Griffin Poetry Prize 28 Jul 2010, 8:17 am

In June this year, Cold Spring in Winter by Valérie Rouzeau, translated from the French by Susan Wicks, was one of four international titles shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. One of the conditions of the prize is that the author / translator reads at the prize-giving, and Susan has just sent us a You-tube clip of Valerie and her giving another stunning performance...

Death of Pete Morgan 9 Jul 2010, 2:56 pm

We heard on Tuesday of this week the sad news that the poet Pete Morgan died on Monday 5 July 2010. The Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote of her old friend: "There are famous poets of my generation and younger who have no idea of the debt they owe to Pete Morgan. His poems are dramatic, formally superb, funny, toughly tender, lyrical and never less than entertaining." Tony Ward got to know Pete when he published his pamphlet I See You On My Arm in 1975, and Arc was privileged to publish his last full collection, August Light. Tony has written about his long friendship with Pete in the Arc blog.

Pete Morgan and David Chaloner 9 Jul 2010, 8:20 am

On the morning of 6 July, a shock telephone call came telling me that Pete Morgan had died the night before. It seemed such a short while ago that he had filled the main concert hall at York University and held the capacity audience spellbound. His old magic had returned — indeed it had probably never gone; it was simply waiting for the right opportunity. Along with the newly-appointed Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy (one of his biggest fans), Ian McMillan and an assemblage of very well-known musicians, he was celebrating his 70th birthday by reading from what turned out to be his last full-length collection, August Light...

"Prison sharpened my appreciation of the inner life..." 9 Jun 2010, 6:51 pm

In an article on Amarjit Chandan by Tom Mellen in The Morning Star, Chandan discusses his background and what made him a radical and a poet. "Prison sharpened my appreciation of the inner life – the solitary life. This, combined with the loneliness I experienced in Britain – these two things made me a poet..." The article features 'The Song Of The Bike' from Arc's Sonata For Four Hands – '...While cycling I take my country forward While cycling I sharpen my class consciousness...' » Read the full article

Arc translators shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 25 May 2010, 5:27 am

Arc's Susan Wicks, for Valérie Rouzeau's Cold Spring in Winter, and Larisa Gureyeva & George Hyde, for Vladimir Mayakovsky's Pro Eto — That's What, have been shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Other shortlisted translators are: Jamie Mckendrick, for Valerio Magrelli's The Embrace (Faber and Faber); Howard Curtis for Gustave Flaubert's Three Tales (Hesperus Press); Lazer Lederhendler for Nicolas Dickner's Nikolski (Portobello Books); and Sam Garrett for Tommy Wieringa's Joe Speedboat (Portobello Books). Professor Patrick McGuinness, chair of the judges, says: "The standard of entries this year was exceptionally high, and over a hundred books were received. The shortlist, with translations from Dutch, Russian, French and Italian, represents a range of genres — poetry, short stories, novels — and mixes the classic and the contemporary. Once again the shortlist recognises the role of small presses Britain's translation culture, but also pays tribute to the larger publishers with a commitment to bringing modern European literature into English."

Ledbury Poetry Festival 23 May 2010, 1:32 pm

We've just come back from what we think is one of the best of the UK poetry festivals – but not before losing a battle with Worldbridge, the private company which now handles visa applications for the British Government.

Death of Peter Porter 24 Apr 2010, 10:23 am

The distinguished poet, Peter Porter, died on 23 April 2010, after being treated for cancer. He was a great friend to Arc, having championed and supported the press for many years and having been a member of the Arc Board for the past 5 years. We valued his advice and his wisdom, which he always delivered with gentleness and modesty, enormously, but above all, we valued him as a friend. We will miss him greatly. Reports / Obituaries: - Anthony Thwaite discusses him on the Today programme - on BBC News - in the Guardian - in the Daily Telegraph

'Cold Spring in Winter' shortlisted for Griffin Poetry Prize 9 Apr 2010, 4:00 am

Valérie Rouzeau's Cold Spring in Winter is one of four international books to be shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize – the world's biggest.

New York Times features two Arc poets 21 Nov 2009, 5:17 am

Arc's Ewa Lipska and Tomas Salamun were among the poets commissioned by The New York Times to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. » www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/08/opinion/08berlinpoems.html

Interview with Larissa Miller 19 Sep 2009, 3:32 pm

There's a good, illuminating interview with Larissa Miller by Ruth O'Callaghan on Larissa Miller's website. www.larisamiller.ru/introc.html

Seen at Foyles 17 Sep 2009, 12:27 pm

Ian Pople Podcast 11 Sep 2009, 4:29 pm

On 11 August Ian Pople visited Canada to read at Art Bar Poetry in Toronto. » Ian Pople – August 11, 2009, at Art Bar Poetry

Campert's 80th Birthday 11 Sep 2009, 4:03 pm

To celebrate the 80th birthday of Remco Campert, his Dutch publishers arranged a party where many well known poets and authors read specially written pieces before a very distinguished audience. The event concluded with Campert reading two of his own poems.

