Winter reading: Morris, Freud, Bacon & Co

• a review of The Book Beautiful: William Morris, Hilary Pepler and the Private Press Story at Ditchling Museum of Art+Craft for the Times Literary Supplement blog. 
• a review of a number of new books on the art of letters, including Letter Writing Among Poets (ed. Jonathan Ellis) and The Letters Page (ed. Jon McGregor) in the Times Literary Supplement (print edition out 26 January and online).  
• an introduction to the National Original Print Exhibition catalogue, for the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), London. See illustration above, also accessible online.
• a pair of short catalogue essays on Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud for the exhibition Bacon / Freud: Selected Graphic Works at Marlborough Fine Art, London. Accessible online.
• an interview with artist Sue Ridge for a feature in Printmaking Today, looking at her prizewinning work Aphasia Wallpaper and its roots in the work and life of William Morris. (See illustration below.)
• a review of the catalogue for Degas: A Strange New Beauty, an exhibition of Degas' monotypes at MOMA, New York, in Printmaking Today.

Bacon / Freud at Marlborough Fine Art

It was a great pleasure to write about two titans of twentieth-century art for the catalogue to the current exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art, London. The different approaches to printmaking demonstrated by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud creates high drama in the gallery. Bacon and Freud: Selected Graphic Works is at Marlborough Fine Art, 6 Albemarle Street, London until 25 February 2017. The catalogue (pictured below) can also be read online.

Reading with Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Oxford

Fondation Jan Michalski - Residency

I have been awarded a residency at the Fondation Jan Michalski in 2017. This foundation for literature at the foot of the Jura in Switzerland has a large multilingual library and exhibition space, not to mention the wonderful "treehouses" for writers shown in the video above. I will use the residency to complete work on the first English translation of a selection of songs collected in Greenland in 1935 by the French anthropologist Paul-Emile Victor (originally published as Chants d'Ammassalik, Copenhagen, 1991).

Sun Beats Collective - Podcast

Nukúnguasik, who escaped from the tupilak

from Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen (1921)

Sun Beats Collective (@sunbeatsco) have launched a new poetry podcast.

In the first episode of Under the Table hosts Sarah and Anna interview me about poetry and place, with the emphasis on the latter - and digressions via kayaks, qivittoq and tupilaks. There are poems from Andrew Fentham (who responds with panache to my challenge to write a sestina using the titles of Pet Shop Boys songs), Jane Yeh and - a new discovery for me - the work of minimalist poet Robert Lax.

I'm looking forward to the next episode already.

Borrowed Bookshelves 14

Old and new books on the shelves at The Red Bone Bindery, Groningen, The Netherlands

New edition!

A new edition of How To Say "I Love You" In Greenlandic has just been launched by MIEL books.

The new edition beautifully captures the colour and texture of the pochoir prints in the original artist's book, with its twelve postcards digitally printed on 300gsm cotton card stock, and an essay on Greenlandic language and landscape in the accompanying booklet.

MIEL books are offering an introductory discount of 30% to customers buying the book before 14 November 2016 - just quote the code WELCOMETOGREENLAND when you visit the online shop.