Ken Edwards

Three texts of mine are included in Bulverhythe Variations , a beautiful 66pp photo-book newly out from photography publisher Silverhill Press, with 32 images by Elaine Edwards taken in the early morning on an abandoned coastline during the Covid period, both of us meditating on isolation and the breaking of symmetry. Have a look and buy it here . And there's also an album of Elaine's keyboard pieces which are part of the same project, together with my narrations of my text: available as a download and a CD on Bandcamp . These are two windows onto the project, a third being provided by our live performance of the music, narration and projection of images – which has happened twice, on 21 May 2022 at Electro Studio Space, St Leonards on Sea, and on 13 October 2022 at The Beacon, Hastings.

   Day 1 You wake in what seems to be an abandoned factory. The pipework and ductwork is of an extraordinary beauty. There is no way out. This is the Holding Pen, whence no-one in reality, despite the stated protocols and procedures and mission statements established by the Management, ever escapes. But hang on a minute. You must have escaped, it’s vivid in your memory; except it isn’t, that’s an illusion, because of course there is no longer any discernible electro-chemical activity in that skull of yours, because, frankly, you have the condition known as brain death. That is to say, your brain stem is no longer in meaningful connection with your spinal cord. That trumps everything. So to say “you wake” or that “you remember you awoke” is fanciful. But there you are. The good news is that this is no abandoned factory after all; actually, it looks uncommonly like your own bed in your own bedroom in your own flat. Congratulations. You made it. What do you think of that? Sorry, ...

Today, Sunday 31 July, is the last day you can pre-order my new novel Secret Orbit AND have your name printed in the back of the book. Grand Iota has had 58 pre-order subscriptions so far, which is pretty gratifying. A mixture of old friends, including some who have never bought a book of mine before, and people I don't know at all. Wow. However ... after the book goes to press (this week) you can still pre-order it. All pre-orders will be dispatched from late August on. So please do. (The book is officially published in the autumn – looks like the publication date has been put back to November.)

 A nice review of my Collected Poems . By Rupert Loydell.  

  My Collected Poems 1975-2020 is due out from Shearsman Books – publication date April 2021, so the publisher tells me. Here's a link to its page on the Shearsman website . The details are slightly out of date – it will come out at 538 pages, rather than 520. A whopper, anyway. It's been proofread, and all is go. The cover image of the rings on a tree-trunk is from a photo by Elaine Edwards. More news soon! UPDATE: Out now....

As the annus horribilis 2020 draws to a close, there is one ray of light at least for me – I just received by email a draft of the cover and first page proofs of my promised Collected Poems from Shearsman Books. A 520pp+ monster! It spans my poetry from around 1975 onwards.  I'm very happy that the cover will feature a photograph by Elaine. So I'm proofreading right now, and there will be more news soon.

DAY TO DAY I see tiny cities made of gold and stellar formations of uncanny provenance, all wrecked in the flood, even at its muddy rim. [pic: Elaine Edwards]