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BACK FROM CHICAGO

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of poetic activity and publishing business, in Eyewear and the wider world, notwithstanding the claim made by the boy in Heaven Is Real that "no one wears glasses in Heaven". First, the good news that deserving poets Kei Miller and Liz Berry won Forward prizes.

And National Poetry Day (in UK) saw Eyewear's new autumn titles Skinless and For The Chorus leap off the printing presses - we have a big launch at the LRB October 15th.  Meanwhile, sadly, the great Welsh poet, who I enjoyed working with on several Oxfam projects, Dannie Abse, died. Also, Nik Beat died suddenly, in Toronto - he was an instrumental poet and poetry activist for decades in that scene, and a kind, supportive, very cool guy, with a great voice, and some superb outlaw poetry.

And, I was in Chicago and Detroit for a week, in support of a new USA Selected, from feisty indie press Marick (Michigan), and a lengthy review/ essay in the October Brit issue of world-class mag Poetry.  I had the chance to meet and read with some excellent poets along the way.  I should add, Chicago has the greatest steak, pizza, built environment, and Poetry Foundation, I know of. Super friendly folks too.  And it was great seeing the Cubbies play at Wrigley.

And, now the news that Eyewear Publishing has received a large grant from the Mexican government to publish translations of three novels by major author Mario Bellatin, often spoken of as a potential Nobel winner... very exciting.

As well, we have new prose works from Alfred Corn, Mark Ford, our first paperback poetry title from David Shook, more launches, our first paperback novel hitting shelves end of October (and airing on the BBC), and all things Eyewear are looking up.

I need to update this blog soon with more reviews, features, and commentaries, but for now, thanks for reading.



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