WWW.MODERNPOETRY.ORG.UK
Just What Is British Innovative Poetry?
British & Irish online magazines, e-publishers etc
writers' blogs, websites etc
audio and video sites and archives
largely print publishers and magazines
readings and other live events/organisations
bookshops and booksellers (including online)
Links to British Innovative Poetry Sites:As with all the material on this site, please contact me at peter@greatworks.org.uk for any suggestions for additions, or to correct any errors. And please note that as on all these lists, a date in italics indicates the last date of fresh material being uploaded to any site; but nonetheless even if it's not live any more, there's interest there. ℵ is used to indicate an addition (or major alteration) to the listing.
A useful resource for British poets is the astonishing series of 80+ Maintenant Interviews on 3:AM Magazine by SJ Fowler – interviews with (translated) poems by contemporary European poets, slewed interestingly away from the familiar to cover a wide range of states and cultures, (even Britain and Ireland, including Tom Jenks and Holly Pester), ending in May, 2015 with Rhys Trimble. Read it! Use it! Crush Little-Englandism now! Look out too for events curated by the indefatigable Mr Fowler, often at Rich Mix.
page each with publications etc
vast compendium of British innovative poets reading, now being updated, started by Andrea Brady, and housed by Queen Mary University of London
John Armstrong's blog wrestles wonderfully with this
this huge internationally based site claims to be "the premier site for world literature in translation", and may well be — editor-in-chief Lee Yeow Leong, poetry editor Aditi Machado
NewsList emphasising BIP
University of the West of England website acting as a hub and resource base for the culture of artists' books
a good starting point, a Wikipedia entry, drafted by the Irish poet Billy Mills NB many articles, of varying value or recency, on (or even by) various BIPs on Wikipedia, on poets, publishers, magazines etc
"a social media/community organizing network"
a vital focus for events and responses; note that the site now hosts Innovative Poetry Readings in London
"based in the Department of English, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster, and hosted by the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Culture. Run by Dr Leigh Wilson and Dr Georgina Colby, the project and the site seek to provide a forum for contemporary small publishers of poetry and fiction." And has quite full online listing of presses at https://thecontemporarysmallpress.com/small-presses/
"Eclipse is a free on-line archive focusing on digital facsimiles of the most radical small-press writing from the last quarter century. Eclipse also publishes carefully selected new works of book-length conceptual unity" Craig Dworkin is Senior Editor; very little British writing, but wondrous selection of Language, post-Language, and Black Radical writers
"the international organization dedicated to the investigation of literature produced for the digital medium." US-based, but includes British material, in its archives, directory and collection
"an artists' moving image project founded by British artist Alastair Cook in 2010, committed to delivering education and community projects as well as promoting the work of poets, filmmakers and composers"
organisation "exploring the political and cultural power of words", with all that means
"a committee that practises open-ended collaborative research into art, politics, and theory. We experiment with processes and structures of criticism, performance, poetics, and writing. Our activities include organising conferences and public dialogues, teaching, making original creative works, as well as digital publishing and exhibition curation. Committee Members: Diana Damian Martin, Kate Potts, Nisha Ramayya, Nik Wakefield, Eley Williams" also useful is their Facebook page
"both a website and a hub of literary/artistic activity centred around Glasfryn, a house in rural Llangattock, Powys. The website now features information and reports on events, a press, and a magazine called Junction Box." Amazing creative activities, set up by Lyndon Davies, Graham Hartill and Penny Hallas!
2006: crucial in giving a coherent shared platform to women innovative poets, set up by Kathleen Fraser — well worth investigating
interviews with a large number of poets by Sophie Mayer & her students mainly in 2012
masses of marvellous material on James Davies' publishing site
"a rolling poetry zine with an emphasis on criticism and review culture. It's currently edited by Edmund Hardy and Michael Peverett." And contains fascinating material
Yep. That's what it is. Match yourself to what they did, oh would-be innovator or avant-gardista
is quite but not totally US-focused; but try original Jacket archive (1997–2010), founded and edited by John Tranter: accessible from the bottom of the homepage, much brilliant British, Australian, Canadian and American material that helped build up contemporary innovative poetry
"journal centres on the poetic writings that have appeared in Britain and Ireland since the late 1950s under various categorizations: for example avant-garde, underground, linguistically innovative, second-wave Modernist, non-mainstream, the British Poetry Revival, the parallel tradition, formally innovative, neo-modernist and experimental, while also including the Cambridge School, the London School, concrete poetry, and performance writing. All of these terms have been variously adopted and contested by anthologies such as Children of Albion (1969), A Various Art (1987), The New British Poetry (1988), Floating Capital (1991), Conductors of Chaos (1996), Out of Everywhere (1996), Foil (2000), Anthology of British and Irish Poetry (2001) and Vanishing Points (2004)." Editors are Scott Thurston and Gareth Farmer
network project which brings together artists, musicians, scientists, technologists and social scientists as well as scholars and practitioners from the humanities to work across disciplinary boundaries on the recently emerging focus on sound and listening.
database listing basic details & locations of copies of a wide range of post-1945 small press magazines
July 2016 —but you may find it useful; inaugurated by Bill Griffiths, Bob Trubshaw and Peter Finch, most recently in hands of Peter Manson
edited by Emily Critchley and Elizabeth-Jane Burnett: "we asked as many women-identified poets as we could (in a short amount of time) if they had anything to contribute on any of the subjects raised by #MeToo" – members of the British and American innovative poetry community
November 2013 "The purpose of this Forum is to take forward the discussions that took place in London at the Militant Politics and Poetry Conference (18 May 2013), by disseminating the papers and discussions that were shared on the day, and by publishing subsequent contributions and comments." A crucial turn in this decade's poetry
modern poetry in translation — can you live without any?
