Short Science Fiction Collection 031 by Various: Recent Episodes
LibriVox
Science Fiction is speculative literature that generally explores the consequences of ideas which are roughly consistent with nature and scientific method, but are not facts of the author’s contemporary world. The stories often represent philosophical thought experiments presented in entertaining ways. Protagonists typically “think” rather than “shoot” their way out of problems, but the definition is flexible because there are no limits on an author’s imagination. The reader-selected stories presented here were written prior to 1962 and became US public domain texts when their copyrights expired. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)
Lessons from the School of Night
"I generally find that language will just open up again every time you hit a wall" — Eric Langley
Sean Robinson met with Eric Langley at the Topping bookshop, before Eric's appearance at the School of Night, where he read from his first book of poetry, Raking Light. They discussed Eric's childhood holidays with J.H. Prynne, the influence of the Elizabethans on his work, and the role of the words themselves in the process of composition. Eric also read his poem 'Puncture' for us (at 26m50s).
Eric Langley's first poetry collection, Raking Light, was published by Carcanet earlier this year. His work has previously appeared in New Poetries VI, Blackbox Manifold, and PN Review. Eric works in the English department at UCL, where he teaches both Renaissance and contemporary literature, and he has published scholarship on Shakespeare in a variety of contexts, particularly in relation to developments in medical and scientific thought of the period: his first academic monograph is Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (OUP, 2009), and he is in the final stages of a second book to be called Ill Communications: Shakespeare' Contagious Sympathies. He was born in the Midlands, went to university in Leeds, lived in St Andrews, and has now settled in London.
Sean Robinson is studying for an MFA in poetry writing at St. Andrews under Don Paterson. An erstwhile policy wonk, he graduated in 2013 from Oxford with a bachelors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and worked for some time with the Civil Service, until deciding to chuck it all in to do something useful, and write poems. He is from London.
Lessons from the School of Night are an irregular series of video or audio interviews and tips from poets and writers who visit St Andrews.
The School of Night – inspired by the group which included Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh – is Topping & Company Booksellers' Year-Round Poetry Festival in St Andrews. Curated with the help of Don Paterson and playing host to poets as varied as Paul Muldoon and Lorraine Mariner, Simon Armitage and Annie Freud, it is anchored to a regular fixture on the last Tuesday of the month. The School of Night offers the chance to explore and discuss the work of some of the best poets on the contemporary scene. For more details on these and other events, please visit the Topping & Company website.
Music: Luvva by Heman Sheman. Image: Johnny Adolphson
It's not so much about imagery or language as it is about longing for that human connection. It's imagining yourself into another life in order to connect with it and be less isolated. And that is the case in my poetry as well - imagination is a way of reaching other people. — Polly Clark
Sean Robinson met with Polly Clark at Toppings bookshop, after her appearance at the School of Night, where she read from her novel Larchfield. They discussed the difference between writing a novel and writing a poem, as well as the roles of imagination and location in the writing process. Polly also read her poem 'Heaven' (at 14m55s).
Polly Clark was born in Toronto and lives in Helensburgh on Scotland’s west coast, close to where W.H. Auden wrote The Orators. She is Literature Programme Producer for Cove Park, Scotland’s International Artist Residency Centre, and the author of three poetry collections. She won the MsLexia Prize for Larchfield, the Eric Gregory Award, and has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Larchfield will be published by Quercus under their riverrun imprint March 2017. Her pamphlet A Handbook for the Afterlife was shortlisted in the 2016 Michael Marks Awards and a volume of New and Selected Poems, Afterlife, is due in 2018.
Sean Robinson is studying for a masters in poetry writing at St. Andrews under Don Paterson. An estwhile policy wonk, he graduated in 2013 from Oxford with a bachelors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and worked for some time with the Civil Service, until deciding to chuck it all in to do something useful, and write poems. He is from London.
Lessons from the School of Night are an irregular series of video or audio interviews and tips from poets and writers who visit St Andrews.
The School of Night – inspired by the group which included Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh – is Topping & Company Booksellers' Year-Round Poetry Festival in St Andrews. Curated with the help of Don Paterson and playing host to poets as varied as Paul Muldoon and Lorraine Mariner, Simon Armitage and Annie Freud, it is anchored to a regular fixture on the last Tuesday of the month. The School of Night offers the chance to explore and discuss the work of some of the best poets on the contemporary scene. For more details on these and other events, please visit the Topping & Company website.
Photo Credit: Johnny Adolphson, http://johnny-adolphson.pixels.com/
Suzannah spoke with Vahni Capildeo ahead of her Centre Stage reading at the StAnza poetry festival. They discussed growing up in a multilingual culture, thinking in things other than language, constructing prose poems, and the different kinds of audiences that a poet might encounter. Vahni also read her poems 'Louise Bourgeois: Insomnia Drawings' (at 9m53s) and 'Slaughterer' (at 13m14s).
Vahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian British writer whose five books and two pamphlets include Measures of Expatriation (Carcanet, 2016), Simple Complex Shapes (Shearsman, 2015) and Utter (Peepal Tree, 2013). She holds a PhD in Old Norse and is interested in multilingualism, creative reworkings, and the boundaries between the human and the natural. Her collaborative work on performance and installation includes responses to Euripides' Bacchae, 'Radical Shakespeare', and Martin Carter's revolutionary writings from Guyana. The Harper-Wood Studentship (St John's College, Cambridge) supported her travel for research during 2015-16. Capildeo was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Collection for Measures of Expatriation in 2016.
Suzannah V. Evans was born in London and studied at the universities of St Andrews and York. She has worked in publishing and recently as a sound technician, translator, and interpreter for StAnza poetry festival in St Andrews. Her poetry and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Eborakon, The North, New Welsh Review, Tears in the Fence, and RAUM.
Photo Credit: Suzannah V. Evans
The first Lesson from the School of Night, featuring poet Sam Riviere, author of 81 Austerities (Faber & Faber 2012), winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, Standard Twin Fantasy (Eggbox, 2014), and Kim Kardashian’s Marriage (Faber & Faber, 2015).