Browsing Archive: May, 2010

New Reality Street books

Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, In : Reality Street

It's been 15 years since Reality Street published O'Clock by Fanny Howe. It's hard to believe the press has been going that long (in fact, for 17 years in total). But anyway, it's high time we published another book by Fanny, and here it is, out this week and soon to be mailed out to Reality Street Supporters.

Emergence doesn't contain much that is completely new - what it is is a complete reimagining of some of Fanny's poetry originally published in the 1970s, 80s and 90s and now out of print...

The Whole Island

Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, May 17, 2010, In : writing

I first visited Cuba in 1982, just before the Falklands War broke out. I've always been fascinated with the country - its politics, its music and (because of my bilingual background) its literature.

On that first visit, I made it one of my projects to scour Havana's bookshops for contemporary poetry. I didn't really know what I was looking for, but it certainly wasn't the Marxist-Leninist tomes and Spanish translations of Agatha Christie novels that seemed to form the bulk of the stock. In th...
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David Chaloner, 1944-2010

Posted by Ken Edwards on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, In : writing

I'm sorry to report that David Chaloner died on 10 May after an eighteen-month illness. Born in Cheshire in 1944, he moved to Manchester, where he became involved in poetry and jazz, his poetry being included in Michael Horovitz's seminal anthology Children of Albion. Later he founded One magazine, and in recent years had been dividing his time between London and Amsterdam. His fine Collected Poems was published in 2005. My sympathies to his family and friends.

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Choice

Posted by Ken Edwards on Thursday, May 6, 2010, In : politics

A beautifully sunny morning for a General Election. I waited till mid-morning to walk up to All Saints' Hall to cast my vote. Normally at this time the polling booths are empty of human traffic, but there was a small queue.

As always with a UK General Election, under the fossilised rules we have, the "choice" available to us is a chimera. I am not one of the "they're all the same" brigade; what I mean is, our vote is a crude bludgeon with no possibility of finesse or nuance.

I was accosted in ...
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Mating season update

Posted by Ken Edwards on Sunday, May 2, 2010, In : Hastings

Mayday in Hastings. This is Jack in the Green weekend, when ancient rituals are enacted once more: Jack is taken from his hiding place in the Fishermen's Museum, and, accompanied by bogies and sweeps, as well as giants and green-painted entities of all shapes, escorted through the Old Town and up to Hastings Castle, where he is ritually slaughtered, thus ushering in spring. Alternatively, it's yet another excuse to dress up and drink a great deal....

Meanwhile, high on the rooftops, the mating...
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Ken Edwards

This blog is written by Ken Edwards, co-founder and editor/publisher of Reality Street, and it's mainly about the press. Ken's personal blog can now be found at http://www.kenedwardsonline.co.uk

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