Stephen Rodefer, Claire Potter, Nicholas Manning: A Reading In Paris This Wednesday

For those in the area, or the country, or the continent at least, or just for those who maybe would like to be here . . .

I feel very honoured by the fact that I'll have a little introduction this Wednesday, for my second reading in Paris this year, by the inimitable, the incomparable Stephen Rodefer. During my time in Paris Stephen has become as much a dear friend as a mentor, and though we perhaps often rightly turn away from that term nowadays, it still has, I feel, its uses. In any case, the best way to learn about poetry and its diverse histories has surely always been over late night discussions, with wine and cigarettes, near the cimetière at Père Lachaise, with letters from Charles Olson and stories about poets and writers who for me seem to make up part of a different time.


As well as his introduction, Stephen has very graciously accepted to conclude the evening with a reading of his own poems, something rather rare now and, if at all possible, to be seen.

I'm also overjoyed to be reading with another dear friend, the Australian poet Claire Potter, who won the 2006 Young Australian Poet award. The venue promises to be ideal: the wonderful anglophone bookshop, The Red Wheelbarrow, in Paris' 4e arrondissement. For those able, full details, with address etc., are below.

So, we'll see if I've learned anything from my first, virgin experience of the poetry reading: that weird, artificial, constructed space, halfway between social and private masked ball, where there is no longer any page for the poem, and in which the poem thus seems, sometimes, lost.

So, if you are in the city, do come . . . And if not - I'll probably need it - so wish me luck.

** Mercredi 12 Dec, 19h, AT: The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore, 22 rue Saint-Paul, 75004 Paris. M°: Saint Paul. YOUNG AUSTRALIAN POETS BOOK LAUNCH & READING! NICHOLAS MANNING & CLAIRE POTTER, WITH INTRODUCTION AND READING BY STEPHEN RODEFER. Young Poets' Bios: Claire Potter is the author of In Front of a Comma (Poet's Union, 2006) & recipient of the 2006 Young Australian Poet Award. Her second chapbook, N'ombre is published by Vagabond Press, Sydney. Poet & writer Nicholas Manning teaches Comparative Literature at the University of Strasbourg II Marc-Bloch. His recent chapbook, Novaless I-XXVI, was published in California, USA, by Achiote Press. He is the editor of the Paris-basedpoetry & poetics video magazine The Continental Review (www.thecontinentalreview.com) AT: The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore, 22 rue Saint-Paul, 75004 Paris. M°: Saint Paul.