Olivia Macassey
official website
Archive
September, 2007
Front page:
September. (poem added)
SideStream needs your help:
Micro funding in Aotearoa? Apparently if you give SideStream poetry zine between $5 and $20 you can really help out - details HERE.
What I'm reading:
Marked
Men
- David Lyndon Brown (titus, 2007). A short, meditative novel which
is by turns beguiling and disturbing - reading this book is like being inside
the poem of someone else's skin. Also highly recommended are Jack Ross's
To Terezin (Massey, 2007); and Jill Chan's new collection, Becoming
Someone Who Isn't (Earl of Seacliff, 2007).
Look for me in: Poetry New Zealand 35 and also
brief 35.
July, 2007
Front page:
Friday 27 July is Montana
Poetry Day, that day each year when suddenly there is more poetry than
you can get to! Well admittedly there was a thursday like that not too long
ago, but you know what I mean. I think it's possible to do a sort of poetry
crawl... (SEE
MY NOTEBOOK.)
This year I'm part of the really cool Divine Muses
IV reading, which will be held in the Auditorium of the Auckland
Art Gallery. The line-up: Iain Sharp, Riemke Ensing, Mark Pirie, Harry Ricketts,
Siobhan Harvey, Olivia Macassey, Andrew Fagan, Kirsten Warner, and Serie
Barford. Start time, 7pm. There will be snacks, drinks, and also books available,
including Love in the
Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
Notebook:
Around town
Tea Culture upstairs at 208 Karangahape Rd is the best thing ever. Sharing
a space with Kfm Radio and Te Karanga Gallery, it has a relaxed, laid back
atmosphere and some truly fantastic tea. Plus a great view of krd so you
can people-watch as your tea steeps. This is definately going to help me
make it through the winter.
Rachel Ahmad Hall, Karla Hansen and Xander have an exhibition from July
6, at Gallery With No Name. 13 Gt Nth Rd (just past krd really)
I can't actually make it to these but Titus has a couple of gigs on; many
of their writers will be reading (with some bands) on July 2 @ the King's
Arms from 7pm; there's a $10 entry at the door. Readers include Mike Johnson,
Olwyn Stewart, Jack Ross, Richard Taylor, Scott Hamilton and more. Bill
Direen will also be reading from his new book Song of the Brakeman
at Time Out, Mt Eden on June 30 (also 7pm). While I'm on the subject of
gigs, 9pm on June 23 is Cherry
Bomb's birthday!
12 - 2pm: 105 Ponsonby Road for Karla Milo, Fiona Farrell, Janet Charman, Bob Orr, Michele Leggott, Iain Sharp and Renee Liang.
5pm - 7.00pm: Auckland Public Library, Lorne Street for nzepc launches and readings from Fiona Farrell, Jan Kemp, Michele Leggott, Jack Ross, Bob Orr, Janet Charman and Paula Green.
7pm- 9.30pm: The Auditorium at Auckland Art Gallery for Divine Muses 4: Harry Ricketts, Iain Sharp, Mark Pirie, Riemke Ensing, Andrew Fagan, Serie (Cherie) Barford, Olivia Macassey, Siobhan Harvey and Kirsten Warner. And there's even a poetry slam on up at the London Bar on the following night! CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST OF LOCAL EVENTS
What I'm reading:
Suddenly a feast. Jack Ross's new book, To Terezin (Massey); Jill Chan's new book, Becoming Someone Who Isn't (Earl of Seacliff, will be launched on July 31 at Poetry Live); and Michael Ondaatje's new novel, Divisadero (Knopf) ... these are all newly released things I'm waiting to read! Until I can get this holy trinity into my clutches, it's Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.
Look for me in: forthcoming issue of BMP
May, 2007
Front page:
Back in the day: New
additions to the site - a blast from the past! Some background
information on the performance of 'exciting poses' in 1999, including
the "backing vocals" performed by the Beautiful Assistants, and
even a small gallery
of few very low resolution images
from a video, which I found in some files recently!
I've also added a helpful
contents page for Love
in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
In other news, I finally got myself a myspace.
Still trying to figure out how it works though, so if you see me bumbling
around in there looking confused, that's why.
Notebook:
SideStream : poetry from the fringe is a new poetry zine edited
by Miriam Barr and free from Poetry Live (321 Queen St, Auckland), the Women's
Bookshop and a few other places, so look out for it. The pocket sized zine
offers a range of poems - it's like a refreshing poetry snack. They're up
to their third issue.
The second issue of Pictozine (ed. David Bradbury) is out now,
after release at the New Zealand Comics Weekend. Check out the list
of contributors, which includes Roger Langridge, Dylan Horrocks, Indira
Neville, Debra Boyask, and the one and only Matty Kelly... It's pretty substantial
looking.
And all you spoken word junkies check out the current
issue of BMP; it's the spoken word issue.
