Nomadic and Processual Poetics: A Symposium 18th May 2013

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Bangor University
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This one-day symposium is organised by Contempo, the Centre for Contemporary Poetry which is run jointly by Aberystwyth and Bangor Universities.

It will consider the scope and applicability of the ideas of Pierre Joris and Allen Fisher and related poetics, including issues of translation and place-specific writing, in the light of the archipelagic World-and-UK context of the many 'devolved voices' of contemporary poetry.

A nomadic poetics is … always changing, morphing, moving through languages, cultures, terrains, times without stopping. Refuelling halts are called poases, they last a night or a day, the time of a poem, & then move on. A nomadic poetics needs mindfulness in & of the drift (dérive) – there is no at-homeness here, but only an ever more displaced drifting. For the language to be accurate to the condition of nomadicity, it too has to be drifting, to be always 'on the way', as Celan puts it.
Pierre Joris – A Nomad Manifesto

The new works . . . include objects and processes, process-showings and methodologies in a world of multiple possibilities that is . . . complementing the political arena, without being its voice. . . . It is a requirement of this art that . . . the poetry is always 'yet to be found' in the process of its making, and that making continues to take place through the physiology of the reader.
Allen Fisher in Topological Shovel, Four Essays

Confirmed contributors include Pierre Joris, Allen Fisher, Jean Portante, Mandy Bloomfield, Ian Davidson, Steven Hitchins, Peter Barry and Zoë Skoulding.

Suggestions for further fifteen-minute talks/papers (followed by discussion) are invited on any aspect of the work and/or cultural contexts of Pierre Joris and/or Allen Fisher. Please send a 200-word outline of your proposed topic by March 29th 2013. Those who wish to contribute to discussion without presenting a paper are also welcome, but please confirm attendance by the same date if you plan to come.

A reading featuring Allen Fisher, Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte and Jean Portante will take place on the Friday evening, May 17th .
Fee: £30 waged or £20 student/unwaged.

Please send proposals to both e-mail addresses below:
Dr Zoë Skoulding (z.skoulding@bangor.ac.uk) and Professor Peter Barry (ptb@aber.ac.uk)

For further information about Contempo go to: http://www.aber.ac.uk/contempo/