Carcanet online book launch: In The Event by John Birtwhistle

John Birtwhistle launches his new poetry collection, In The Event, reading from the book, out with Manchester’s Carcanet Press, and chatting about it with Hugh Haughton, Professor of English at the University of York, where Birtwhistle was a lecturer for 12 years, teaching mainly the seventeenth century and Romantic periods.

Born in Scunthorpe and now living in Sheffield, John Birtwhistle has said that “one writes each poem just to learn how to write it”, and insists that he “doesn’t care a dried pea for Artistic Development or Finding One’s Own Voice”. The result, we’re told, is that in fact a strongly recognisable voice comes through. For all their variety of forms and ideas, his poems are consistent in their visual precision, their scrupulous phrasing and their formal clarity, while word frequency analysis shows a high incidence of time, thought, light, morning, child, apple tree, painting and fossil. Various individuals are named or make their appearance in some way, while wit and feeling are also interwoven in Birtwhistle’s technique. If one poem is satiric, the next is unashamedly lyrical. Several reflect on the adequacy of art, and a feature is the stream of very short pieces by way of illustration or riposte.

Audience members will have the opportunity to ask their own questions. Carcanet will also be showing extracts of the text during the reading so that you can read along. Registration for this online event will cost £2, later redeemable against the cost of the book. All attendees will receive the discount code and how to purchase the book during and after event.