Wednesday, 20 June 2012

New at Nine Arches

Nine Arches Press has two new debut collections out now - Melanchrini, by Loughborough poet Maria Taylor, and Absence has a weight of its own, by Cheltenham-based Daniel Sluman. Having heard them both read from the books, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into them, because they're realkly both very distinctive poets.

Meanwhile, over at Gists & Piths, Simon Turner is interviewing another Nine Arches poet, C J Allen, whose At The Oblivion Tea-Rooms was recently published. Regular readers here might recall that I'm a big fan of both Clive's and Simon's poetry, so it's probably no surprise that it's a terrific interview, with a lot of interesting things to say about form, among other things.*

Finally, the next Nine Arches/Crystal Clear Creators Shindig takes place at The Western in Leicester on July 16th - be there!

* Incidentally, I think Clive's reason for wanting to be a painter - "I liked the smell of linseed oil and the way they hardly ever seemed to do anything" - probably sums up my childhood ambition to be a cricketer, and continuing obsession with the game.

2 comments:

The Editors said...

Hi Matt,

Glad you enjoyed the interview, hopefully as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

On the subject of cricket, I've always found it a relaxing spectacle, but I'm damned if I understand it, to be honest. The mathematics involved is beyond advanced, and the language of the game is as dense and specialised as that of post-modern continental philosophy or theoretical physics.

Also, and I've always loved this, the otherwise execrable live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film of 1990 includes the immortal line: "Cricket? Cricket? You've gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket." Priceless.

Simon @ G/P

Matt Merritt said...

Ha, ha, yes, I remember that line!

I think the mathematics was probably one of the things I originally liked about cricket, as a kid. Not that I'm any good at maths, really, but I did like mental arithmetic a lot. But the fact that so little can happen for long periods is good too - makes it perfect for dipping in and out of when doing something else.