The Itinerant Poetry Library

Since May 2006, The Itinerant Poetry Librarian has been travelling the world with a library of ‘Lost & Forgotten’ poetry, installing the library & librarian and archiving the sounds, poems and poetry of the cities, peoples and countries she meets. Welcome to the project's blog . . . Our Itinerant Poetry Librarian lives wherever her library is - come join the cause!

FAQs: • Yes we carry our entire life and the library with us as we go • Yes, it is quite heavy • No, we're not mad. As Charles Simic said, 'But what if poets are not crazy?' That's the spirit boyo!

We exist to: remind people of the importance of free public libraries...subvert mainstream channels of distribution...remind people that access to knowledge should be free and not dependent upon economic wealth hierarchies... show people that poetry/art can provide answers to questions we ask of life...experiment in existing outside of 'the market' – thereby, instead, investing in social capital, social innovation and community.

We aim to make life taste better. Word.

Where have we been . . . ?

(2006) Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Paris, Barcelona, London, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Norwich, York, Antwerp, (2007-2008) San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Leipzig, (2009) Ulm, Chemnitz, Rotterdam, Huntingdon, Callander, (2010) Cork, St. Andrews . . . Where'd you like us to go? Can you help? Get in touch!

What We Are Up To Right Now . . .

Archive

Sunday, 10 September 2006

A Librarian Hermit We Be

Our couchsurfing adventures continue, and we’ve since moved from London to York, and back again, and then mega-bused it up to Newcastle (anyone seen the outrageous UK train fares recently), where we are currently residing on two couches. Not at the same time we hasten to add. We’re not that huge for a start. It’s just that we had been been offered a flat oop north where we intend to hermit away and finish up our sound editing (and get some poems down dude!) and then since we arrived on Friday we happily met up with our very old friend Clare (old as in long time no see not old as in like OLD dude!) and ended up couchsurfing her co-op Georgian house in the centre of Newcastle. Nice. But after this debauched weekend of catching up, we fully intend to catch up with our sound and written word. So there. Our librarian has also been helpfully operating undercover as an audio engineer for artist Angie in Brixton though, where we recorded the sounds of Tooting Lido including the water fountain and sounds of the outdoor swimming pool, so we have been workingnotshirkin we hasten to add. In the meantime, here are some pictures from our travails, and a message about submissions for any Czech litbods out there. More from us soon! Over and out boys!


On the way from London to Newcastle, via the Megabus, our itinerant librarian found she couldn’t help herself when it came to more toilet door graffiti




The ancient walls of York




We left the kittens under our last couch in London. All together now . . . ahhhh!




The Angel of the North



PRAGUE TALES 2007
New Europe Writers Ink is now seeking submissions for their next print publication: Prague Tales 2007.
They are interested in short stories, poems, memoires of literary merit. They are not interested in journalism or sociological tracts. Each submission should reflect upon the writer’s experience of Prague or in the Czech Republic.
Send your submissions together with a short biography.
The deadline for submissions is February 10th 2007.

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