MarkCCheers!Trouble is, what happens when you have no cheques, cheques having been phased out in this part of the multi-plex.Good worthy cause, lovely sounding titles, but how shall us pay?
On 12 February 2013 15:56, GOODBY JOHN <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi listers -Apologies for cross-posting; belated details and mini-manifest below for a new-ish chapbook series - not quite Wales' answer to Oystercatcher or Knives Forks and Spoons (I wish!) but it's something.& with many thanks, diolch yn fawr, to Rhys Trimble for translating the too-purplish prose into more sober cymreig.(& yes, I know this is an ad; but I did put a link up recently to some poetry too ...).JThe Boiled String Poetry Chapbooks Series
Series Editor: John Goodby
The Boiled String poetry chapbooks series was founded in autumn 2011 by John Goodby, as part of Tom Cheesman’s Swansea-based Hafan Books imprint. Its aim is to develop Hafan’s commitment to the writings of asylum seekers, in a different but complementary vein, by providing a Welsh-based outlet for poets who see poems as events in language rather than as vehicles for sentiment or anecdote. It takes its inspiration from the fabulous founding triumvirate of Anglo-Welsh poetry, Dylan Thomas, David Jones and Lynette Roberts, and their scintillating but too-little-known successors. The series draws its boundaries loosely, reflecting the impacted history of Wales, taking those from elsewhere who write of or through Wales (like Basil Bunting in Briggflatts or Richard Caddell in For the Fallen) to be an integral part of its remit.
Post-1997 political autonomy, however limited, has made possible the creation of new cultural spaces in Wales by eroding some of the embattled positions of the past, and blurring divisions between anglophone and cymrophone literature, mainstream and avant-garde, pastoral and urban. Poetry Wales’ eclectic excellence, the annual Hay Poetry Jamboree, and the Glasfryn Seminars are just a few signs of the new vistas that have opened up. The last decade has also seen the republication of Lynette Roberts’ poems after half a century out of print, and collections of the work of John James, Wendy Mulford and Paul Evans. Along with the always visible inventiveness of Peter Finch, an occluded, but defiantly alive and kicking poetry has been revealed to a new wave of poetry readers and writers. New connections have been made, new links forged, and energies not seen since the early 1970s are abroad. Today, alternative Welsh poetry is flourishing.
The Boiled String series provides an outlet for the work which has resulted, and which the established Welsh poetry presses still avoid publishing. Such work reflects the way that the best Welsh poets, from Lynette Roberts to John James, Dylan Thomas to David Greenslade, have had to be adept at writing between and across different languages, at recognizing linguistic materiality, at switching between high and low, and at blurring the borders between esoteric and populist practices—the latter because Wales, perhaps, is less constrained by class and irony than the other cultures on the island. It is therefore in a spirit of Anglo-Welsh-Cymreig hyphenation, of gothic-grotesque hybridity and a tricksterish, miscegenatory modernism, that Boiled String aims to promote against-the-grain talents, and encourage work that mixes modes and splices tongues. Fresh sêr will shine in the old skies; macaronic word-beasts will mutate, Gwion-like, assuming unforeseen forms; and strange Concrete and sound structures will riprap new routes up the sides of the sacred verbal mynydd.
Cyfres Llyfrynnau ‘Y Llinyn Berw’ Boiled String
Golygydd y Gyfres John Goodby.
Gaeth Y gyfres llyfrynnau ‘Boiled String’ eu sefydlu yng Ngorffennaf 2011 gan John Goodby fel rhan o Lyfrau Hafan wedi eu lleoli yn Abertawe gan Tom Cheesman. Amcan y gwasg ydi i ddatblygu ymrwymiad llyfrau Hafan i ysgrifenni ffoaduriaid mewn ffordd wahanol ond addas trwy ddarparu allfa i feirdd sy’n gweld cerddi fel digwyddiadau mewn iaith yn lle cerbyd i gorteimlad neu hanesyn. Mae’r gwasg yn cymryd eu hysbrydoliaeth o’r tri gwych beirdd Eingl-Cymraeg, Dylan Thomas, David Jones a Lynette Roberts a’i dilynwyr serrenog ond ddi-adnabyddus. Mae’r gyfres yn tynnu eu ffiniau’n amwys, yn adlewyrch hanes cywasgedig Cymru, yn tynnu gwaith y rhai estron sy’n ysgrifenni o, neu trwy Gymru (fel Basil Bunting yn Briggflatts neu Richard Caddell yn For the Fallen) i fod yn ddarn anhepgor o’i gwaith.
