Isobar poetry book launch (2 June)

On 2 June 2019 there will be a reading and party to launch the first three of this year's Isobar books.

1) NOON: An Anthology of Short Poems, edited by Philip Rowland, is a selection of poems from the Tokyo-based online journal NOON: journal of the short poem (also edited by Philip) that appeared between 2004 and 2017.

‘Short’ here means ‘fewer than fourteen lines’, and some of the poems are very short indeed: the shortest are only one or two words long. Philip has assembled a strikingly various renga-like chain of over two hundred minimalist poems by almost half as many poets, so – remarkably – the book can be read poem by poem or it can be read straight through as a single sequence with multiple authors.

'It cheers me up that there are still people on the planet who think poetry is worth such care and attention' ­ Geraldine Monk

'Evidences the wealth of the minimalist tradition, resolutely international' – Alistair Noon

2) Other/Wise by Gregory Dunne is a volume of poems with a strongly autobiographical flavour. Gregory has lived in Japan for many years; he is the author of Quiet Accomplishment, a prose memoir of Cid Corman, who was a good friend. Part 1 ofOther/Wise is set in the US, and parts 2 and 3 in Japan. There are poems of friendship, marriage, family and vocation, and elegies for teachers, friends and parents, with a particularly strong group of poems of marriage and family in part 3.

'An open-hearted journey of fatherhood, friendship, and faith ­ faith in the honest truths to be found in this life and celebrated in poetry' ­ Richard Jones)

3) On Arrival gathers many of the poems Paul Rossiter wrote in the 1980s, most of them with East or South East Asian settings. There are poems from the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, plus one each from the USA and Australia. The title section of the book consists of ‘notebook poems’ chronicling the author’s first year in Japan in 1981–1982, and there is also a section titled ‘Current Accounts’, which consists of short sharp comments on public events towards the end of the decade: perestroika, economic bubbles, the rise of fundamentalism, and the first Gulf War.

There is more information about all three books, plus PDF samples from the books and links to the various Amazons on the Isobar Press website.

Please come and help to celebrate the publication of these books!

DATE: 2 June 2019
TIME: Doors open 19:00, readings start at 19:30
PLACE: Flying Books, 6-3 Dogenzaka 1-Chome, Shibuya, 150-0043
MAP: http://www.flying-books.com
ENTRANCE: ¥1500 (includes one free drink)

A cash bar will be open during the event. No reservation necessary.