|
etruscan books, 24a Fore Street, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0AA.
01364 643 128/ 01364 643 054 fax
This year's publications are `Poems', Sean Rafferty, `else/here', John Hall,
`The Old Poet's Tale', Carl Rakosi, `Book of Spilt Cities', Bill Griffiths,
and `Fuckwind', Tom Pickard. The last two `readers' to be issued, `reader IV'
being long overdue - will be issued in the late summer.
Reader IV features visual and textual punning on `etruscan books' by Bob
Cobbing - `recusant centaurs', Maurice Scully's `Cobering' and `Adherences'
are deft, visually crafted pieces, & Carlyle Reedy's `New York Snapshots,
1961', a poetry text found in her archives, sees the light of day 30 years
after composition. e.r.IV is a rich visual feast.
Reader IX opens with a retrospective for Fred Beake including a powerful
group of new poems `The Boat', then a translation of Robert Denos' long
poem `The Night of Loveless Nights' first published in `The Lace Curtain'.o
In 1948 Nicholas Moore wrote `A Lake for Tantalus' - long considered a
classic by those who've seen it excerpted in reviews. 51 years later it
finally gets published. SCots Gaelic poet Meg Bateman follows her
award-winning `Lightness' with what constitutes her second collection,
in Gaelic and English. e.r.IX closes with a group of motifs by Basil King.
Se\'an Rafferty is a Scottish poet, contemporary to Sorley MacLean and
Robert Garioch. `Poems', published this March, replaces the edition
I prepared for Carcanet in 1994 and sets the poems as he wished them set.
5 previously uncollected pieces are added. The book comes with notices
by Gael Turnbull, Sorley MacLean and Hamish Henderson.
Carl Rakosi's `The Old Poet's Tale' reconfigures work from 7 decades, poetry
and 3 essays. For those who have the U.S. `Collected Poems', it is worth
making implicit that Rakosi has continued to write poetry. Here are 56
previously unpublished poems. Rather than advocate completism I'd say
`The Old Poet's Tale'makes a new, circular collection from current and
long-considered work. This represents the start of a major reprint project
for Rakosi.
Advance subscribers have until August 1st to subscribe to the Hall and
Griffiths' - and September 1st for Pickard's. The first two books carry
subscriber lists. Advance support for these collections, and the readers
does not go unappreciated.
John Hall's `else/here' has 7 sections and an introit of uncollected work
from `The English Intelligencer'. The 7th section displays work written
since 1996, when, after 15 years silence he was encouraged to write again.
His work has recently received attention for its place in Crozier and
Longville's `A Various Art' and in Denise Riley's `Poets on Writing'.
`Between the Cities' (dedicated to J.H.Prynne, who taught him, as did for a
time Andrew Crozier) was one of the early publications to come out of the
convergence of poets and poetic energy associated - not always accurately -
with Cambridge in the mid 60s.
Bill Griffiths' `Tale of Spilt Cities' is an ambitious 3 book Epic,
investigating the notion of City. It is appropriate that the book comes
with an introduction by Iain Sinclair. The book is at once mysterious
and measured, mixing the awe struck with the satirical, resulting with a
contemporary view of multiple cities.
Marking Tom Pickard's first collection of new poetry since `Custom and Exile'
in 1985, `Fuckwind' is a blistering return to form. Aural poems that are
malevolent and brooding, haunted and edgy, locating Pickard as an unexpected
handler of the rural. He does so with bite. The book comes with a foreword
by Paul McCartney.
None of these books carry any public funding. I believe they play a vital
part in a location of lost writings, and new writings by a wide range of
poets. They are well designed and typeset, often in large Octavo formats,
unpopular in bookshops, not well known for courage in stocking poetry, or
paying our bills in the first place. During the month of June while Peter
Riley (Books) is closed (who sells our books by post) the latter 5 books
can be ordered now to be despatched postfree.
Poems, Rafferty, Octavo 176 pages, 9.50 pounds/ 25 pounds cased/ 35 pounds
lse* by James Ravilious.
Old Poet's Tale, Rakosi, Octavo 272 pages, 15.95 pounds/ 35 pounds cased/
75 pounds lse/holographic
else/here, Hall, Octavo 128 pages, 9.50 pounds/ 20 pounds cased/
35 pounds lse holographic
Book of Spilt Cities, Griffiths, 128 pages, 9.50 pounds/ 20 pounds cased/
35 pounds lse with drawing/ additional writing. Cover by Robert Clark.
Fuckwind, Pickard, 64 pages, 7.50 pounds/ 25 pounds lse holographic
etruscan reader IV, 124 pages, 8.50 pounds/ 25 pounds lse holographic
etruscan reader IX, 160 pages, 9.50 pounds
I hope you will be able to renew support for etruscan books.
Nicholas Johnson.
etrucan books, 24a Fore Street, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0AA.
01364 643 128/ 01364 643 054 fax
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
