And Jackson’s poem ‘I am a photographer’, which comes from their new book I am a human being which is available for pre-order at Compound Press
‘Jackson Nieuwland is a human being, duh. They are a genderqueer writer, editor, librarian, and woo-girl, born and based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. They co-founded the reading/zine series Food Court. This isn’t even their final form.’
Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here
Or you can listen to it here:
Ep 71: Jackson Nieuwland talks to Pip Adam about Crispin Best’s ‘gently’ and Jackson Nieuwland’s ‘I am a photographer.’
Exercise 22
Throughout this entire exercise I misnamed Bill Manhire’s book Tell Me My Name – sorry, it is an amazing book published by Victoria University Press
Exercise 23
This exercise includes the poem ‘Five Limericks on Grief’ by Nick Ascroft
Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here
My hope is that, instead of adding any pressure to ‘do’ during this time, these exercises can be of use if and as you like.
Thanks
Pip
Exercise 15
Exercise 16
Exercise 17
Exercise 18
Exercise 19
Thank you SO much to Strange Stains for letting me play their amazing track ‘They wear them out’. You can listen and buy Strange Stain’s music on bandcamp
Oscar Upperton’s New Transgender Blockbusters is one of my favourite poetry collections in a long time. It’s a stunning piece of work.
I spoke to Oscar about Bill Manhire’s poem ‘Kevin’ which appears in Manhire’s Lifted (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2005)
Then we spoke about Oscar’s poem ‘Two Thieves’ which is the last poem in his book.
Oscar’s poem ‘Dutch instruction’ appears in The VUP Reader a free ebook made up of extracts of books which were published in February and March, books which are in the warehouse or on the water, final proofs and uncorrected proofs, manuscripts and work-in-progress—stretching into 2021.
Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here
Or you can listen to it here:
Ep 70: Oscar Upperton talks to Pip Adam about Bill Manhire’s ‘Kevin’ and Oscar Upperton’s ‘Two Thieves
Oulipo (French pronunciation: [ulipo], short for French: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: “workshop of potential literature”) is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais. Other notable members have included novelists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino, poets Oskar Pastior, Jean Lescure and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud.
The group defines the term littérature potentielle as (rough translation): “the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy”.
Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration, most notably Perec’s “story-making machine”, which he used in the construction of Life A User’s Manual. As well as established techniques, such as lipograms (Perec’s novel A Void) and palindromes, the group devises new methods, often based on mathematical problems, such as the knight’s tour of the chess-board and permutations. (Wikipedia: Oulipo)
Hi All,
Just for ease of seeing – I’ve split the exercises up into lots of five.
First, I’m really aware that people are feeling a lot of pressure from all sorts of corners during the various COVID-19 lock-downs around the world. This series of short writing exercises is not meant to add any pressure – we don’t have to write that novel by the end of the lock-down!
These exercises, which I aim to release every couple of days, came about because I’m trying to find ways of supporting writers I’m working with whose courses are suspended at the moment. I was going to share these exercises anyway so I thought I’d share them a little wider using the podcast.
They are short and hopefully fun … they might be interesting just to listen to.
I’m using Free Sound Library noises in them that are licensed under Creative Commons and I’m really grateful to the folk who make these sounds available.
These podcasts aren’t sponsored although sometimes I’ll talk about books and people that the exercises have been adapted from. Intellectual Property is an interesting question in writing exercises and Ill do my best to attribute the exercises – if I mess up please let me know.
Thanks
Pip
Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here