Johnstone is SPL's Poet of the Month 31 Aug 2009, 1:17 pm

Brian Johnstone, whose The Book of Belongings was published by Arc in August, is September's Poet of the Month on the Scottish Poetry Library website. http://www.spl.org.uk

Death of James Kirkup 7 Aug 2009, 5:02 pm

Arc Publications has been sad to learn of the death of James Kirkup, co-translator of 'We of Zipangu', on 10th May 2009. » www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/16/obituary

Remco Campert reading 'Lament' 27 Apr 2009, 7:37 pm

There's an audio clip of Remco Campert reading the poem 'Lament', from I Dreamed in the Cities at Night, on the Netherlands Poetry International Web site.

Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition 15 Apr 2009, 5:46 pm

Reminder: The closing date for entries in the Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition 2009 (judged by Ruth Padel) is 24 April 2009. For full details of the competition, visit www.mslexia.co.uk.

John Clarke shortlisted in Strokestown Poetry Competition 16 Mar 2009, 6:50 pm

Congratulations to Arc's UK/Ireland Editor, John Clarke, who has been shortlisted in the 2009 Strokestown Poetry Competition. He and the other short-listed poets are invited to read a selection of their work at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival, which takes place over the week-end of 1st-3rd May 2009 at Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. Prize-winners will be announced at the Festival.

Barghouti in the limelight 27 Jan 2009, 5:16 pm

Midnight and its author Mourid Barghouti are deservedly getting plenty of attention... * Boyd Tonkin in The Independent, * Natalie Whittle in The Financial Times * 'A Life in Writing', profile of Mourid Barghouti in The Guardian You can find all three reviews here Listen to an interview with Mourid Barghouti for the BBC World Service.

Regina Derieva translation to be launched in Sweden 13 Jan 2009, 3:38 pm

Regina Derieva's first volume of poems to be published in England, 'The Sum Total of Violations' will be launched in Sweden on Friday, February 6th at St. Eugenia's reading hall situated at Kungsträdgarden 12 in central Stockholm. St. Eugenia, founded in 1837, is Sweden's oldest and largest Catholic parish founded after the protestant reformation. Les Murray, Per Wästberg and Eva Lipska are among the poets who have given public talks or readings in this prestigious venue. Regina Derieva is one of the leading contemporary Russian poets. Unusually she has strong affiliations with Swedish culture and with that of the Middle East, Israel and Palestine. Since she does not fit any particular category, her work is not perhaps as well known outside Russian as it ought to be, although it has received commendations from a number of prominent authors including the late Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky and the contemporary Australian poet, Les Murray, who writes: "Science teaches that eighty percent of the universe consists of dark matter, so called. Regina Derieva learned this same fact in a very hard school. She does not consent to it, though. She knows that the hurt truth in us points to a dimension where, for example, victory is cleansed of battle. Her strict, economical poems never waver from that orientation." 'The Sum Total of Violations' is a bilingual (Russian) edition translated by Daniel Weissbort.

PBS Recommendation for 'Guests of Eternity' 11 Jan 2009, 4:05 pm

Arc Publications gained a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Guests of Eternity, the translation by Richard McKane of one of Russia's most highly regarded writers Larissa Miller. The book is introduced by Sasha Dugdale. After a very brief visit to England she is due back in the autumn to give readings and to introduce the book to a wider audience in its original language as well as in English.

Lithuanian classic now in translation 11 Jan 2009, 3:39 pm

Arc has signed up the hugely influential Lithuanian poet Marcelijus Martinaitis with his work, the classic, 'The Ballads of Kukutis', translated by Laima Sruoginis. The Kukutis poems – the main character personified by a "wise fool" – always outmanoeuvred the government censors in Lithuania and was always in print during the final decades of communist rule, becoming a symbol of rebellion and hope against the forces of state oppression. The poems are not only a valuable historical record but again speak urgently and hilariously to a people under threat. This will be its first appearance in English.

Did anxiety cause my heart attack? Lorna Thorpe in the Guardian 16 Dec 2008, 4:11 pm

An article by Lorna Thorpe – Did anxiety cause my heart attack? – appeared in last Friday's Guardian. Since her mid-20s, Lorna Thorpe has suffered crippling panic attacks. Now, after a cardiac arrest at 50, she lives in fear that her worrying could kill her. As well as re-visiting this life-shattering experience in the her article, she has written about it in a sequence of poems in her first full-length collection, A Ghost in My House, published by Arc earlier this year. Read - My body is a temple Cardiac arrest Miracle This old heart of mine Mirror in the bathroom Haemorrhage Bruise

