Ian Parks's Cavafy – a Poetry Book Society Choice

The Summer Bulletin of the Poetry Book Society has arrived and in it Ian Parks' Rack Press title, The Cavafy Variations, which is a PBS Summer Pamphlet Choice, is reviewed.  The anonymous reviewer says that Ian has "a fine ear for underplayed vowel music, and knows how to keep a line rhythmically taut" and makes some very interesting and perceptive comparisons with the work of other translators.  An excellent review of an excellent pamphlet which can be ordered here now.

You can join the Poetry Book Society by visiting their website www.poetrybooks.co.uk

Songs from the Same Earth Triumph at Aldeburgh Festival

Sir Harrison Birtwistle's setting of David Harsent's Songs from the Same Earth (the text published yesterday by Rack Press) was premiered last night at the Aldeburgh Music Festival at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and received a rapturous reception from the audience.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle (l) and David Harsent (r)
on stage at the Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape Maltings

At a pre-concert talk in the Peter Pears Recital Room, introduced briefly by Rack Press publisher Nicholas Murray, David Harsent read the entire sequence before taking part in a discussion with Harrison Birtwistle chaired by Tom Service.  Harry (as he appears to be universally known) revealed that he is a great reader of poetry but confessed with his dry Lancastrian humour that: "Poetry has to be a suitable case for treatment; it's only any good to me if it can be set to music." David Harsent said that Harry had a "great sensitivity to the text" and "a fantastic sense of theatre" which was clear from the subsequent performance given by the outstanding tenor Mark Padmore.  Both composer and poet admitted that they tended to work intuitively, without a pre-existing plan, and all the ingenuity of interviewer Tom Service was required to get the two to explain how they worked together.  That they did do so was clear from the piece itself. With a fine intuitive sense of the urgencies of product placement Harry waved his Rack Press pamphlet of the poems around as he tried to explain how he came to write the concluding musical section.  We were too bashful to photograph this moment. The concert was recorded for transmission later this year on Radio 3.

New David Harsent Pamphlet launched at Aldeburgh Festival

We are delighted to announce the publication of David Harsent’s striking new sequence of poems, Songs from the Same Earth, to co-incide with the Aldeburgh Festival première on 13th June of Harrison Birtwistle’s setting of the poems. 

The piece is a Royal Philharmonic Society/Britten-Pears Foundation commission to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the bicentenary of the foundation of the Royal Philharmonic Society. The piece will be performed by Mark Padmore (tenor) and Till Fellner (piano). 

The protagonist of Songs from the Same Earth is a woman in crisis. The sequence gives us glimpses of the uncertain and menacing world she inhabits.

 

David Harsent has published ten collections of poetry. The most recent, Night, was Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2011 and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Forward Prize (Best Collection), the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Prize. 

His work in music theatre has involved collaborations with a number of composers, but most often with Harrison Birtwistle, and has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Proms and on Channel 4 TV.

Songs from the Same Earth will be available here to purchase online from Thursday 13 June

Amazon Attack on Small Presses

We have just discovered that Amazon has started, unilaterally, without consulting anyone, to state that certain small press titles are "unavailable" when they are plainly in print and very much available.  This is a sinister and unpleasant move by Amazon because they consulted no one about it and are in effect putting out false information because people who use Amazon will assume that they are right and that the publications are unavailable.

When a new publication is given an ISBN number by a publisher details are automatically routed to Amazon and others.  The publisher has no choice in the matter.  I cannot remove this information from Amazon's site and if we depended on them for sales, which we don't, this would be extremely damaging, like a public and false declaration that our titles were out of print.

The moral is clear: when buying from small poetry presses buy direct from them and never from Amazon.  That way more of the income comes to us and we can survive longer.

Things are little better in the much-mentioned independent bookseller world.  Foyles refuse to stock our publications  even as they accept the award of Independent Bookseller of the Year.

Ledbury Poetry Festival and New Reviews

Several new Rack Press titles for 2013 are reviewed in the latest issue of the excellent New Walk magazine.  Victoria Field reviews Ian Parks' The Cavafy Variations which we are delighted to announce is the Poetry Book Society Summer Pamphlet Choice.  "I love what Parks has done," writes Field in her review.  We do too.

Two pamphlets from last year (poetry reviewers play a long game), The Heretic's Feast by Michèle Roberts and House of Blue by Denise Saul are also reviewed in New Walk by Philip Morre who praises both pamphlets, referring to Denise Saul's "wonderfully subtle touch with magical ingredients" and her "truly original voice".

If you would like to see some Rack Press poets reading come along to the Ledbury Poetry Festival next month where Rosalind Hudis, Susan Grindley, and Ian Parks will be reading from their new Rack Press pamphlets and other work. More information about this to be posted soon.

'A Nice Soft Day' in Radnorshire

Christopher Reid, Róisín Tierney and Martina Evans
outside the corporate HQ of Rack Press in Powys

There was a great turnout for the Rack Press reading in the church of St Michael, Discoed, Powys on Saturday 13th April.  The church was full and the poets were on top form: Rosalind Hudis, Angela Topping, Nicholas Murray, Christopher Reid, Róisín Tierney, and Martina Evans all read to a very appreciative audience and there was a party afterwards at The Rack, the Radnorshire cottage which is the home of Rack Press.  Never have so many poets assembled under that roof!

The Irish poets on the bill said that the drizzly but warmer spring day we had would have been called in Ireland: 'a nice soft day'.  And so it was.

The Radnor Readings

The snow has finally gone, the daffodils are struggling into bloom, the tiny lambs are on their feet, and the Rack Poets are in Radnorshire on Saturday afternoon at 3pm [see post below].  It looks like being a very special event and, who knows, the sun may shine.

St Michael's Discoed