Time flies – in memory of Jack Alun Time flies. So thank goodness books remain. Possibly gathering a bit of dust, but not becoming dust. That’s what people do, I suppose. I’m reading for the nth time Jack Alun’s blog, Neither Here Nor There, written in the middle of a lockdown in the COVID time. He’s stuck in Wales dreaming of France describing writing a new collection of poems that would eventually become ‘Invisible Spaces’. He describes feelings of being cut off geographically and culturally and ‘marooned in a neither here nor there sort of Neverland.’ I am sure he spoke for many who experienced the isolation in all sorts of ways but here I am, years later, stuck in Wales, looking back wondering what happened to all that time and, in particular, how we can ever bridge the gaps that time and space increase. Le temps passe vite. I had to look it up, by the way. French is such a slippery thing, sometimes so elegant and then sometimes, it just lets you down a bit. I remember Jack making me roar with laughter at his tales of going to Paris on a French language course and rapidly deteriorating…
It’s nine weeks now since the coronavirus lockdown began and I feel cut off both geographically and culturally from anywhere. The occasional glimpses of the mud brown Bristol Channel through the trees and the accents of the few people I meet on my daily walk assures me I’m still in Wales. And even though I should have left already for France, I don’t feel as if I’m in any place but marooned in a neither here nor there sort of Neverland. Cardiff is just down the road from the seaside village where I have an apartment, though it might as well be in a post apocalyptic other country. When I was a boy, Cardiff felt more like a large town than a city. It was small minded, conservative and swathed in drab colours, only on International Rugby days did it come alive with noise and excitement, the red and white of scarves and the green of leeks. Now the transformation is total and, as the city climbs skywards, brims with character and energy, and has a friendliness I’ve encountered in no other city in the world. Jill and I only moved back to Wales little over a year ago but…
Red Hand Books are please to announce it has entered Jack Alun’s stunning new poetry collection for the Forward Arts Foundation Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. This prize is sponsored by the Estate of Felix Dennis and offers the winner a prize of £5,000.
We are so pleased to be able to announce that Bjarni Bjarnason will be speaking about his latest novel, The Reputation which Red Hand Books has just published in English…so if you fancy a fascinating trip to see our Icelandic star he’s on in Berlin on the 9th of September, 2017… For tickets go to the literature festival website ( http://www.literaturfestival.com/tickets) but he’s on in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in the evening and it should be a very interesting evening…(this link is better in German, but we’ve put the English one as well…) http://www.literaturfestival.com/program-en/literaturen-der-welt-en/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord?set_language=en http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt/2017/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord He’s in amazing company as well with an astonishing array of talent from all over the world.. just have a look at the list on this page.. http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt if you want a bit more info about Bjarni there is also his BlogSpot to check out: http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-1?set_language=en What more could you ask for a weekend in September is an Icelander talking in English about his new translation of a novel about living with the afterlife of the financial crash to lovely people in a German Litfest…? Best of luck to Bjarni.
As part of launching the new edition of Turkish Poetry Today 2016 we will also be launching for general view the website at www.redhandbooks.co.uk and also unveiling our latest poet to join our ranks…. Mr Richard Boden.. look out for the details of The English Disease in our newsletter in November this year…