On Constantly Mishearing "Rioting" as "Writing" on the BBC

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1805063,00.html

London Reading on 1 July

The Poetry School's reading series continues on 1 July at Ev Delicatessen (a Turkish place) on Saturday, 1 July, from 7-9 p.m. Ev is located at 97-99 Isabella Street, SE1 8DA, and close to Southwark tube station.

This will be the London launch for Linda Chase's new book, Extended Family, and I'll be reading from manuscript in progress Imagined Sons, consisting mostly of prose poems. Poetry School students also reading include Claire Crowther, Alice Allen, Trevor Barnett, John Mackay, Roger Moulson, and Kathryn Simmonds.

Entry is by donation, and all proceeds go to the Poetry School's bursary fund.

New Writing 14

New Writing 14 is out, and I'm in good company--Carola Luther, Paul Muldoon, Don Paterson, Jamie McKendrick, and Greta Stoddart, among other poets. The London launch was a week ago. After I confirmed I'd attend, I received a letter asking me to read my poems at the launch, and I thought from the reference to a poetry reading that all the poets were going to read. To my great surprise, that was not the case. As the event was mostly a mixer, the British Council Literature people had decided to have just an informal introduction to the anthology by the British Council and the editors, Lavinia Greenlaw and Hebon Hebila, and a reading of the works therein by--me. I was startled and honoured.

There's also a large review of the anthology in tomorrow's TLS. About yours truly, Hal Jensen remarks, "Carrie Etter, with no collection as yet, has two poems in NW14. 'Divorce' is a nice spurt of sourness, beautifully contrived to make the reader flinch, and short enough to quote in full...." There's a new way to get a poem in TLS!

Translated into Portuguese

In March of this year, Vitor Alevato, a teacher of English literature at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, contacted me to ask whether he might use some of my poems in his course. I agreed heartily, and while students have been reading poems of mine in English, Vitor has translated one of my poems into Portuguese. I'll give it first in English then his translation. It originally appeared in the TLS.

I'm very grateful to Vitor both for his translation and for his allowing me to publish it here.

The World at Dusk

Along the lanes, in the emerging day,
a body in the world is a body
on an errand. The aching calf
knows the passage of time.

Injury once left me long
on the window’s warmer side, gazing
at the snow blown through
the poplars’ leafless branches.

All day, each day, the world was at dusk,
the change of light incidental.
When at last I walked to the postbox, afternoon
was everywhere. I had decades to live.

Mundo em crepúsculo

Ao longo da alameda, no dia nascente,
um corpo no mundo é um corpo
em missão. Pernas cansadas
conhecem o passar do tempo.

A injúria me deixou
do lado mais quente da janela, a olhar
a neve que se movia
nos galhos nus dos álamos.

Todo dia, cada dia, o mundo era crepúsculo,
a mudança de luz incidental.
Quando por fim eu fui à caixa de correio, a tarde
estava em todo lugar. Eu tinha décadas para viver.

Tim Liardet and Gerard Woodward Reading in Bath

I'm a little late posting this, as I assume many in the area received one of Annie's e-mails about the event. Tim Liardet and Gerard Woodward will read at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath at 8 p.m. on Thursday, 8 June. This event will launch Tim's new collection about his time in juvenile offenders prisons, The Blood Choir. £5 general, £3 concessions.

(Unfortunately I won't be able to attend--I'll be at The British Council and Granta Books' launch of New Writing 14 in London.)