Saturday, October 27, 2007

New HappenStance Launch

I’ll be off soon for a new HappenStance launch – four new chapbooks – at the Scottish Poetry Library this afternoon, 3pm. The titles are.

The Oboist’s Bedside Book – Margaret Christie
The Body in the Well – Gregory Leadbetter
The Longing Machine – Marcia Menter
Poems for Alice – Michael Munro

I’ve read poems by Margaret Christie and Gregory Leadbetter before – both excellent poets. I don’t know of the other two, but I could lay bets on them being good.

3 comments:

apprentice said...

I hope it's an enjoyable event.
Thee seems to be so many things at present, the run up to Christmas no doubt.

Frances said...

I'm not quite sure what the definition of a chapbook is. Does this mean a small collection?

Rob said...

Good launch. Lots of good poems etc.

Frances - yes, it means the same as 'pamphlet'. Chapbook is the U.S. term, but I prefer it. They tend to be around 32 pages or so and sell for about half the price of a book.

It's a popular method of getting poetry out to a reading audience - even well known poets like Edwin Morgan, Roddy Lumsden and Patrick McGuinness have brought out pamphlets/chapbooks in recent years, in addition to their books.