Yn dilyn 1997 mae raddfa o rhyddid wleidyddol tra bo’n gyfyng wedi creu posibilrwydd o ofod diwillianol newydd yng Nghymru trwy chwalu rhai o’r agweddau sur a oedd mewn bodolaeth a phylu ffinau rhwng llenyddiaeth Saesneg a Chymraeg ei haeth, rhwng y prif-llif a’r flaengad, trefol a’r gwledig. Mae disgleirdeb brith Poetry Wales, yr Hay Poetry Jamboree blynyddol a’r Seminarau Glasfryn yn arwyddion o’r tirluniau sy wedi ei hagor yn ddiweddar. Ailcyhoeddwyd cerddi Lynnette Roberts yn y degawd diwethaf ynghyd a chasgliadau o waith John James, Wendy Mulford a Paul Evans. Ynghyd a dyfeisgarwch amlwg Peter Finch mae grŵp achludol o feirdd a darllenwyr wedi amlygi eu hun. Mae cysylltiadau newydd wedi ei greu ac egni ni welir ers y saithdegau cynnar ar led. Heddiw mae barddoniaeth amgen Cymraeg yn ffynni.
Mae’r gyfres Y Llinyn Berw / Boiled String wedi darparu allfa i waith sydd wedi herio ysgrifenni culfeddwl a gwaith mae’r gwasgau sefydledig o hyd ddim heb ddiddordeb ynddo. Mae’r fath gwaith yn adlewyrchi’r ffordd mae’r beirdd Cymraeg gorau o Lynnette Roberts i John James, Dylan Thomas i Dafydd Greenslade wedi meistroli ysgrifennu'r rhwng, a traws gwahanol ieithoedd, wedi cydnabod materoliaeth y gair, o newid rhwng is ac uwch cywair iaith , a hefyd o bylu’r ffin rhwng y poblogaidd a’r cyfrinachol. Yr olaf o bosib achos mae Cymru wedi eu cyfyngi’n llai gan ddosbarth ac eironi na cymdeithasau eraill ar yr ynys hon. Ac felly yn yr ysbryd hwn o gysylltnodi Eingl-Cymraeg o hyll-gothig cymysgryw a chroeshilio cellweiriol modernaidd mae Boiled String/ Y Llinyn Berw yn amcan hybu talentau amgen, annog y rhai sy’n aml-tafod, sy’n plethu ac asio dulliau. Stars-gwŷb lluchia flachwch dros hen ffurfafennau, Anghenfil cenedl-enwau trawsffurfiwn fel Gwion a Ceridwen i siapiau anweledig rhyfedd a synau a gweddau diriaeth-wirion a gwych dyrchafwn dŵr Babel - y mountain wen.
Set 1.
#1. There’s Only the Dance, by David Barnett: Afterword by Andrew Duncan. Re-imagines the natural world; Hopkins’s and Hughes’s vividness stripped of medievalism and phallic aggrandisement, the Goddess surprised at the heart of the dance. Cover artwork and portrait of the author by Annie Durrant. pp. 46. (2011) ISBN 978-0-9569473-0-7.
#2. Six of Clubs, by Peter Meilleur [‘Childe Roland’]: Afterwords by Nigel Jenkins, Sophie McKeand, Maggie O’Sullivan, John Goodby. Long-overdue reprint of this French-Canadian-Cymric Concrete poet’s post-Mallarméan masterpiece of 1978. pp. 120. (2011) ISBN 978-0-9562409-9-6
#3. mynnydd, by Rhys Trimble: Afterword by Chris Torrance. Astonishing long poem mixes the legend of Cader Idris, botanical guide, in English (mainly) and Cymreig (forever). pp. 34. (2011) ISBN 978-0-9569473-1-4.
Set 2
#4. Trees, by Peter Meilleur [‘Childe Roland’]. Beautiful, green-inked tree-, arbitree- and t’ry-shaped poems. pp. 46 (2012) ISBN 978-0-9569473-3-8.
#5. Bitch Dust, by Steven Hitchins: Afterword by Allen Fisher. Merthyr-based sequence that mixes visionary, geological, industrial, literary and lyrical deposits, by one of Wales’s finest young poets. Cover and internal collage artwork by James Green. pp. 38 (2012) ISBN 978-0-9569473-4-5.
#6. Chroma, by Graham Hartill: Afterword by Lyndon Davies. Greece, Scotland and Crickhowell meet in ‘the ssiang of the shaman’s zither or the slap of the water-dragon’s tail’ in a collection specially produced to mark the sixtieth birthday of this notable poet and translator from Chinese. Cover by Val Maillard. pp. 56. (2012) ISBN 978-0-9569473-6-9.
All chapbooks are published using Lulu online print technology, perfect bound, mostly in a large format (c. 22 x 28cm = 8.5" x 11") and with full colour covers. They are lovely to have and hold, and several include original b/w and colour artwork and photographs. Downloads are usually free, but don't include covers. Online cover prices vary; but all titles are available for £5.00 each (2 for £9.00, 3 for £13.00, 4 for £17.00), postage free. Orders and payment by cheque (made out to “Swansea Bay ASSG”) to be sent to: John Goodby, 26 Sketty Park Drive, Swansea SA2 8LN. Books can also be ordered from their authors, who may offer a slightly cheaper rate for their titles: their contact details, and answers to queries concerning the series, are obtainable from: [log in to unmask]. The Hafan site is at www.lulu.com/hafan. All proceeds which do not go to the authors go to Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group (www.swanseabassgroup.org).