Thursday 29 September 2011

A Dealer On Either Side of the Pond



The launch of How to Say 'I love you' in Greenlandic was celebrated at The Poetry Society in London on 22 September. The edition is now available for sale. Bookselling is a slow business, so I am very grateful to two venerable dealers in fine press and illustrated books for adopting my book and sharing the dirty work with me.


In the UK, my Arctic alphabet can be found on the shelves of Collinge & Clark, just down the road from the British Library in London. Oliver Clark has featured the book on his sparkling new website, which offers the undisciplined browser an endless distraction of paper delights. Customers can sign up for the erudite newsletter and benefit from 10% discount on all current stock. Collinge & Clark have been providing bibliophiles with works on printing and typography since 1989, but the shop (above) will be best known to many as the set for cult comedy Black Books.

I'm delighted that the work has also been featured in Catalogue 70 from The Veatchs, also specialists in the history of the book. Bob and Lynne Veatch's shop in Northampton, Massachusetts, stocks examples of book-making from all periods, early and modern fine printing, historical and publishers' bindings, and designer bindings. Catalogue 70 focuses on the genre of the alphabet book - the compilation is 'a fabulist's wishlist' (Maureen Cummins), with alphabets ranging from Aphid to Zebra (Beo Press), Aqueduct to Urinal (Parrot Press) and - for the more arcane - a set of Ohgam characters by Eileen Hogan. I hope a few American collectors will find their way to the Arctic through the Veatchs' doors.

Monday 19 September 2011

Horizon: The Art Of Losing

Scott's Expedition Hut

Photographs hanging in Scott’s Expedition Hut, Ross Island, Antarctica
(Photo: Velvet Android/Flickr)

The latest issue of Horizon, a review of literature and art, is now online. The offerings selected by editor Katy Evans-Bush include my essay 'The Art of Losing' on the artist Emma Stibbon's Antarctic Series.

Saturday 10 September 2011

Udkant: On The Margins

Doverodde Book Arts Festival IV

Limfjordscentret Doverodde Købmandsgård, Hurup Thy, Denmark

Plans are afoot for the Doverodde Book Arts Festival at Limfjordscentret in Denmark in May 2012. This year the theme of the festival will be Udkant which can be translated as 'on the margins'. Mette-Sofie Ambeck, book artist and the Festival's Project Consultant, says that Udkant may mean 'being on the edge of what is allowed – being furthest away from the centre – or on the edge of a remote place like a forest'.

Those visiting the Festival to experience the exhibitions, workshops and book arts symposium will be sustained by music performed by cellist Regina Brunke and cakes baked in the 'book cafe'.

This year the Doverodde Book Arts Center will appoint a writer-in-residence to produce a body of work in response to the nature and culture of the Limfjord. I'm excited to have been invited to fill this position and I look forward to working in this beautiful and historic area of north-west Denmark in the month leading up to the Festival.