Published - Recently Attracted Reality Influencers

My new publication! Selected meme and screenshots poems. Made a fair in lockdown, scrolling through me phone, clipping image text and net weirdness. Michael Sutton at OU press has done a great great job fitting this, setting it and ordering and making a proper pamphlet, gaudy as the material itself. I’m really happy with it, the latest in my weird poetry series, buyable here for a fiver https://overgroundunderground.bigcartel.com/product/recently-attracted-reality-influencers

Recently Attracted Reality Influencers

SJ Fowler’s new pamphlet 'Recently Attracted Reality Influencers' exhibits the ephemera of the internet through a broken kaleidoscope, disarranging and reappropriating the eerily familiar fragments of digital life in a hyper-collage quite unlike anything published before.

“If you are looking for poetry of maximum concentration of thought and feeling you won’t find it here. But if, like Wordsworth, you think poetry should be made out of everyday speech — which for Fowler is the automatically generated lingos of the internet — this could be the book you’ve been waiting for.” —Philip Terry

”It’s just meme, meme, meme with Steven J Fowler. Like some svengali of internet trash, here he orchestrates social media mishaps and clickbait into a warped chorus, which simultaneously engages and disassociates in its absurd and mocking warble.” —Vik Shirley

And below, my launch performance! a presentation which explains all…

A note on : Poem Brut at Open Ealing

Poem Brut IV : vii / June 3rd 2023 at Open Ealing https://www.poembrut.com/2023

A dozen brilliant new performances celebrating poets, artists, writers and musicians, exploring experimentation and playfulness in live poetry in one of West London most brilliant venues.

This was so fun. A dozen weird performances on a lovely evening, so friendly and explorative! And a real range of people and approaches, and I launched me book too. Long live open ealing. All videos on the link above, worth a peek

EPF 2023 Fin, some photographs

I did not have the time to properly diarise the European Poetry Festival this year. It was a huge endeavour, and one full of joy, truly, but none the less, a great administrative undertaking. I’m going to put together my own page more fully later in the summer (here for now https://www.stevenjfowler.com/epf23 ) and then reflect properly on what was a huge thing for me, and I hope, for the 100 plus poets involved, and the near 1000 people who attended.

For the time being I have made sure the EPF website is really well stocked with all videos of performances and photographs, (and it is all together here https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/2023 ) out of respect for the poets who were so generous. For my own part, some photographs below act as a memento of time with some great friends as a placeholder before more.

A note on : Stephen Spender Trust poem database and prizes

I’ve had the privilege recently to help a little bit with recommending some international poets for an initiative led by the brilliant Stephen Spender Trust. This spring, as part of a new, free-to-enter schools strand called the Schools Laureate Prize, they’ve developed a new online bank of suggested poems for pupils to translate. It’s 60 plus languages and scope for future development too, and I was really happy to put forward some remarkable poets for it, including those from languages really stretching across the globe

This is a resource for everyone truly, so please check it out and share it! In addition the adult category is also now open, with 45 days left to submit, details below.

Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation 2023 | Open for entries from 12 May, deadline 14 July

Calling all budding poets! The 2023 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation is now open for entries. Translate ANY poem from ANY language into English, and win publication and cash prizes!

This year, the Stephen Spender Trust is delighted to extend the Open category to adults aged 19+ from all over the world, welcoming translations into all World Englishes.

The winning translations will be chosen by Taher Adel, Samantha Schnee and Jennifer Wong, with top prizes of £1000, £500 and £250, plus three special commendations for first-time entrants.

For full details and a wealth of poetry translation resources, including a Guide to Poetry Translation for Newcomers and interviews with last year’s winning and commended translators, head to the Open Entry webpage: https://www.stephen-spender.org/stephen-spender-prize/open-entry/.

You can also follow the latest Prize news on social media. Twitter: @StephenSpender #SSTPoetryPrize2023 | Facebook: @StephenSpenderTrust | Instagram: @stephenspendertrust

EPF 2023 Event #1 - Opening event, Versopolis at Iklectik Artlab

https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/versopolis

Versopolis is one of the biggest poetry projects to ever take place in Europe, linking together innumerate poets and festivals, constantly creating connections and collaborations and so a perfect partner to kick off the sixth edition of my festival.

This was a really funny, idiosyncratic, playful, rangey night. Everyone seemed at ease, and the audience was unusually attentive and generous.

My long running collaborative connection with the remarkable musician Benedict Taylor was the perfect thing for me to kick off my festival. We lost the video to a camera issue but the audio from Isa at the amazing Iklectik Artlab saved the day. All entirely improvised, clear mind, flow and shiny nonsense.

All the videos from the 10 performances are available at the link above, worth a watch, with a few below alongside some grand piccies

A note on : National Gallery Lates event II - March 2023

An amazing night, for the second time, at the National Gallery this year. These commissions couldn’t have been more fun. I’ve felt so supported, so relaxed, joined this time by poets Stan Dimitrov, Matt Sokulsky, Rushika Wick, and art historian Fiona Alderton, and curator Joseph Kendra. We had a proper blast, huge crowd, great galleries and some great readings. Here you can watch the video of the entire event, and below, my two readings.

I wrote and read new poems on Goya’s Wellington (a hero of mine) and Sorolla’s The Drunkards (at Joseph’s urging)

I had with me, for the second time, a crocodile pointer (dagostini) and on my final reading I dedicated the work to Joe, who I had met seconds before, and found him hushing people who were loudly talking during our unamplified reading. Joe is the best. As is all the lovely folk, many friends, many new to me, who came to celebrate this format of live ekphrasis. The next is at the end of June…

A note on : Sampson Low student pamphlets 2023 - Wade and Sokulsky

Since 2017, I’ve been running the SAMPSON LOW POETRY PAMPHLET SERIES, designed to evidence the remarkable contemporary and innovative poetry being written by current and recent Kingston University Creative Writing students. https://www.writerskingston.com/sampsonlow This year was a special one, as it marked the debut publications of Cameron Wade and Matthew Sokulsky. Following the work of Stanimir Dimitrov and Kayona Daley for last year’s pamphlets, this marks really a peak for me as a lecturer and a collaborator with younger poets, helping them find the right spaces for their ideas and work. Cameron and Matt, like Stan and Kayona, are remarkable people, as well as poets. They couldn’t be harder working, more reliable, more mature. They are funny, naturally and authentically original, and their taking to the inventiveness these pamphlets encourage speaks to it being in their nature. I’ve been proud to work with them.

You can buy Matthews’s THE BOOK OF MATTHEW here https://sampsonlow.co/2023/03/09/the-book-of-matthew-matthew-j-sokulsky/

And Cameron’s I SMELL METAL https://sampsonlow.co/2023/03/09/i-smell-metal-cameron-wade/

A final note must go to the publisher, the amazing Alban Low, who supports me, along with these students, so selflessly and with such energy and skill. He’s a man I’m lucky to know.