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.

CHURCHTOWN SOUTHERN GOTHIC

Anthony Caleshu's latest book is Churchtown: the Tale of Suzy Delou and Faye Fiddle, a novella published in paperback by new publisher Roastbooks in their series 'great little reads'. It's a southern gothic tale of sexual jealousy and religious deception, of absent fathers, country and western music, epic hatred and small town feuding. Anthony says that Churchtown was written when he was a teaching fellow at the University of Alabama in the 90s. Roastbooks are located in Albert Embankment, London, and specialize in shorter fiction. See their 'great little reads' series here.

SHORT FICTION LAUNCH

More than a hundred new writing and art enthusiasts turned out for the launch of the second issue of Plymouth based journal Short Fiction in the Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth, on Wednesday 19 November. There was a reading by Luke Kennard of his story 'How I Lost My Job' and a screening of Anya Lewin's powerful short film With Heartfelt Gratitude for the Painless Treatment, which provides images for the magazine. Short Fiction is edited by Anthony Caleshu, Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University.