Three poems in Edinburgh Review: Czech (#128)

It's been a big day - this morning I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master of Science in Creative Writing.  Exciting!  But it's also sadly the last time I'll see many of my coursemates who live in other countries.  A bittersweet day of events.

SO, I thought I'd cheer myself up by posting some Edinburgh-Uni-related huge news!  Three of my poems have been accepted for the upcoming Czech issue of Edinburgh Review.

My poems are titled 'Malá Strana', 'Hands' and 'Vodník'.

I've not been to the Czech Republic myself, so instead did tons of research in anticipation of the theme, exploring folklore (my favorite!) and the contemporary Czech writing I could find online.

The Vodník in Czech folklore is very similar to the Kappa in Japanese folklore (which I've written a poem about for Sidekick Books' new Obakarama anthology - more on this later). Both of these are similar to nixies, sirens, water sprites, rusalka or Naiads in various folklore, and I just thought it very interesting how so many cultures create the same stories/creatures to explain away the mysteries of the sea. We're all thirsty to create meaning to make sense of what is unknown or threatening.

I'm really lucky and pleased to be included in the Edinburgh Review.  More about the ER from their homepage:

"Essayist and critic William Hazlitt once commented: 'To be an Edinburgh Reviewer is, I suspect, the highest rank in modern literary society.' Numbered among our nineteenth-century contributors were Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle and William Ewart Gladstone; more recently, James Kelman, Janice Galloway, A.L. Kennedy, Kei Miller, Tom Leonard, Meaghan Delahunt and Tracey Emin have all contributed to the journal.

The current editor, Brian McCabe, continues the practice of presenting work by established and emergent writers. Under his editorship which began in 2006 while he was Writer-in-Residence at Edinburgh University, each issue offers a view into a particular culture or region."

Recent issues have focused on Iraq (with Andrew Philip's translations of Sinaan Antoon), Scotland (including Jennie Renton's interview with T.S. Eliot prize winner Jen Hadfield), Turkey and China.  Each issue offers a really neat peek into a different slice of the literary world. 

The issue following Czech (#129), will focus on Japan and I can't wait to see what they'll have in store for that!

Of course, all issues, current and past, are available to buy online from the Edinburgh University online payment system:  Get your copy today for just £5.99!  Just in time for the holidays!

The Fine Line Consultancy

I probably should be filing this in my News section, but thought I'd post it here as well as it is my 'published writing' of sorts.

Kate Gould, a young up-start and the new Chief Editorial Consultant at The Fine Line (editorial consultancy), contacted me recently about her new business.  She said, "The idea is to give would-be/wannabe/writing writers a taste of what people who are out there doing it are up to.  Not so they can purloin things from you, but so that they’ll lift their heads from their laptops, and realise there’s a world out there.  There are quite a lot of editorial consultancies out there so, to give mine an edge over theirs, I’m making the site as much about writers and writing as about the service I provide..."

I thought this sounded quite interesting and inviting so wrote her a short piece on 'how I write', which, as you'll hopefully see...  is quite fledgling compared to some of the other greats up there.  I'm just starting out myself so don't have much advice (and appreciate resources like this), but hopefully someone out there will find something useful in what I've said.

Anyhow!  Read my piece here at The Fine Line.

And check out this fancy one called 'Smitten By the Art' by my old tutor (& good friend!) the brilliant Robert Alan Jamieson.

About the site:

The Fine Line is an Edinburgh-based Editorial Consultancy, committed to helping new, burgeoning, and established writers realise their literary potential. Our aim is to inspire and assist. We provide advice to get you started, lessons to download, insights into the methods of working writers, and an editorial service designed for your individual needs.

HEY!  And check this out!  Looks like they're having a caption-writing competition!  Prize is a free Moleskine notebook to the best 5 captions!  Contest information here.  Deadline January 31st. 

Aesthetica: At the Airshow

Great news in my Inbox today! An email from Aesthetica Magazine:

Dear Aiko Harman

I am writing to let you know that you have been selected as a finalist for the International Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. Category: Poetry, Title of piece: At the Airshow was highly commended by the judges. Congratulations on this massive achievement. We had over 3000 entries this year.

A few more details:

• Winners from each category will be announced just before publication.
• As a finalist, you will receive a complimentary hard copy.
• The Aesthetica Annual will be available from Borders nationwide on 1 December and from www.aestheticamagazine.com
  

Again congratulations on your success!

Best wishes

Alexis Smith
Aesthetica Magazine

HOW COOL IS THAT!

I'll post again with pictures once my complimentary copy arrives. Do go check it out at Borders in December!  It should be available to buy in the Aesthetica Magazine shop by then as well, in both digital and hard copy.  AND BETTER STILL, I just found out my good friend and colleague Kate Charles has also been selected as a finalist, so there'll be even more good stuff inside - I guarantee it!