"digital editions of culturally significant magazines from around the early 20th century" — the period of the birth of "Modern Poetry" (1890–1922; American-based but with much British material)
similar digital presentation of British little magazines 1880–1945
Oh, this is a good online place: and do visit the actual physical place! Many useful listings on its website, including master listing of poetry events. Chris McCabe is The Librarian, Lorraine Mariner & Pascal O'Loughlin The Assistants. Bless them all and everyone!
"remains a place of nurture and encouragement. Openned walks the line between finding readers from within, and initiating projects for, its own immediate community whilst attempting to wedge that community open, welcoming newcomers. The aim is to expand the cultural, social, and aesthetic space, and political import, of poetry." The glorious hive of activity led by Stephen Willey and Alex Davies still exists on its website. There is a huge mass of material including extensive AV documentation of events, at the centre of British Innovative Poetry 2006–2011. 2012
vital, repeat, vital, source of info on poetry events, organised by James Davies, Tom Jenks and Scott Thurston, and centred especially on Northern (and Welsh & down to Bristol) networks — but just ended!!
Tom Chivers' major and active poetry press and event organiser
maybe mainly historical interest, but Andrew Duncan's active engagement with a breadth of innovative poetries is unparalleled - this is source material for his books
"The PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) was created by Green Integer and its publisher, Douglas Messerli, in 2000. The Project publishes regular anthologies of major international poets and actively archives biographies of poets and listings of their titles." Quite USA-centric, but, well, an heroic project.
crowd-sourced listing of poets matching them "If You Like: You Might Also Like . . ." With links to sources of info (Wikipedia) & a bibliography (WorldCat) and little diagrams linking poets (artefacts of its compilation process rather than actual connections). Could be obsessive, might be useful.
poetry newslist
January 2014: blog for October 2013 dialogue between East Bay & UK militant poets following on from 2012–3 Birkbeck poetry and politics conferences
long established & stinking rich American poetry organisation, publishers of the famous Poetry magazine of Chicago — most useful bit their extensive list of poets (including many of interest), with details, poems etc at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets
vast and growing source of information and texts on living poets worldwide, including UK, with a genuinely representative selection (140 poets!) from amongst us all
"Poetry Library's free access non-profit-making online archive of English 20th and 21st century poetry magazines"
a membership organisation for poets, with several interesting writers involved
"gives the best poems from Africa, Asia and Latin America a new life in the English language, working with diaspora communities for whom poetry is of great importance." through collaborative open workshops; founded by Sarah Maguire
Thank you @Jo Lindsay Walton — just the job!
"AHRC-funded | Poetry translation in poet-advisor-poet trios: collaborative, cross-language and creative processes": Academic/poetic research into collaborative translation, running occasional events; a collaboration between Newcastle University and The University of Roehampton
"A repositary of online workshop tutorials. We invite multidisciplinary collaboration, writing experiments and teaching between poets, text artists and interested others." Just started. Bless you, Rhys Trimble
a crucial issue for us to engage with, coming from a conference in 2016 & Poetry Library event in 2017, and a conference forthcoming this year
lists staff & activities
hosts across London an ongoing series of events, moving through various artistic, private, and cultural spaces, and is led by Georgina Colby and Susan Rudy
Like the one down South but for Scotland and with a more stylish website
Natasha Vicars, Mary Paterson, Tamarin Norwood, Sally Labern, Eddy Dreadnought, Tiffany Charrington and Joanna Brown
Helen Frosi's "itinerant space dedicated to the curation, production and promotion of exceptional sound art and related practices to a broad audience"
a blog by Carrie Etter collecting such things
Hugest thing ever! Publisher is Kenneth Goldsmith (makes up for a lot), with Craig Dworkin, Jerome Rothenberg, Danny Snelson & Brian Kim Stefans among the editorial staff
British Library's collection of archived websites
"explores the creative possibilities of poetry and movement in contemporary performance. The project builds on long-standing collaboration between Scott Thurston (poet) and Sarie Mairs Slee (choreographer) and supports the creation of new transdisciplinary art work." + a festival and a blog.
Melanie Bush and Emma Powell have produced an online book arts exhibition
Alan Halsey & Geraldine Monk's magnificent operation includes a major second-hand booklist of 20th/21st century British and American poetry, distribution for several small presses in this country and beyond, & their current publishing as Gargoyle, plus information on past West House titles, and their own delightful and highly significant poetic and graphic work
"Write Out Loud is a national (indeed, international) hub for participation in poetry, encouraging everyone who writes poetry – from still-too-nervous-to-do-open-mic to Nobel Prize winner – to share their words with others." Includes gig guide and much else
homeJust What Is British Innovative Poetry?
British & Irish online magazines, e-publishers etc
writers' blogs, websites etc
audio and video sites and archives
largely print publishers and magazines
readings and other live events/organisations
bookshops and booksellers (including online)
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