A sample:
While You Weren’t Listening

I heard the glass
say to the tabletop:
I like the way you hold me.
I heard the table
answer back:
I like the way you feel.
The barstools
thanked the floor
for all the nights it propped them up
And though
I didn’t catch the floor’s reply
it sounded delicate
and I wondered
what the wind says to the trees outside
to make them swoon like that
and what it tells
the grass
to set it shivering,
or what it is
that’s spoken when you
press that bottle to your lips,
what passes there
between you
in that silent and repeated kiss
that seems to say
I’m here,
I’m listening.

Read more!

Product details

• Title: Vol.2 Iss.2 ‘Parallax (For Justin)’
• Author: Helen Mort
• Pamphlet: 20 pages
• Publisher: Forest Publications (18 April 2010)
• ISBN-13: 978-0956338860
• Amount: £2

GET YOUR COPY TODAY from the FOREST PUBLICATIONS STORE!:

]]> http://ryanvanwinkle.com/parallax-by-helen-mort/feed/ 0 http://ryanvanwinkle.com/the-golden-hour-goes-south/ http://ryanvanwinkle.com/the-golden-hour-goes-south/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 05:11:29 +0000 admin http://ryanvanwinkle.com/?p=2034

Roll Up Roll Up — the literary cavalcade known as The Golden Hour is storming the South. We’re going to Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol, Brighton and London! Dates are below —  It is physical and mental. It is a reading. It is a gig. It is a party.

When?  20th – 25th May, 2010!

Featuring:

Readers / Writers:
Ryan Van Winkle – poems & stories from the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library.
Ericka Duffy – Southern (Ontario) Gothic fiction & Poetry.
Jason Morton – Shouts from the barroom floor.
+
Jane Flett – winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award and seamstress of many fetching stories.

Music / Song Writers:
Hailey Beavis – an angelic voice, but devilish on six strings.
Jed Milroy – bouncin’ bluegrass from the banjo balladeer.
+
Taperecorder – weaves a shoegaze-crunk house hybrid as suited to cocooned winter days as to sweaty late-night adventuring.

PLUS a variety of SPECIAL GUESTS each night – no two shows alike!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

20 May – The Rude Shipyard, 89 Abbeydale Rd, Sheffield 8 – 11pm,  £3    [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: Matt Clegg – beautiful poems, wonderfully restrained. Matt Black – serious, sharp, surreal, irritated and funny. + Pete David (of The Payroll Union) – The local hero shares some rustic country of his own making.
21 May – The Cube Cinema, 4 Princess Row, Bristol 8 – 11,  £3    [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: Rachael Boast – poetry with the confident ease of a tall glass of iced-tea. David Briggs – idiosyncratic poems where clowns and teacups are lit at the edges with a gunsmoke-blue glow.  New book due out from SALT! + Jonny Berliner – joyus songs about crustaceans, exhaustion, and glucose.
22 May – Redroaster Coffee House, 1d St James Street, Brighton BN2 1RE 8 – 11pm,  £3   [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: Jonny Berliner – joyus songs about crustaceans, exhaustion, and glucose. The Half Sisters – Ukulele, flute and drums combined with three point harmonies create a lush and mesmerising chorus of catchy pop hooks and adorable honesty. + Possible special amazing comedic guest who we can’t quite pin down but will pop like a snake in can!
23 May – SECRET VENUE, London – Free —- Shhhh, Secret Special BBQ gig… 4pm – midnight, FREE! SPECIAL GUESTS: The Itinerant Poetry Library – ‘Reaching the parts other Libraries have yet to reach!’ INDEED! + Paper Cinema & many surprise friends!!!	Contact us for the magic venue!!!
24 May – Green Note, 106 Parkway, Camden, London 7 – 11pm, £5  [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: Mario Petrucci – Imaginative, sophisticated and effortlessly masterful poet. AMAZING! Kirsten Irving – The editor of FuseLit brings poems of effortless and funky finery. Sam Taradash – stories from the hard shoulder. The Itinerant Poetry Library – ‘Reaching the parts other Libraries have yet to reach!’ + Jonny Berliner – joyus songs about crustaceans, exhaustion, and glucose.
25 May — Star and Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Newcastle Upon Tyne 7.30 – 11pm,  £3   [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle – local heroes bring their brand of bluesy country/folk hillbilly mix of utter eccentricity

We can’t wait to see you at the GOLDEN HOUR!

