to stuff.

The other thing I should invite you all to is a reading for the Voyagers science fiction poetry anthology. We contributors are reading at the Wellington Central Library at 5.30 on Monday (just before my Poetry Society reading). There's also a reading at the Paraparaumu library on Tuesday at 5.30 (but I'm not entirely certain if I can make that).

There are Voyagers readings all around the country - Dunedin last night, Christchurch tonight, and after Wellington there will be some in Auckland. I think this is one of the best-promoted books I can remember, ever. (Oh except perhaps those boy wizard books and anything by Dan Brown.)

Launching Watching for Smoke

Come along to help us celebrate the launch of:

Watching for Smoke

by Helen Heath.

on Sunday 18th October at 3.30 pm in St Peter’s Hall, Beach Road, Paekakariki.

This hand-bound poetry chapbook will be launched by Dinah Hawken, and will be available for sale at $15 (RRP $20).

There will be bubbly, there will be scones, there will most likely be tea and coffee, there will be music. We hope you can come.

This is the first of two books I (ie Seraph Press) am (is) publishing this year. I'm already starting to organise the launch for the next one (Ithaca Island Bay Leaves), which will likely be very very early December.

Go wandering with JAAM 27

This isn't a real blog post - this is just to say that JAAM 27, gorgeous thing that it is, is in the process of being released to the world. And you can read more about it in the media release I just posted over on the JAAM website: http://jaam.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/go-wandering-with-jaam-27/.

I read at the Poetry Society

And, this is my 200th post, so I wanted to do something a bit special with it – which is to announce that I’m going to be the guest reader at the October meeting of the Poetry Society! I’m very excited about this and I hope you will be able to come.

It's going to be on Monday 19 October, 7.30 pm, upstairs at The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St.

I’m going to read a mixture of new stuff and poems from My Iron Spine. All going well, I'm going to spice it up a bit with a little bit of multi-media, as I did at the reading I did in Palmerston North in May.

This will be the second time I've been a guest reader at the Poetry Society. The first time was long, long ago - more than a decade ago - when I was guest reader with Ingrid Horrocks and Paul Wolffram. We were new, young poets. It was very exciting to have people take us seriously. But then, I'm always excited to be taken seriously.

Lewis Scott at Poetry Society

African-American-New-Zealand jazz poet L E Scott is the guest reader at this month's poetry society meeting. He's always a great performer.

Monday 21 September, 7.30pm
Upstairs at The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave Street

The meeting will open, as always, with an open mic. Entry: $2.

Stuff to know about: Fantastic Voyages - Writing Speculative Fiction

And the next night you could go to:
That's probably all the info you need to know, but there's more here on Tim Jones's blog: http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/fantastic-voyages-writing-speculative.html

Stuff to know about: Blackmail Press 25 and Wellington launch

Blackmail Press 25: The Rebel Issue, edited by Sarah Barnett and Bill Nelson, went live today. I'm fortunate enough to have had a couple of poems selected: 'The happiness of Mary Shelley' and 'Jesus Christ, Saviour'.

Mary Shelley was a bit of a rebel, especially in her younger days. I wrote this poem for My Iron Spine, and it was in there until the very last, when I decided it wasn't quite right and that the book would benefit from being a bit shorter. It was a hard decision, as I'm very fond of it. I'm glad it's found a home, and I hope I'll find a collection for it to fit into some time.

'Jesus Christ, Saviour' is actually about the actor Klaus Kinski rather than Jesus Christ himself, though both were rebels in their own ways. It's my response to watching a documentary of Klaus Kinski doing his performance peice called 'Jesus Christ, Saviour' in 1971 - it was pretty intense and pretty amazing.

I'm delighted to be in the issue with many fabulous folks, including Harvey Molloy, (with his poem 'Closer' - I've seen an earlier version of this, and I really think Harvey has nailed it with this version), Siobhan Harvey, Kate Camp, Janet Freegard and many others. Special mention goes to Marcel Currin, whose two short prose peices had me shreiking with laughter on my quick nose through.

