Longbarrow Press

Mark Goodwin and Chris Jones will read at Newstead Abbey on Saturday 9 February as part of the inaugural Nottingham Festival of Words (click here for further details and booking). The two poets have devised a special, one-off collaborative performance for the occasion; an exploratory tour of the English outskirts (accompanied by a projected film of Nikki Clayton‘s photographs). Here’s a transcript of Elaine Aldred’s recent conversation with Goodwin, in which he discusses publishing, poetics, rock-climbing and slack-lining. Goodwin’s words and voice (and Clayton’s images) feature in this short film by Brian Lewis (based on our recent closer to ground to hear installation).

We’ve uploaded the third (and final) part of our recent Winter Songs event to SoundCloud (parts 1 & 2 are now deleted). A journey into exile with poets Angelina Ayers, Matthew Clegg, Andrew Hirst, Chris Jones and Fay Musselwhite (through landscapes haunted by the shades of TS Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Gyorgy Petri and Peter Reading). Click on the podcast below. ‘Listen to it / all night north…’

Poems in order of appearance: Journey of the Magi – TS Eliot (read by Chris Jones); 
St Hilary’s Exile – Angelina Ayers; Welund’s Lament – Andrew Hirst; There’s a certain slant of light… – Emily Dickinson (read by Angelina Ayers); Out Far and In Deep – Matthew Clegg
; Night Song of the Personal Shadow – Gyorgy Petri (read by Andrew Hirst)
; Impasse – Fay Musselwhite; Ovidian – Peter Reading (read by Matthew Clegg).

Finally, we’ve created a short film in response to Kelvin Corcoran‘s remarkable poem ‘Season Below Ground’ (featured in his 2010 Shearsman collection Hotel Shadow). Corcoran’s acclaimed 2011 pamphlet Words Through A Hole Where Once There Was A Chimpanzee’s Face is still available from Longbarrow Press (click here to order)

Following the success of our recent Winter Songs event at The Fat Cat in Sheffield, we’ve uploaded the evening’s first two parts to SoundCloud (the recordings were available until 13 February. Part three is still available here). The first selection of poems (read by Angelina Ayers, Matthew Clegg, Andrew Hirst, Chris Jones and Fay Musselwhite) explores connections between winter and ideas of home; the second moves through winter landscapes. Read Camille Brouard’s Winter Songs review (for Forge Today) here.
Part Two [now deleted] | Poems in order of appearance: Snow in North Jersey – August Kleinzahler (read by Angelina Ayers); 
As I Step Over a Puddle… – James Wright (read by Chris Jones); Chappaquiddick, 1980 – Andrew Hirst; Yakov – Philip Levine (read by Matthew Clegg); Feeding Out–Wintering Cattle – Ted Hughes (read by Fay Musselwhite); The Snow Man – Wallace Stevens (read by Angelina Ayers).
Part One [now deleted] | Poems in order of appearance: The Winter’s Spring – John Clare (read by Fay Musselwhite); The Last Workday Before Christmas – Matthew Clegg; 
Walking the Ward – Angelina Ayers; Name – Chris Jones; Firewood – Fay Musselwhite; The Darkling Thrush – Thomas Hardy (read by Andrew Hirst); A Journey Home / The Last Day of the Year – Chris Jones.