Just as an aside, I'm not usually much up for submitting to prizes since they tend to include a hefty reading fee, but this year Aesthetica offered a discounted submission rate for students, so I gave it a go.  I'm really appreciative of magazines and contests that offer cheaper (or free!) rates, especially to students, and am happy to support when I can.  Aesthetica is a great-looking magazine, and I can't wait to see the contents of the Creative Works annual.

Edit:  Another colleague, Russell Jones, also shortlisted!  Check him out!

And of course, get your copy of the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual today!:  Shop

Letting Up: Pause - available now!

Hello!  I posted a short while ago about a music/lyric collaboration I did with my good friend Mike Lee, of Letting Up Despite Great Faults.  And now I just wanted to post again with pictures, as - WOOHOO! - I've received a couple contributors copies of the CD, as well as a stack of Letting Up stickers!

Above: on the left are the front and back of the stickers; on the right are the front and back of the cd. The cover image is by Rhiannon Adam.

This one shows the CD and the insert - they've written all the album lyrics onto a single side of the insert, which I think gives an interesting read!  It's like the album tells a story which you can hear along the way.

See the bits I wrote for Pause, in the middle!!  "..i blew into it, i dreamed it real..."

On the bottom right of the insert below the tracklist is a list of all the contributors; I'm so chuffed to get a mention in there!

As before, please support Letting Up by ordering their album:

From InSound: click here! (just $9.99!)

From Amazon.com: click here!
From the iTunes store: click here!

Open Magazine: Things You Can Learn How To Be, etc

Things are happening fast these days!  Open Magazine has just published my poem, Things You Can Learn How To Be (by doing a search on the internet), in their weekly update, with promise of three more poems in the forthcoming weeks. You can read Things You Can Learn How To Be here.

I'm quite pleased about this.  You see, a couple months ago, one of the writers for Open Magazine (Michael Barnett) gave me some of the best literary compliments I have ever received, in his review of the London Poetry Festival:  Open Magazine | London Poetry Festival. I hadn't met him at the festival as far as I know, so didn't expect this at all!  Too kind.

He mentioned in the review that one of the poems he'd heard me read, At the Airshow, wasn't available online - well that's because it hadn't been publish anywhere yet!  So I sent it and a couple others along to Open, and they've kindly accepted them into their Poetry Corner.  I'm glad At the Airshow will have its chance to shine at a magazine I know enjoys it.  I'm looking forward to seeing it up there in a couple weeks!

Until then, please check out Things You Can Learn How To Be, and the other new content online at Open Magazine.  I saw an article about the Poetry Society and National Poetry Day in there! 

I suppose I should mention, Things You Can Learn How To Be is a list poem, of true things I discovered people have searched for on the internet.  I went to the Google main page and typed in 'How to be...' and the auto-complete function started to show me what it thought I was searching for.  Things like 'How to be a vampire' and 'How to be anorexic' came up first.  Isn't it strange and interesting all the things people want to be?

The Syllabary: FuP 'June, July or August'

A quick note to tell you about The Syllabary, and to encourage you along to an event this Saturday at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Colin Fraser, editor of Anon, first introduced me to The Syllabary, as Anon 6 has an interesting interview with its creator, Peter McCarey, who talks about his project and a collaborative one with "Provisional Title" he has forthcoming.  Peter has very kindly invited us (and others) to write some of the first poems for the collaboration project, a collaboration that will one day have 2,200 poems/poets included (read: this could be you!).  I'll let the SPL's event invitation do a bit of the explaining, then I'll post my Syllabary poem below. 

Event details (copied from the SPL website):

Saturday 10 October, 7pm
at Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh

Peter McCarey's The Syllabary: Launches x 2
We're delighted to be hosting the liquid launch of not one but two syllabaries:
Syllabary 3.0, which has been test run on www.knot.ch all summer, and "Provisional Title", a syllabary whose 2200-odd cells will be written by as many different people. If you want to contribute, come along for your syllable and instructions, or come to hear the random rant.

In the phonetic context of Peter McCarey's Syllabary, some 2200 people will each be asked to write one poem for a given cell of the structure. The first poems have already been submitted. Should you wish to join in, ask the compiler (mccarey@perso.ch) to send you a random syllable. You should then write a short text – 20 lines max – that contains all the words in the cell you get; some cells contain only one word, others contain dozens.  Send a text file and an mp3 recording of your contribution to the compiler.

Free, all welcome

It should be a good event. He's asked some of the people who wrote poems already to read them at the event so you can hear a few samples as well. 

