Palmerston North – Tim Jones

The Stars Their Destination: Wellington, Palmerston North, The Edge of the Universe

Posted on July 1, 2009

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and so it’s fitting that there’s an astronomical theme to several forthcoming writing events. (If you know of more astropoetry events, please tell us about them in the comments.)

If the combination of poetry and astronomy interests you, then I recommend Emily Gaskin’s Astropoetica, not only a fine online magazine of astronomical poetry, but a paying poetry market!

Wellington

Montana Poetry Day events in Wellington on 24 July include an all-day open mike poetry event in Cuba Mall, by the Bucket Fountain. But I’m especially interested in the lunchtime event:

There will also be an Astropoetry Lunch Hour celebrating the International Year of Astronomy during which poets can read any ‘astronomy’ themed poems.

Open to all; free entry. Contact Graham Wolf on graham.w.wolf (at) gmail.com

Palmerston North

Helen Lehndorf and the other organisers of the Stand Up Poetry series in Palmerston North are also involved in this exciting event:

Eyes in the Skies: Poetry and art for Matariki

“Eyes in the Skies” is both an exhibition and an event. The exhibition runs from 3 July (launch at 7.30pm) to 4 August at the Square Edge Gallery, 47 The Square, Palmerston North. It features poetry by Helen Lehndorf, Margi Mitcalfe, Karlo Mila, Johanna Aitchison, Felicity Yates, Philippa Elphick and Elizabeth Coleman, and art by printmaker Virginia Jamieson and sculptor Warren Warbrick.

The Poetry Day event is from 5.30 pm onwards, Friday 24th July 2009 at Square Edge:

Using nga taongapuoro and voice, HAUnt Wind Stories presents an evening of music showcasing new poems by seven Manawatu poets including Karlo Mila and Johanna Aitchison. The poems will be made into prints by Virginia Jamieson and unveiled during this event. The poems and prints will also be sold in book form at the event.

Open to all. Email HAUnt (at) inspire.net.nz for further information.

Tim Upperton’s Book Launch

I don’t know of an astronomy connection to Tim Upperton’sbook, although there may well be one – but Tim’s a fine poet (and a gracious host), and his first collection of poetry, A House On Fire, is being launched, also on Poetry Day in Palmerston North: it’s happening at 7pm on Friday 24 July at the Palmerston North City Library, also in The Square. A House On Fire will be introduced by Roger Steele of Steele Roberts, who are publishing the book.

Another commitment will prevent me from going to this launch, but if you can make it, you should!

The Edge of the Universe

The Royal Society’s Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing is awarded each year in two categories, fiction and nonfiction. Here is this year’s announcement:

“I live at the edge of the universe, like everybody else.”
–Bill Manhire

This year we are celebrating the International Year of Astronomy. Ever since Galileo first aimed his telescope at Jupiter’s moons, technology has been enlarging our knowledge of the universe.

We now know our own insignificance and isolation and yet we have immense power to communicate as never before. The race of humans is isolated in space and time and yet where, as individuals, do we go to be alone?

A cash prize of $2500 will be awarded to the winner of each category. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 22 September 2009.

The Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing is organised by the Royal Society of New Zealand in association with the New Zealand Listener magazine and the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.

For more information, terms and conditions and entry forms visit http://www.royalsociety.org.nz or contact: Danae Staples-Moon, ph 04 470 5770 or email danae (at) royalsociety.org.nz

What Makes a Good Book Launch? What Makes a Good Reading?

Posted on June 11, 2009

I had a great time reading poetry at Palmerston North City Library, as part of the Stand Up Poetry series (forthcoming readers in that series: Glenn Colquhoun, Harvey Molloy, Helen Heath), a week ago. I enjoyed the open mike session that preceded my reading, I was happy with my own performance, the feedback was good, and I sold plenty of my books. Earlier this year, I had an equally good time reading in Christchurch (despite a heavy cold).

But that hasn’t always been the case. I’ve done readings where the crowd was small, unresponsive, and discinclined to buy my books or any other part of the deal – readings that left me wondering “what am I doing here?”

And if readings are important, especially to poets and small-press authors, launches are even more so. Sales at a launch can make or break the financial success of a poetry book; besides which, the launch is a ritual which marks the entry of your book into the world.

I’ve been at launches where people were queuing to buy the books from the sales table, such as the launch for Helen Rickerby‘s second book of poetry, My Iron Spine, last year. I’ve been at others where the author sits, embarrassed, behind the sales and signing table, while the audience slink, just as embarrassedly, towards the exit.

Why? What makes some launches and readings a great experience for everyone involved, and others a depressing and often humiliating failure?

I wish I knew, because then I could bottle the formula. But here’s a few thoughts on what makes a good book event:

Warmth! If it’s a welcoming temperature at the event and cold outside, participants won’t want to leave.
A friendly, inclusive atmosphere. Literary cliques, leave your affiliations at the door. Everyone should feel free to mingle, or not mingle if they prefer.
The most likely people to buy your book at a launch are friends and colleagues, so make sure you invite them, encourage them to come, and be nice to them when they turn up.
This is a tough one, since it’s hard to predict numbers – but it’s good to have a space where there’s enough room for people to move around, but not so much that they feel isolated.
The ideal sales table/area has room for a face-out display of the book(s) for sale; it’s also best if it’s somewhere where it’s always in easy view, rather than being tucked away in the back of the room where people have to make a special effort to find it.
If you’re in charge of book sales, make sure you bring plenty of change, and, if you can manage it, an EFTPOS machine.
At a launch, don’t wait too long before starting, keep the speeches short (something Harvey Molloy did very well at the launch of Moonshot). Don’t don’t rush people out after the formal part of the launch finishes – encourage them to linger and talk. Food and drink help!
Promote the event every which way you can, without spamming people.