Forest Publications, bringing it to your backyard (or garden).

Back we are from our almighty Golden Hour Highlands Tour 2010.  It was great fun all around and here’s a little I wanted to share with those who couldn’t make it.  ESPECIALLY as we are gearing up for our England Tour in less than a week, so if you like what you see/hear/read, check us out down south (in England, I mean).

A tour podcast is forthcoming from Anon magazine’s Colin Fraser, but until then, here’s me reading ‘Darkness on the Edge of Toast‘, from our massive Findhorn gig.

Also, while we were up in Ullapool, a reviewer from HIARTS came to see us. You can read what she said about us here. I particularly liked this line:

“A vibrant band of eight writers and musicians … provide the cultural equivalent of riding bareback on a wild horse.”

And last but not least, an excerpt from Jason Morton’s day-by-day review of the tour, via The Skinny:

“ABERDEEN

The morning of our drive to the Granite City, I couldn’t sleep. Restless and fitful, I woke up and wrote. Recapturing the essence of this experience I found quite difficult, and I hope to have conveyed it effectively, though I would have no gauge to measure it. Either way, it was a bittersweet experience, realizing this night would represent our final performance of the journey, and that soon I would be referring to it, as well, in hindsight, where triumphs and tragedies would both be glaringly apparent. I left writing for a while, and instead talked to our host, Jamie, over a cup of coffee, as the rest of the crew woke in time.

The Aberdeen gig would, again, differentiate itself greatly from our other stops. We had performed at the Blue Lamp the previous year, also as a final show, so it felt familiar, even though we’d only been there once before. During the afternoon, our merry band splintered across the city, each pairing striking out on its own.

Jed and Ryan, always our keepers – the ones who put in 1000 per cent to make sure things come off without a hitch – stayed at the venue to set up sound and speak with staff. Toby and Hailey worked on each others’ songs, hoping for an eventual collaboration. Ericka and Jane disappeared for lunch at a high street pub, and Billy and I went shopping for sunglasses, though the grey overcast made them unnecessary.

We arrived at the venue, slightly late, greeted by a crowd already assembled, already attentive, waiting for what we had to offer.

A recurring theme throughout the night was the sense of liberty we felt regarding the content of our readings and performances, which I feel was shared at least between myself and Jane. After scoring out large passages of my texts for each preceding gig, as well as each and every curse word, I read, at long last, an unedited excerpt from by chapbook, “Old & New.” Miss Flett finally had an opportunity to delve into seedier territory as well, reading a powerful piece about a woman trapped in a bizarre, and seemingly inescapable sexual relationship.

Also benefiting from the change in format was Billy Liar, who made full use of the amped up sound system. Blazing through his set, I was impressed by his rendition of “It Starts Here”, a song I must have heard over a hundred times before. However, whether it was the tuned-up volume or the emotions over ending our short sojourn, there seemed to be an additional vigour there, though when I complimented him on it he responded in the vein of “What are you talking about?”

This provided, as well, the first collaboration between Toby – who also guested with Billy and Hailey – and Ryan, where he laid down some smoky, Southwestern rock-style whittling under a poem about finding a murder victim in the depths of a river.

As an emcee and solo reader, Ryan excelled in Aberdeen, as he must have had an extra boost of energy – or glass of wine – pulling down the wool curtains over his own creative process. “This one’s called Falling No. 71,” he said at one point. “Now, no, I didn’t write 70 other poems about falling – but if I did, imagine how rubbish those other ones would be.”