In the Anon 6 interview,  Peter explained the mechanics of The Syllabary:

The phonetic structure I mentioned above is set out in a 3-dimensional grid that contains a total of 3600 possible combinations of initial consonant, vowel, and terminal consonant.  About two-thirds of these cells contain at least one meaningful monosyllabic word; some contain up to fifty.  All the noises are read out, and I'm writing a text for each meaningful cell, based on all the relevant words.  The program meanders from one to another by alternating initial, vowel or terminal, one step at a time.

With this in mind, he assigned me the cell for 'FuP', which includes the words 'frump' and 'flump'.  I wrote the following poem for it:

[FuP] June, July or August

All the fat feral pigeons are pregnant,
stumbling around on the awnings,
drunk with eggs and summer.
One flumps to the pavement
like a slung burlap sack of seed,
foraging for dust, discarded chips or bugs
in the cracks, anything, lust-hungry.
Even an old frump, feathers matte
with crisp white bits, still coaxes
a crude lover who croons to her
on the plinth of a window ledge,
does his spinning dance on splintered legs,
puffs his plump body up before her,
and wins, in time for laying season.

The Syllabary also has audio recordings of each of the cells, so shortly you should be able to hear me reading the poem on the collaboration's site as well!  Exciting!  I'll be sure to link back when it's up.  In the meantime, do send Peter an email to ask for a cell for yourself.  It's a great challenge, with what will surely be an amazing result. 

---------------
June, July or August, first in The Syllabary, for Peter McCarey 2009

Mesostic: Interleaved project

Afternoon!  Got a parcel in the post today - my contributor's copy of the Mesostic Interleaved book by Alec Finlay!

His assistant has sent along two copies of the book, plus a sample of two of the bookmarks which came tucked in a wee library card-holder!  There were 100 mesostics for the project in total, all included in this book.  The majority where done by Alec himself and Ken Cockburn, but the other contributors are listed on the front page:

I sent them about a hundred mesostics to go with authors from their list, but they selected this one to use for Francis HUTCHESON:  'thus virtue must associate with pleasure, sin become pain'. 

I've highlighted the letters from Hutcheson's name for emphasis.  It's like an acrostic, but the letters can be from anywhere in the linking words, not just the first one.  These mesostics link to different authors or books in the library.  There is a mainly-Scottish or related-to-Edinburgh-University trend running between them, and the mesostics we made are for the surnames of authors. 

From Alec's bookshop, the Mesostic Interleaved book is:

100 mesostic poems composed on an eclectic selection of 100 authors. Published to commemorate the redevelopment of Edinburgh University Library (2009), Mesostic Interleaved is a poetic bibliography of eminent thinkers in the fields of Science & Technology, Politics & Economics, Languages & The Arts. Each page has space for writing your own poems and notes.

The project coincided with the re-opening of the University of Edinburgh Main Library.  There was a big christening event for it a few weeks back, where Ian Rankin amongst others spoke about their experiences with the library (back when he was an Edinburgh student!) versus what it's become today.  I'll not rehash an explanation of what the BBC has already covered.  The event was lovely though, and gave me a chance to see what had been done with the mesostics!  (A couple of my coursemates and I got involved with the project last November, so its been nearly a year in development for us!)

There is a huge mesostic poem carved into the stones slabs in front of the library, which you should definitely check out if you're ever on campus.  Also, Alec has had 50,000 bookmarks made up of the 100 mesostic poems in the set, which are free to take at the library.  It's not so easy though!  The bookmarks have been tucked into books at random in the library - you'll have to find one if you want it!  They're meant to be used for students to take notes on, so have plenty of blank space.  And on the back is a library barcode for the book related to the mesostic poem, if a student should be so curious. 

Also - the part I am most excited about - the mesostics from the bookmarks have also been printed onto the bright plexiglass bookshelf dividers, so far in the first floor HUB, but presumably next on the bookshelves (currently under renovation) on the 1st and 2nd floors.  You can see one of the HUB bookshelves below.  I'm so excited that something I've helped with will be around now as a part of the library for generations.  I feel like I've left my mark in a way!

Very exciting!

More info on Mesostics and Alec Finlay at:  http://www.alecfinlay.com/

To buy the book on Amazon: click here
And head here for the Library Information Services 'Art in the Redevelopment' news article:  A great explanation, with pictures!  - thanks Denny!

Pomegranate Iss.9: 'Golden Gai'

Good news!  I just found out my poem, Golden Gai, has been accepted for Issue 9 of Pomegranate magazine!  [Read the poem here: Golden Gai]

Quoting from their website, Pomegranate is "a free UK-based poetry ezine showing off the freshest poetry we can find." And by "fresh" they mean: "Well, usually it’s an adjective referring to fruit, but here we’re talking about poetry – young poets, new poetry. Pomegranate poets, bloggers and writers are mostly students in secondary school or at uni, and all under 30."

