3:AM Magazine

You probably have to discipline yourself to focus on the process of writing ‘over all else’, but you don’t have to focus upon that ‘over all else’, and it doesn’t have to be (can’t be, if you want to pay the rent or have friends or family) ‘over all else’. That’s one reason for people’s quietism or giving up, I think. (I’ve had students who’ve said, ‘I enjoyed the course, but I know now I can never be dedicated enough to be a writer’, or, more poignantly, ‘These two,’ pointing to his young children, ‘These two need a dad!’) But if you are promised, or promise yourself, a career path that involves literati celebrity and fame (or, it’s worth saying, if you promise yourself posthumous celebration alone, bundling up manuscripts for futurity), it sure isn’t going to work out well! I suppose that means the work must be its own reward, whether it’s recognised or not. And you must ‘have a life’, the human covenant demands as much.

In the 107th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the British poet Robert Sheppard.

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With the physical cancellation of the European Poetry Festival in London during 2020, a series of new longform video interviews are presented here at 3:AM Magazine, again with some of the most dynamic contemporary European poets, whose work is exploring the possibilities and potentials of the artform, as part of the decade long interviews series – Maintenant.

In the 106th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Lithuanian poet Aušra Kaziliūnaitė.

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With the physical cancellation of the European Poetry Festival in London during 2020, a series of new longform video interviews are presented here at 3:AM Magazine, again with some of the most dynamic contemporary European poets, whose work is exploring the possibilities and potentials of the artform, as part of the decade long interviews series – Maintenant.

In the 105th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Latvian poet Krišjānis Zeļģis.

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With the physical cancellation of the European Poetry Festival in London during 2020, a series of new longform video interviews are presented here at 3:AM Magazine, again with some of the most dynamic contemporary European poets, whose work is exploring the possibilities and potentials of the artform, as part of the decade long interviews series – Maintenant.

In the 104th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Latvian poet Inga Pizane.

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With the physical cancellation of the European Poetry Festival in London during 2020, a series of new longform video interviews are presented here at 3:AM Magazine, again with some of the most dynamic contemporary European poets, whose work is exploring the possibilities and potentials of the artform, as part of the decade long interviews series – Maintenant.

In the 103rd of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Swiss poet Rolf Hermann.

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With the physical cancellation of the European Poetry Festival in London during 2020, a series of new longform video interviews are presented here at 3:AM Magazine, again with some of the most dynamic contemporary European poets, whose work is exploring the possibilities and potentials of the artform, as part of the decade long interviews series – Maintenant.

In the 102nd of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Swiss poet Linn Molineaux.

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It’s such a Welshman’s cliché but perhaps musicality, if not song, makes its way into my work and performance. In written work it’s the alliterative and sound aspects which are borrowed from song. Of course Welsh language poetry is a song / poem hybrid which uses cynghanedd (the welsh system of alliteration and internal rhyme) which amounts to a systematization of poetry that brings it in line with our rules for western music but working on verbal sounds instead of tonal sounds. Any exposure to it results in it creeping into your work it’s everywhere here- place names and phraseology! Certainly the welsh tradition of poetry has an effect of what you feel you are allowed to do.

In the 99th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Welsh poet Rhys Trimble.

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Rhys Trimble is a Bilingual poet / performer/improvisor interested in medieval welsh language & bilingual poetry, music/poetry, collaborations, digital-art and avant garde writing practices. Editor of Ctrl+Alt+Del Ezine and studying for a ‘psychomythogeographical’ PhD in creative writing.

By Rhys Trimble.

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It was phase I – at first there were two Maidans. One on Independence Square – non-political scene. One on European Square – political scene. Then two Maidans were united. It happened on November 26. Big non-political Maidan full of hipsters lasted until the summit – then nothing happened. And then on November 29-30 night – violent dispersal happened. If this never happened – protesters would go home and the story would end but this attack changed everything. December 1 riots started Phase II – “this time it’s personal”.

In the 98th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Bilyk.

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It was as if I had two different men living inside me then. One was full of admiration and respect for ‘fine’ arts – music, literature, poetry; the other was full of mistrust of all the arts. The site for this struggle inside me, between those two personae, was my poetic practice. I felt admiration, reverence, for works of art – the aesthetic experience replaced the religious experience – but at the same time I felt a growing disdain for those ‘aesthetic’ values. I felt something had ended forever – for me, for humanity – and it was something that religion or science or art hadn’t protected.

In the 97th interview of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler speaks to the legendary Polish poet Tadeusz Różewicz.

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