Mountain Retreats: Tokyo Launch

So Mountain Retreats has been well and truly launched. Last Sunday (March 24th) I made the long trek to Tokyo for a day of poetry and publishing. I had lunch with Richard Nathan, the director of Red Circle books. I’ve been working with him as editor on a project that will appear later in the year and as he was in town (he’s usually based in London) we took the opportunity to grab a bite and a couple of beers. It’s been a while since I’ve sat with a publisher, face to face, and kicked ideas around about future projects so I came out of that energised and excited, as well as happy from a couple of cans of the best-named beer ever:

After that I caught the Yamanote to Sugamo, and went to Ryozan Park Lounge, where the event was being held. It was a night billed as “Mountains, Modernisms, and Memoirs.” There were four of us reading: Paul Rossiter, who is Isobar Press, opened things with readings of his own mountain poems, and those of Peter Makin (who wasn’t present). After that, I was up talking about the new book and reading some sections which seemed to go down well. Next up was Taylor Mignon, talking about the new book he has edited and published, Visual Poetry of Japan. I love this book, having got an early copy from Taylor, so it was fascinating to hear him talk about the context and meaning of some of the works in the collection. Eric Selland came next, talking about his own unique blend of poetry and visual art, before Paul returned to talk about the haiku and memoirs of Saito Sanki, a writer of whom I am a big fan.

Finally, in a bizarre twist, the owner of Ryozan Park Lounge turned out to be from Torphins, a town in Scotland very near where I grew up, and we discovered that we share many mutual friends. It’s a small, small world.

The next event will be in Nagoya on April 21st, this time just me on my own (with an audience, I hope!) at Imaike Library Club. Hopefully see some of you there.