Jed closed down the show, and though we all knew it was coming, the end felt sudden: Tomorrow, we would all wake up in separate places, for many our own beds, and not feel the pressure or joy of the night’s upcoming gig. It’s a blessing and a curse, both touring and home, but – if you’ll excuse a bit of sappiness – friendships were made, sights were seen, good times were had… and, if there’s a little sadness on the drive home, there’s always next time.”

Definitely click over to the full article for more lovely nuggets from the journey, plus gorgeous pictures c/o Ericka Duffy.

Thanks for all your support, friends!  See you again soon!

Now available for a bargainous £2 is the first issue of Volume 2 in Forest Publications’ Chapbook Series: Lawrie Clapton leads the way with a short story entitled, The Ones You’ve Had, The Ones You Get & The Ones You Want.

An excerpt:

“There are plenty of great ways to introduce a story; you can start with a death, like Albert Camus, or you can start with rainfall, like Edgar Allen Poe, or a wedding, or an introduction, or an elaborate pratfall, drunk, down a set of stairs. Being original and being clever were never my strong suits – besides it should probably be with what you remember best that you start off a story. I remember the songs the best. This song is My Generation, by The Who, and the year is nineteen-sixty- something – probably sixty-five – and it’s December. I think it was, at least – it was cold. I remember sitting on the pavement in Piccadilly Circus watching Dez (Derrick to his mum) ride his scooter up and down the street, screeching to a halt in front of prams and bicycles and parents with their five-year-olds. There was a tape player down at my feet…” Read more!

Product details

• Title: Vol.2 Iss.1 ‘The Ones You Have, The Ones You Get & The Ones You Want’
• Author: Lawrie Clapton
• Pamphlet: 12 pages
• Publisher: Forest Publications (18 Mar 2010)
• ISBN-13: 978-0956338853
• Amount: £2

GET YOUR COPY TODAY from the FOREST PUBLICATIONS STORE!:

]]> http://ryanvanwinkle.com/lawrie-clapton-new-chapbook/feed/ 0 http://ryanvanwinkle.com/a-golden-review/ http://ryanvanwinkle.com/a-golden-review/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:00:20 +0000 admin http://ryanvanwinkle.com/?p=1929 While we were on tour in the Highlands a reviewer from HIARTS came to see us. You can see what she said about us here. I particularly liked this line:

“A vibrant band of eight writers and musicians … provide the cultural equivalent of riding bareback on a wild horse.”

Hope this helps bring the punters in next time we roll north!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI5BfQcj4H8

The Golden Hour Highland TOUR!

Join us for a literary cabaret which has played to sold-out audiences in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is poetry and prose, original eclectic songs and visual amazement. It is physical and mental. It is a reading. It is a gig. It is a party.

Featuring:

Readers / Writers:
Ryan Van Winkle – poems & stories from the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library.
Ericka Duffy – Southern (Ontario) Gothic fiction & Poetry
Jason Morton – Shouts from the barroom floor.
+
Jane Flett – winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award and seamstress of many fetching stories

Music / Song Writers:
Billy Liar – starter of many a folk-punk riot
Hailey Beavis – an angelic voice, but devilish on six strings
Jed Milroy – bouncin’ bluegrass from the banjo balladeer
+
Toby Mottershead – a rare solo set from the Black Diamond Express frontman. Old time rock n’ roll goes stomp box blues.

Special Guests:
@ Moniack Mhor:
Chiew-Siah Tei – new fiction.
John Glenday – The poet launches his crazy shining diamond – Grain.

@ Ullapool
Jon Miller – the poet, musician and Tom Waits fan graces us.

@ Aberdeen
Sarah J Stanley – big songs on a tiny uke

Tour Dates

* 25 March  
Glenurquhart High, Drumnadrochit
1.45 – 2.45pm
+
Moniack Mhor – Teavarran, Kiltarlity, Beauly
7pm
Special guests: Chiew-Siah Tei & John Glenday

NB: John Glenday is one of my favourite poets and he produced the most stunning and quietly beautiful book of the past year. If you have not bought Grain – do buy it. It is the real deal and everything that poetry should be. You can hear my interview with him here:

Listen now…

* 26 March
Stornoway Library, 19 Cromwell St.
5.30 – 7pm

* 27 March
The Ceilidh Place 12-14 West Argyle Street, Ullapool
8pm
£5 entry (Free Stolen Stories Book for ALL!)
Special guest: Jon Miller – the poet, musician and Tom Waits fan graces us.

