Plymouth Language Club to close?

I'm hoping Tim Allen won't mind me quoting from his recent email:

 

Hi everyone,

Please note that the Language Club event planned for December 8th at Plymouth College of Art is cancelled.

Due to lack of support we are going to have a rethink about the Language Club in the new year.

If you have any thoughts regarding this please feel free to get back to me with your comments.

All the best

Tim Allen

Fifth Issue of Short FICTION

You are invited to the launch of Short FICTION, 'The Visual Literary Journal', this Thursday, 1 December, 7 pm, Roland Levinsky Building, Jill Craigie Cinema, Plymouth University.

The event is free and features a reading by Carol Mavor, with a wine reception to follow.

Carol Mavor is Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Manchester, and the author of four major books including READING BOYISHLY.  A review quote: "My book of the year is 'Reading Boyishly'...I have never read a book like it...my mind was set free to dance and flit by this thrilling mix of philosophy, photography and much more. It touched something very deep in me about what it is to be a creative man" (Grayson Perry, artist, 2003 Turner Prize winner, London's 'Sunday Observer'). Carol's first fiction appears in this fifth issue of Short FICTION.

Romanian Writers Book Launch

Following on from the successful conception of the Romanian Festival in November 2009, heralding the publication of 20 Romanian Writers and Associated Artists Series, Peninsula Arts presented the Romanian Festival 2011, focusing on performing arts with a Book Launch, Theatre and Dance.

Running from Thursday 24 November to Saturday 26 November at Plymouth University, this festival was a celebration of Romanian culture, as well as the on-going partnership between the University and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Rosie Goldsmith, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open Book’ introduced four of Romania’s leading authors, Mircea Cartarescu, Ion Muresan, Nicolae Manolescu and Razvan Petrescu.  Each interview was accompanied by readings performed by Romanian actress Cristina Catalina, bringing their words to life.

University of Plymouth Press Manager Paul Honeywill commented: ‘This is the third year that Romanian writers have come to Plymouth, Nicolae Manolescu is the Romanian Ambassador to UNESCO and is one of the foremost authorities on Romanian Literature. Ion Muresan is seen as a cultural celebrity and actively takes part in festivals, debates, readings and panels on his quest for literary perfection.’

New Short Fiction Website

Short FICTION appears annually in November. Some of our authors are long celebrated, others we'll take credit for as our discovery. Within our 192+ pages, we take special care to prepare each writer's work with front-illustration and within its own chapbook of space. See our back issues for stories by Kevin Barry, Helen Oyeyemi, Brad Watson, and Marina Warner.

Our new issue is our most visual yet, featuring a graphic novel by Tony Barnstone and Dorothy Tunnell as well as the fully-illustrated, first two sections of Joe Wenderoth's Agony.

For more information please visit:

www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk

OF WHALES

Anthony Caleshu's new book of poems Of Whales: In Print, In Paint, In Sea, In Stars, In Coin, In House, In Margins, is just published by Salt. It's a collection based on Melville's great American novel Moby Dick, using episodes and ideas from the novel and from Melville's sources, and criticism written on Melville, to dream up new poems haunted by seafaring and whaling, by drinking and voyaging in the literary imagination, and by relationships. It's a frankly obsessive book, maybe not quite so much so as Melville's, but completely literary in a witty and sometimes touching way. I read it right through with pleasure the first time and it grows on you, the enjoyment of an idea augmented and thoroughly developed in many different poems. The formal range of the poems is terrific and never fussy, as befits a humane book with a long literary memory. Plymouth is there in the Gin Factory and watery bars of the Barbican, in the night time imagination, alongside Bulkington, Ishmael, Hawthorne, Olson, Owen Chase, Thomas Beale, Starbuck, and all sorts of dodgy Melvillean characters, some of them born yesterday. You can find out more about Anthony Caleshu's books on his Salt page.

FORWARD FIRST COLLECTION

Steve Spence's book A Curious Shipwreck has been shortlisted for the Forward 2010 best first poetry collection prize. It's great that Steve's book has been recognized among the best debut poetry collections this year. You can find more information about Steve's work on the Shearsman website here.

THE LANGUAGE CLUB

The Language Club will be meeting on Saturday 3 July at 7.30 pm at Plymouth Arts Centre for their open mic evening of new writing in performance. Entry is £5 / £3, there is a bar and readers, musicians, singers and audience are very welcome. Special guest this time is Liverpool poet Scott Thurston, author of three Shearsman collections: Hold, Momentum and Internal Rhyme. You can find out about Scott's Shearsman publications here. He is co-curator of The Other Room reading series in Manchester and co-edits The Journal of British & Irish Innovative Poetry with Robert Sheppard. I got this photo of Scott from Tony Trehy's blog, (thanks Tony) all the others seemed to be earlier photos of Scott with Iggy Pop.