The launch of three books of poetry - Conversation With A Stone by Richard Taylor, To The Moon In Seven Easy Steps by Scott Hamilton, and Luce Cannon by Will Christie - at Alleluya on 12 April was another lively titus event. Olwyn Stewart launched the books, and The Vietnam War provided the music. Among poets present were Raewyn Alexander, Cornelius Stone, David Lyndon Brown, Michael Onslowe Osborne, Greg Brimblecombe, Yves Harrison, and Shane Hollands. Certain enterprenurial children were selling original drawings to punters for $0.50..
What I'm reading:Luce Cannon, a satisfying collection of poems by Will Christie.
"This is a poetry fascinated by the power of language to inhabit and be inhabited. Christie questions her words as she uses them - tearing them apart or gathering them up, chasing them around or wilfully creating new ones - with an alert attention to what they contain and how they affect us. Her poems touch on individual experiences of everyday life, embodiment, relationships, and the mysterious power words have to escape and transmit meaning. By turns playful and violent, cerebral and romantic, funny and moving, these poems take nothing for granted. What they reveal will often surprise you."
The book includes g.race; "gentle maggots/ are sure and slow/and they
clean up as they go" (Christie, 2007:13) This poem inspired my own
poem La Reine/Maggots which was dedicated to Will. (Tongue in Your Ear
no.7, 2003)
Look for me in: forthcoming issue of Blackmail Press
March,2007:
Front page:
Summer: It's one of those fallow times where
a lot seems to be happening soon - but not yet.
In the works: Titus is going to release long anticipated books of poetry
by Will Christie, Richard Taylor, and Scott Hamilton - launched by Olwyn
Stewart, Alleluya, April 12th, 6.30pm.
Rachel Ahmad Hall's new website is coming soon; and check out the poetry
events in my notebook. I've also been invited to take part in a couple of
interesting projects, but more on that closer to the time...
Later in the year, we're probably going to release that collection I've
been working on, as a chapbook (and also as a download, probably from lulu).
Watch this space! In fact if you have any suggestions, please email me.
But at the moment, a certain thesis awaits.
Notebook:
Keep thursday 8th march free from 7 til 10pm, (though if you go earlier
you can eat at Alleluya first). Music, Poetry and Art from the Pasifik will
be happening in St Kevins Arcade, K Rd. Music by Ben Kemp & Uminari, Pasific
art presented by Asako Kobayashi, and a choice line-up of poetry... Karlo
Mila, Serie Barford, Tulia Thompson, DJ Kamali, the reverend Mua Strickson
Pua, and Doug Poole. Update: this was lovely, a real treat.
And: Poetry Live seems to have moved back into town - it's now at The Classic
Studio 321 Queen St.
Gothic Reviews - you decide!
Recent verdicts on the gothic poetry in Gothic NZ (Otago UP, 2006):
"overwrought" - a rather grumpy Andrew Paul Wood in the Listener
(march 3)
"exciting" - Anna Jackson takes a more sanguine view in the Dominion
Post (feb 24)
Personally I think we should aim for both!
Recently saw some poems by Emily
Tulett. Notes from my Lovers was a mixture of poetry, photographs,
painting - and, apparently, the eponymous Notes. As the blurb promised,
"step inside the mind of a twenty-three year old girl." The poems
often occupied a kind of ambiguous nowhere land I like a lot in the confessional
tradition; somewhere between feeling like you're being told something and
feeling like you know nothing. I hope Tulett keeps writing.
Look for me in: Brief 34 (the war issue)
January, 2007:
Front page:
A new Year, a new look for the macassey.com website. The new photograph
is ©Matthew Kelly 2006. I have blonde hair now!
The poetry section has been updated to include links to poems available
elsewhere on the net. My not-quite-a-blog, links and archive is all in one
area, so the site should now be a bit easier to navigate. Another addition
is the Amazon store, which is basically my pathetic attempt to get 40c off
the price of the Megdb McGuckian book I have my eye on at the moment - please
support my efforts! More on how it works here.
Thank you to those who made helpful suggestions for improving the website,
and to everyone who has sent me their thoughts and their poetry in the last
year.
Notebook:
Why I am doing it: well, I'm a bit broke at the moment, so I thought a Poetry Fund bookshop would be nicer than a tip jar... plus I thought it would be fun to display some of my favourite poetry books here at macassey.com.
Out now from Otago UP: Gothic
NZ: The Darker Side of Kiwi Culture, ed Misha Kavka, Jenny Lawn,
and Mary Paul. The book, which was launched in November 2006, has a great
cover, glossy pages, and a satisfying 173 pages. As the publisher's description
reads, "contemporary creative writers, intellectuals, photographers,
painters and other artists have all contributed to this volume exploring
the idea of 'gothic' in New Zealand culture."
It includes a seriously interesting essay by Martin Edmond called 'The Abandoned
House as a Refuge for the Imagination'; and also 'disorder and early sorrow'
(in From Tiger Country), an intriguing poem by Jack Ross that used
to be available online but seemed to go missing. I pinched the last line
of Tiger Country for a poem title - "let me die inside."
The book also features 'Nocturnes for an Only Daughter', my poem in collaboration with photographer Rachel Ahmad-Hall.