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(with my apologies if you receive this more than once) The first in Shearsman's 2008 Reading Series takes place on Wednesday, 16 January at 7:30 pm featuring Elisabeth Bletsoe & Peter Robinson Landscape from a Dream is Elisabeth Bletsoe's first collection in ten years and offers startling evidence of a powerful voice that should be better known. Very much a poet of place, Elisabeth Bletsoe fuses elements of folklore, botany, literature, myth and narrative into a poetry that is at once feminist in spirit, forthright, and – to a certain extent – at odds with the prevailing British poetic styles, whether conservative or radical. Rooted in the landscape of her native Dorset, this is poetry of deep observation, but within that she also gives voice to some of Thomas Hardy's heroines – not just Tess Durbeyfield, but lesser-known female characters such as Marty South in The Woodlanders – characters who are much a part of this Dorset landscape as Bletsoe's poetry is. And the voices they gain are not the voices in Hardy's narratives, but strong, independent voices who have thrown off their creator. Further details of the book can be found here: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/bletsoe.html Biographical details may be found here: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/bletsoeA.html The Look of Goodbye contains Peter Robinson's poetry from his last half dozen years living and working in Sendai and Kyoto. Difficulties associated with having your heart in Europe and your life in Japan are explored across the shadowy terrains of a world grown decidedly more at risk, dangerous, and violent. The stays of love, friendship, family, place, and memory are tested by death, loss, and displacement; yet Robinson's poetry celebrates all that it can by means of the poet's rhythm, formal dexterity, and his eye for the energized processes of landscape and atmosphere. Composed at the same time as their author began to write and publish aphorisms, these poems show Robinson extending his range of subjects and developing the fresh directness with which he treats them. While bidding farewell to his Japanese years, The Look of Goodbye is as welcoming of readers, new and returning, as ever. Further details of the book can be found here: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/robinson_tlog.html and biographical details here: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/robinsonA.html The venue is Swedenborg Hall Swedenborg House 20/21 Bloomsbury Way London WC1A 2TH Admission free. The entrance is around the corner on Barter Street. Closest Tube Stations: Holborn (Central & Piccadilly Lines : 4 minutes' walk), Tottenham Court Road (Central & Northern Lines: 6 minutes), Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line: 10 minutes). Several buses stop a few yards from the Hall. There is an underground carpark close by, underneath Bloomsbury Square. Disabled access is available, but please let us know in advance if it is required. Further details here of the venue: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/editorial/readings.html The next reading in the series will be on Wednesday 6 February, at the same venue; the guest poets will be announced shortly. _____________________________________________ Tony Frazer Shearsman Books Ltd 58 Velwell Road Exeter EX4 4LD England Tel / Fax: (+44) (0) 1392-434511 http://www.shearsman.com/ _____________________________________________