On the way to Lancaster Station this morning

This Thursday, I’ll be reading from my new chapbook, My Outsize Hank Williams Cowboy Hat, with artwork by Lupo Sol, published by Sacred Parasite Press Berlin. There’ll be copies available on the night.

Coming up next Thursday 18th September, 7 to 9pm, at P3 Annihilation Eve, 70 Oldham Road (M4 5EB), THE EVERYDAY MARVELOUS. I’ll be reading alongside @stephensunderla , Tom Jenks, Sarah-Clare Conlon, Stuart Carlton, and Lydia Unsworth.

It’s next week! Honoured and delighted to be taking part in The Everyday Marvellous reading with @stephensunderla, Sarah-Clare Conlon, @zimZalla Stuart Calton, and Lydia Unsworth, coming up in Manchester, Thursday, 18 September.

‘The sea that is brown and real around my rock, / in the distance glitters on their faces’ - Kate Bowles, ‘This is It’, from @PNReview 63, September-October 1988

The Surreal-Absurd. A brilliant anthology. Honoured and delighted to be included. Lovely to discover lots of new names, too. Huge thanks to the editors Thomas Helm, Marcus Silcock, @VikShirley and Ben Niespodziany.

‘It’s time to discuss depression and sadness in general, said the ghost, but first you must help me out of these overalls’ - Tom Jenks, ‘Overalls’, from Chimneys, above / ground press, 2025. @zimZalla

‘Shuffle, pick a card, read etc’ Who could resist these uniquely and perfectly packaged haiku, as discovered and translated into ‘roughly northern dialect’ by the great Steven Waling? Available from the wonderful @zimZalla

Am I addicted to Patrick Modiano or what? There are others that I’ve read, too - on Kindle, such as Fleurs de ruine, Un pedigree, and Accident nocturne. I think my favourite is Voyage de noces. Oddly, I still have to read his first three novels, the ‘occupation trilogy’.

‘It held two claws out in front, the way a blindfolded man protects himself from the wall’ - Matthew Francis, ‘Creature’, from Wing (Faber, 2020) @FaberBooks