A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti 13 Dec 2008, 8:24 am

There's an excellent profile of Mourid Barghouti, whose Midnight and Other Poems has recently been published by Arc, in today's Guardian. "...you have to strike a balance, not sacrificing the aesthetics for your readership. I hate the terms 'resistance poetry' or 'exile poetry'. We're not one-theme poets. A moment of joy or misery is juxtaposed by its opposite. There's no one face; I see both." » Read the full article

Death of Jackie Brown 14 Sep 2008, 9:00 pm

It is with great regret that we announce the death of the poet Jacqueline Brown on Thursday 11 September 2008 after a long illness that had kept her in hospital since January of this year. Arc was fortunate enough to publish four books by Jackie, the first of which was her debut collection Accidental Reality in 1989. Then, in 1992, came the sequence Thinking Egg which won first prize in the Arvon / Observer International Poetry Competition. Four years later, in 1996, her third collection, In a Woman's Likeness was awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and in 2002, her fourth (and, as it transpired, her final) collection Fractured Flights was published. It was launched at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival in summer 2002. Jackie Brown was born in 1944 in Sheffield and lived in West Yorkshire until she left to read French and English at Newcastle University. She spent most of her adult life in education — mainstream, Adult Education and Special Education, as well as a couple of years in Greece teaching English as a foreign language. She tutored on several Arvon courses at Lumb Bank and Totleigh Barton and ran a series of workshops for physically and psychologically damaged people. Jackie's poetry was delicate and compassionate, candid and direct. There is no doubt that her beautifully-crafted sequence of poems Thinking Egg made an indelible impression on all who read it and helped to promote a deeper understanding to men as well as women of what it means to be unable to conceive children — the interminable tests, the uncertainty and dashed hopes and finally the whole process of coming to terms and, ultimately, acceptance. *** Thinking Egg In the warm kitchen two women are sitting confiding failings, fears. One woman is me. ... like an egg I'm saying one minute tough enough to withstand anything, next a fingertip could crack me... The other woman is literal - she'll have no truck with metaphor No she's saying No you are not an egg You are a woman and yes, my literal friend, I guess you are right, but I'm a woman thinking egg and staggering under its weight. *** We were privileged to be Jackie's poetry publisher, and we add our voices to the many that express sadness at her passing. Tony Ward Angela Jarman

Mahmoud Darwish, 13th March 1941-9th August 2008 21 Aug 2008, 9:00 pm

"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanise, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe. But now I think that poetry changes only the poet." This time he was wrong. This man's poetry has changed the language of Arabic writing and shifted readers' conceptions of resistance poetry. The drums receded to give way to the harp and the flute. Single-coloured khaki poems full of slogans gave way to rainbow-intertwined shades. Even the physical image of the victimised and the oppressed had to give way to Mahmoud's unmatched elegance in dress and in daily conversation alike. ...In this world of polluted international political language, where the word 'freedom' is abused in every manner, referring to everything from capitalism to the occupation of Iraq, Mahmoud's poetry and life were an attempt to give it back its meaning. – Mourid Baghouti writing in The Guardian; *** We were deeply saddened and affected to learn of the death of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish on 9 August 2008. His friend and fellow poet, Mourid Baghouti, attended his funeral in Ramallah and his account of this, and of what Darwish meant to the Arab world and the world at large, appeared in The Guardian on 16 August 2008. » Read Mourid Baghouti's article in full. Mourid Baghouti's first collection of poems to be published in the UK, Midnight and Other Poems, will appear in a bilingual edition from Arc Publications in October 2008

Congratulations to Professor Jean Boase-Beier 7 Jul 2008, 9:00 pm

The outstanding contribution that

New Editor for Arc's UK & Ireland list 7 Jul 2008, 9:00 pm

We are delighted to announce that John Clarke, the Director of the Beverley Literature Festival, has agreed to become Arc's new UK & Ireland Editor. John began working as Associate Editor with Arc in 2006 while Jo Shapcott was still Arc's UK Editor, and after she stepped down in 2007 proved to be such an asset to Arc in the interregnum that, in June this year, it was decided to offer him the Editorship. John was born in Cornwall in 1969 and trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He then went on to study at the University of York and completed his doctoral research on 'Objectivist' poetry in 1999. While teaching American Literature part-time at York, he began to work in museums and galleries as an education officer and workshop leader. He then researched and directed a multi-disciplinary play that toured the UK through the Arts Council touring programme. In 2001 he became the first reader in residence at the Ilkley Literature Festival and subsequently took over the directorship of Wordquake, the East Riding of Yorkshire's literature development organisation. In 2002 he established the Beverley Literature Festival and in recognition of the importance of work done by Wordquake, the organisation was granted Regularly Funded Status by Art Council, England. John now works part-time for Wordquake and tutors in poetry on the part-time creative writing degree course at the University of Hull. John Clarke is also a poet, widely published in magazines and winner of the First Prize in the City of Nottingham Poetry Competition in 2007 and a runner-up in 2006 and 2008 in the Wigtown Poetry Competition. A selection of his poems will be included in the forthcoming Oxford Poets anthology.