2011 is the second Stoke Newington Literary Festival, created to celebrate the area’s long and influential literary history and to keep the spirit of radical thinking, debating and story-telling alive.

Sunday Poetry Evening with Kit Wright, Phil Bowen, Peter Daniels & Jan Noble.£6 (please pay on the door). Time – 18:30, Sunday. Venue – Mascara Bar, 72 Stamford Hill, N16 6XS

‘White trash rap’ The Guardian  ‘sophisticated urban narratives’  NME . . . from Jan Noble alongside . . .

Kit Wright . . . the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers’ Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award and the Heinemann Award.

Phil Bowen . . . another award-winning poet who’s contributed, alongside Allen Ginsberg, Simon Armitage and Roger McGough, to The Captain’s Tower, celebrating the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan.

Peter Daniels . . . recent first prize winner of the TLS Poetry Competition, the 2008 Daily Telegraph Arvon International Poetry Competition and joint winner of the 1991 Poetry Business pamphlet competition.

Over the last twelve months Jan Noble has released twelve single poem 7″ paperback books, one per month. They are available today as the boxed set  “Assemblage de choses de même nature au nombre de douze” or 12 poems in 12 books in 1 box.

This box set features About She Goes, Illustrated lyrics of the poem that features on Cesarians 1, the debut album by the Cesarians, the first two singles from McKevitt and  Noble:  This is is what I wanted to give you and This is a bucket (with cover artwork by video artist Chris Briggs), a collaboration with fine art illustrator Ali Hutchinson on Goldfish as well as the long poem Tide commissioned last year by the East End Film Festival.

.

• Product Dimensions: 21 x 21 x 5 cm
• Contains 12 x 7″ single paperback books
• Publisher: Not Your Average Type (12 Jan 2011)
• ISBN-13: 978-1907513121
• RRP: £69.99
• View on Amazon
• buy direct from publisher with PayPal for £69.99 £50

12 Poems

available individually as 7″ single poem paperback books

and on a variety of digital media

Nº 1 of 12

In Truth, You’re Still in Love (with Addie Smith)

Nº 2 of 12

This is her

Nº 3 of 12

About She Goes

Nº 4 of 12

Tide: Poem for the East End Film Festival

Nº 6 of 12

Toward Posterity

Nº 7 of 12

This is what I wanted to give you

Nº 8 of 12

Off The Map

Nº 9 of 12

The Man in the Bear Outfit

Nº 10 of 12

This is a Bucket

Nº 11 of 12

With My Eyes Closed

Nº 12 of 12

Goldfish

to the rivers frozen edge; our steps were

careless then. We were as much in love as

we were in danger. Beside each other

there’s little difference between the two.

Oh Abi, I should have held on to you.

A path iced back up from the bank. Polished

like a coffin lid. You slipped. I slipped too.

I’m so sorry. I just held on to you.

‘Tho spring saw water and land lip to lip

kissing or bidding each other to go

I found my footing out there in the snow

where days were short and winter’s grip was true

Oh Abi, I should have held on to you.

When the news came through that Fishtank was dead

it was like a bootlace undone or a puncture on a push bike

only no one knew really what to do.

…

A few gathered at the place he used to drink

but since he’d had little love for its brown walls

and torn vinyl that stretched over the seating

like split martian skin the afternoon excuse

to put off whatever it was we weren’t doing

and sink a half price few seemed flat as slops

from the drip tray. But it was Fishtank

so we did it anyway.

…

Fishtank, everyones bitterest friend

and most jovial enemy

I guess this one’s for you my son.

What was it you used to say?

You never know your luck in the big city.

Luck? You never had any

and more, more’s the pity

This is a Bucket, the second single from McKevitt and Noble, is now available as free download for a limited period from http://www.myspace.com/thisisabucket. A book of the poem  accompanies the release and is on sale from Amazon with a preview of the text here

A film of the first single This is what I wanted to give you, can be viewed on YouTube.

McKevitt and Noble

online @

iTunes
Facebook
last.fm
DonnaMcKevitt.com
notyouraveragetype.com

Something not there that he should have noticed

but since it was missing how could he have known?

The morning had left the door open on the day

and a rare warmth – for the time of year -

accompanied the precious sun that said to her

“I should go now” and to him “I must stay here”

…

“You never got around to telling me” she said

“Telling you what?” he replied with a tone

that meant whatever sentence he had begun before

should remain incomplete or be thought alone.

…

But the weather and her questions were generous

and the coffee was quick with his jaw

and whatever the winter was promising to freeze

this moment was hoping to thaw

…

and half in the shade he wished she would stay

and half in the sun she wished she was gone

and something not there that nobody noticed

as the day escaped and they both looked on

…

Questa è lei nel suo vestito di cenere

Questa è lei con le sue scarpe di legno

Questa è lei con i cappelli di umido muschio

Questa è lei nella sua fascia di graffi

…

Oggi il suo caffè è cristallo amaro

Oggi il suo sorriso è una pennellata sola

Oggi i suoi occhi sono specchi di latte

Oggi la sua musica è misera e distante

…

Domani strapperà i petali delle sue rose

fodererà di foglie le sue tasche

Domani guarderà l‘estate

sfogliarsi dal calendario

…

e lascerà che ubriachi soli sedimentino

come composta nei vasi

…

Translated by Irene Fumagalli

Read the English version here

…