And, as promised in the title, Harvey Molloy organised a Wellington launch for Blackmail Press 25. Details below:

Stuff to know about: Enamel submissions close soon

Submissions for the second issue of Enamel close at the end of September.

I'm sure that, like me, you'll submit only just before the deadline. Check out the submission guidelines here: http://enamelmag.blogspot.com/2009/03/submission-guidelines.html.

The first issue was lovely - definitely the best-looking first issue of a literary mag I ever saw. I'm looking forward to the second already.

Stuff to know about: Poets for Princess Ashika

Poets for Princess Ashika: Love, Loss and the Sea

Fundraiser for the victims of the Princess Ashika Ferry Disaster in Tonga featuring Poets Karlo Mila, Apirana Taylor, David Geary and Glenn Colquhoun, and Te Roopu Kapa Haka o Paekakariki

2 pm Saturday, 5 September at Paekakariki Memorial Hall, The Parade (next to Campbell Park),

Koha entry. Afternoon tea. Bring some biccies if you can! Gold coin raffle.

For more info: http://nzlive.com/en/nzlivecom/poets-for-princess-ashika-love-loss-and-the-sea

Waiting for Watching for Smoke

Actually, I'm not waiting at all, because it won't get finished if I just sit around. Instead I'm working towards Watching for Smoke, the poetry chapbook by Helen Heath, which I'm (ie Seraph Press) about to publish/am in the process of publishing.

From the very first, when I suggested a chapbook to Helen, it was quickly obvious it was going to have to be something special. Of course, all the books I publish are special - I don't publish very much, and I'm totally in love with everything I do publish; I feel I have to be - it's not as if I have a surfeit of time to just throw away. But one of the first things Helen mentioned when we first talked about this book was knitting needles.

If you know Helen, or read her blog, you'll know that as well as being an accomplished poet, she's pretty crafty. Crafts are even mentioned in one of the poems, 'Hooks and needles': 'those hooks / those needles / what we craft.//We make our beds / and sometimes / we bleed on them'. So knitting needles incorporated into the book seemed very appropriate. But how? It sent my mind spinning in various directions, and I've made quite a few prototypes, to see what might work and what won't.

I've also talked to lots of people, who have given me lots of ideas. This has been quite a collaborative process, particularly with Helen herself, but thanks also to Emma, who suggested the grey card, Lesley, who gave me some ideas about how to cut it, and Art-and-my-life Pauline, who sent me a consignment of knitting needles all the way from Mosgiel.

So now I have a final design. The books will have a wrap-around cover, which will fasten with a knitting needle or crochet hook (mostly needles - crochet hooks are hard to come by cheap), and will have a cut-out through which the title shows. They're going to be beautiful - fittingly so, to match the poems they contain. The cover is the aforementioned grey card (the colour is 'Twilight' in English, and 'Crépuscule' in French), and it's all going to be bound together with red hemp thread (the same thread I used with yellow covers on Scarab). I'll have pictures soon!

So now I'm working on how to make it happen - and happen 100 times. It is involving much fiddly cutting, but I've been inventing ways to make it all a bit easier and repeatable. I've been using those problem-solving skills you're always supposed to demonstrate in performance reviews. I've made templates out of bits of plastic from some folder I found in the study and which neither Sean nor I were particularly attached to, and using not one but two different kinds of craft knife.

Getting the text pages printed was the easy part - I sent my pdf off to the lovely folks at Wakefields Digital (who remain my fav printers) and a full of beautifully printed and folded arrived on my doorstep a couple of days later.

So I'm going to spend the rest of today constructing more of these little treasures. Fortunately I don't have to get them all done at once, but I do need to get enough done for Helen to take to Palmerston North on Wednesday, for her guest reading at Stand Up Poetry at the Palmerston North Public Library.

And watch this space for details of the launch we're planning to welcome Watching for Smoke into the world - probably late-ish in October.