I think it's a really lovely zine & I'm always in favor of journals and magazines that want to give more opportunities to young people.  Each issue has a different theme; Issue 9's theme is 'Masque'.

I'm so pleased the editors chose to use Golden Gai.  Golden Gai is an area in Shinjuku, Tokyo near Kabuki-cho.   Golden Gai these days is a real hub for artists, writers, and 'intellectuals'.  It's a bit hard to get to, and doesn't look so nice on the outside, but is such an interesting and important part of Japan's history and culture... & it feels more 'untouched' and nostalgic of another time, than most of the neon-lighted areas surrounding it.  This tiny area is a huge hidden mecca of great bars and banter...  you do really feel like you've stepped into a secret world in Golden Gai.  I found a couple of good articles online about it which sort of capture the ambiance I was going for in my poem, here,  here and here.  Man I miss Japan...

Anyhow!  Apologies for rambling! 

The poem is available online to read here: 'Golden Gai' in Pomegranate

Please check it out if you have a chance, and definitely read the rest of the issue as well!  I saw a Jen Hadfield article in there!

I'm so pleased to be in such good company at Pomegranate this issue.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: 'Pause'

Really cool things afoot! My good friend Mike Lee, lead singer for Letting Up Despite Great Faults, has a new full-length (self-titled) album due out this October 13th. It's been too long since their last brilliant EP ('Movement') & he and his band have been working hard to put this new album together. In fact, it's already garnering excellent reviews from the blogosphere!

Fortunately for me, I've been lucky enough to collaborate with Mike on the lyrics for a song! He's taken lines from two of my poems (Pause and In the Parking Lot) and made them into track 5 on the new album. He's titled the song 'Pause', and the female vocals are by Amy Izushima. It's totally exciting to me to see the way he's taken parts of the two poems and set them to music to create something completely new.

I've included the lyrics here below and a link to some of his other new tracks to sample online. PLEASE go support Mike's band if you like what you hear. The new album is available for pre-order off of Amazon and in the iTunes store & I'm sure Letting Up will be touring Los Angeles & beyond as we speak. I'm so pleased with how this turned out.

Pre-order the full-length at Amazon.com: click here!
And here in the iTunes store: click here!

I'll definitely post again once I've got a copy of the CD here so you can see all the album art, etc. And of course a HUGE thanks to mlee for this collaboration - even the sea can't stop us!


Pause (lyrics)

I blew into it; I dreamed it real
Could it be you?

And I trail you
I think you know this.
My pace increases
The rest of the way

Stock-still in the parking lot,
I snap out of this, catch myself

I stand on the causeway of time,
A suitcase of sentiments trailing behind,
Waiting for you (to carry me)

I'll catch myself
where we first met
holding out your hand

'Masters', a chapbook from Read This Press

News! 'Masters', the latest chapbook from Read This Press, is now available for pre-order! Head over to One Night Stanzas for more information on how to buy:
http://www.readthismagazine.co.uk/onenightstanzas/?p=1075

My classmate, Claire Askew, editor & founder of Read This Press has put together an anthology of poetry representing the poetry students (me!) on the MSc course at Edinburgh University. The anthology showcases seven other poets & myself, including (copied from Claire's website):

"Niki Andrikopoulou, a passionate political poet from Athens, Greece // Aileen Ballantyne, journalist-turned-poet and winner of the Sloan Prize 2009 // Dave Coates, originally from Belfast in Nothern Ireland, now a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library, the lucky swine! // Aiko Harman, American poet and recently a London Poetry Festival Poet in Residence // Natalia Herrero, hailing from Mexico and now living in Edinburgh, previously published in Tontine and Read This // Struan Robertson, Read This Magazine editor, metapoet, budding filmmaker // and Hayley Shields, previously published in Textualities and a reader at Blackwells 2008 Best of Scottish Writing Event. (I’m also in there of course, but you all know who I am!)

The anthology is not yet OUT, only available for pre-order. There is a reason for this, however — there will only be TWENTY COPIES available for general sale, so if you want one, I suggest getting a pre-order in as they’ll go quickly. Copies are a bargainous £5 (plus p&p), and if you pre-order one now you can expect it to land on your doormat sometime in mid to late September."

Excited yet? I am!

My poems Authenticity is a Bird and Hart are featured in this chapbook, so if you haven't seen them already at Poets Letter or Poetry Super Highway, respectively, then this is your chance!! Also, I'm positive the contributions by my classmates are more than worth your poetry ££s.

Please do pick up a copy from Read This Press while they last.

I believe we contributors will receive a few copies as well, so if you miss out from Claire, do give me a shout and I'll try to send one along.