• 28 March
The Blue Angel – Findhorn – The Park, Universal Hall, Findhorn / Forres, Morayshire
7.30pm

* 29 March
Blue Lamp – Aberdeen – 121 Gallowgate, Aberdeen AB25 1BU
7pm
Special guest: Sarah J Stanley – big songs on a tiny uke.

February 17th, 2010
8pm
Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Pl
Free! Free! Free! (byob)

Reading:

Claire Askew – editor, poet, dragon slayer, jewellery maker, teacher.

Ewan Morrison – we bus Mr. Trouble in from Glasgow to kick over a few tables and tell some stories.

Tom Pow – even if his name wasn’t Tom POW we’d still use an exclamation mark to describe him!

Music:

Gary Stewart – exhilarating and masterful songwriting.

Diddley Squat – last time we counted they were a massive 12 piece regaee band. We think they’re growing.

Robin Grey Band – In a small white room with a blue door they create gently experimental nu-folk. you will like.

And don’t forget to check out our interview with Alan Bisset:

There is a double-bill of two of his plays, The Ching Room and the Moira Monologues, at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 9th-13th Feb. Bissett himself will be starring as ‘Moira’. He also helps with the splendid reading series, Discombobulate (where literature and comedy collide) in Glasgow. Alan read at The Golden Hour in January 2010.

The Forest Book of Bedtime Stories was born in the hours which follow meetings, the hours of liquor and suggestiveness. The hours in which, under a thick cloak of Cockborn’s Reserve Port, we question what it is to be literary: whether we are not, perhaps, suited to something a little more upfront, a little more base.

There is a tendency among some of us to lean more towards the horizontal than the historic, particularly as the slump of winter comes upon us and we draw the curtains closed. As such, we requested from our friends they crawl into the filthier recesses of their imaginations and dredge up something which would tickle our fancies. This year, our Christmas present to you is some things we hope will warm your heart and get you out of your stockings.

What lies inside are tales that hang in the tricky balance of smut. These are not the cheap titillation of your newsprint-stained fingers working over Page 3. They are not content to hint, to nudge, to snicker behind palms at what is going on. We come to you honestly and say: this is what we think about.

Please: take your desires in hand and indulge…

I’m happy to have two kind of sexxxy poems in this fine anthology. One involves sex with Italian food and one is, essentially, an ode to a stranger’s bum. There’s also other great stuff including Ben Morris’ “Sextina”, stories about vampires (everyone loves vampires) and doing it with octopuses. A perfect coffee-table book or Valentine’s Day gift for that special someone. Let us know how you get on. xxl, R

Deep Inside:

• Jason Harrison Morton, Sauchiehall
• Ryan Van Winkle, Ode to Food, The Hand of God (aka: The Ass Poem)
  
• Jane Flett, Tako
• Ian Cartland, Intruders
• Danielle Mantia, Twins
• Helen Mort, White Hart
• Benjamin Morris, Sextina
• Kiran Millwood-Hargrave, Art Lover
• Kirsty Logan, The Last 3600 Seconds

THE GOLDEN HOUR 2k10!

January 20th, 2010
8pm
Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Pl
Free! Free! Free! (byob)

Reading:

Kirstin Innes – The story-charmer!

Alan Bissett – The ring-leader!

Colin McGuire – pedestrian, provocateur, wanderer, confronter of shadows!

Music:

Mat Riviere – Electric repetition, loops that don’t stay in time, and self-Harmonizing.

The Maple Leaves – A massive aural hug.

Skeleton Bob – Songs about Glasgow that sound like they’re about America; songs about girls who did them wrong/proud. The long-awaited, rarely seen in Edinburgh floor-stampers!