Every reading I’ve done has been a different length and in different circumstances, but I’m finding that what works best for me is to embed the poems in a loose narrative -starting with some autobiographical poems, and then going on to others that are united by theme. That approach makes me more relaxed, and seems to make the audience more relaxed as well.

While I do include some serious poems, I generally make sure to start with shorter and simpler poems, sprinkle the reading with humour, and end with a couple of poems that have plenty of energy. That way, everyone finishes on a high.

I might apply this approach to the next reading I do and fall flat on my face – but I hope not.

What works for you (as a writer or as a guest) at book launches and readings?

Poetry Runway: Promoting Poetry, One Contestant At A Time

Posted on June 4, 2009

UPDATE: As Jack Ross has pointed out (see the comments), Project Poetry is a much better title than Poetry Runway.

I went to Palmerston North yesterday to read in the Stand Up Poetry series at the very impressive Palmerston North City Library. I really enjoyed myself: I had a great time reading to an appreciative audience, sold plenty of books, had a lovely dinner before the event and lengthy pub discussions about poetry afterwards, and enjoyed meeting lots of new people and some poets I’d only met virtually before, including series MC Helen Lehndorf and my overnight host, Tim Upperton.

And it was on the way home from Palmerston North that the idea came to me. If reality TV shows could work for modelling (America’s Next Top Model), fashion (Project Runway), and the chance to enjoy the sexual attentions of Brett Michaels (Rock of Love), then why not a similar show for poetry? Because Project Runway is the only one of those shows I actually like, and because I have no imagination, I think it should be called Poetry Runway.

Here’s the set-up: fifteen arriving poets are selected to enter the competition, under the wise mentorship of a debonair poetry expert (Billy Collins, perhaps, or Margaret Atwood, or, if available, T. S. Eliot). Each week, they must complete a poetry challenge – a pantoum, a villanelle, a book-length encomium to Elizabeth the First – and each week, they must present themselves to the judges (obviously, the panel must be chaired by a supermodel, but the other members could be distinguished poets). Each week, one poet will be eliminated.

For three months, weekly at 8.30pm, we inhabit these poets’ lives. We see them triumphant, we see them despairing, we see the tears of each eliminated poet as they are given ten minutes to return to the workroom and pack away their laptop and thesaurus. We get up close and personal with the bitchy and the noble; we see the proud humbled and the meek exalted.

For the lucky winner, the rewards are many: a year-long poetry residency at a distinguished Midwestern university, guaranteed publication of their next collection, possession of the final Humvee to roll off the assembly line, and a seven-page spread in Elle magazine. But first, the top three contestants must face the ultimate challenge: putting on a half-hour poetry show at New York Poetry Week while the city’s leading poets chatter obliviously and clink their glasses.

Poetry fever would grip the world. Slim volumes would sell like slim hot cakes. Watercooler conversations would revolve around Heid Klum’s harsh comments on the use of ampersands. The show would be franchised, and here in New Zealand we’d all get to compete for a brand new bus pass and a chance to fall over in front of Jason Gunn.

I have the vision. All I need now is a television producer with a lot of money and very little common sense. Are you out there?

Portions of this blog post not affecting the outcome have been removed in consultation with the producers.

Voyagers for Sale, Stand Up Poetry, Online Voting for the Vogels, and James Dignan’s New Exhibition

Posted on May 13, 2009

Voyagers for Sale

Mark Pirie and I are still waiting for the contributors’ and review copies of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand to make their way to the shores of Aotearoa, so we can start sending them out. But it is already possible to buy – or at least order – Voyagers online, as follows:

From Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle e-book (search for “Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry”)
From Fishpond in New Zealand.
From the publisher, via the Voyagers mini-site which also has information about and excerpts from the book.

And a poem from Voyagers has already gone cross-platform! (That sounds good – I hope it makes sense.) Meliors Simms has produced a video version of part of her poem “Two Kinds of Time”, which appears in the anthology. You can see it and read about it on Meliors’ blog, and also see it as part of Helen Rickerby’s initiative, NZ Poets on Video. It’s well worth watching.

Get Up, Stand Up

I will be the featured reader at Stand Up Poetry at Palmerston North City Library on Wednesday 3 June at 7pm. Helen Rickerby was the May reader, and it sounds like she had a great time; Harvey Molloy is reading in August; if someone can tell me who’s reading in July, I’ll mention them too. I’m looking forward to it – come along if you are in the Palmerston North area and hear my repertoire of anecdotes for the first time!

UPDATE: As Helen Lehndorf has reminded me, and I should have remembered, Glenn Colquhoun is the June reader. Helen Heath will be reading in September.

Online Voting for the Vogels

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards, New Zealand’s equivalent of the Hugo Awards, will be awarded at ConScription, this year’s National Science Fiction Convention, being held in Auckland at Queen’s Birthday Weekend. There’s a very strong field of finalists, and yours truly has two finalists (Transported and JAAM 26) in the field for Best Collected Work.

Members of ConScription and of SFFANZ, the administering body, are eligible to vote – and if you join SFFANZ (it costs $10 per annum) you can vote online until 27 May 2009. I encourage you to do so.

James Dignan’s New Exhibition

Dunedin artist and reviewer James Dignan has his fifth solo exhibition, “The Unguarded Moment”, at the Temple Gallery, 29 Moray Place, Dunedin from May 15-28, with the opening this Friday (the 15th) from 5.30-7.30pm. I recommend it! You can find out more about the exhibition, James’s art, music and writing, and his past exhibitions on his website.