A Leap in the Dark Saturday 2nd May

A Leap in the Dark 10   8pm Saturday 2nd May 2020

Our tenth Leap is an evening dedicated to CB editions, the independent publisher run single-handedly from a desk in a family living room by poet and novelist Charles Boyle. 

The first four books were published in 2007, with no plan to do more. CBe titles have won prizes for fiction, poetry and translation, and have been shortlisted for other awards (the Goldsmiths Prize and Guardian First Book Award among them). The first three debut poetry collections published by CBe all won the Aldeburgh first collection prize and were all shortlisted for the Forward Prize. 

Around a fifth of the 60-odd titles published by CBe have sold fewer than a hundred copies; others sell more. You can find them all on the website.

There's no charge for taking part but please make a donation, no matter how large, to The Trussell Trust.

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Online Healing with The Absent Therapist 

A CB editions Medley for A Leap in the Dark

1  Charles Boyle introduces CB editions and reads from Parallel Texts, two 

   sequences of brief poems written in the 1960s and the 2000s by Dai 

   Vaughan 

2  Julian Stannard reads a poem or two

3  Paulette Jonguitud reads from new work that she introduced in a 

   previous edition of a Leap in the Dark

4  Will Eaves reads from work “old or new as seems appropriate on the day”

5  Natalia Zagorska-Thomas introduces a collaborative project (curated 

   with Simon Zagorski-Thomas) involving film-makers and composers

Interval

6  Dan O’Brien reads from his own work and that of Paul Bailey 

7  Nina Bogin reads from her translation of Agota Kristof’s The 

   Illiterate, plus a poem by Beverley Bie Brahic

8  Beverley Bie Brahic reads from her translations of Francis Ponge, plus 

   a poem by Nina Bogin

9  Alba Arikha: Lockdown Piano – composed during the past weeks

10 Todd McEwen reads from Who Sleeps with Katz, available from CBe soon

11 Phil Hancock reads two small poems, maybe three

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Alba Arikha is an author of fiction and non-fiction. An opera based on her memoir Major/Minor, with music by her husband, composer Tom Smail, will be performed at the Playground Theatre in October 2020. She is also a singer/songwriter, and has performed in London and Paris, where she grew up. CBe publishes her Soon. Lockdown Piano, performed this evening for A Leap in the Dark, can be heard/seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=outwF3ZZHYM

Nina Bogin, originally from New York, has lived for over forty years in France. Her most recent poetry collection is Thousandfold (Carcanet, 2019) and her translation of Agota Kristof’s The Illiterate was published by CBe in 2014.

Charles Boyle runs CB editions, an independent press publishing short fiction and poetry, including work in translation. Writing as Jack Robinson, his most recent book is Good Morning, Mr Crusoe (CBe, 2019), a polemical piece marking the 300th anniversary of Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. He collaborated with the artist Natalia Zagorska-Thomas on the monograph Blush (2018).

Beverley Bie Brahic is a poet and translator based in California and France. Her most recent poetry collection is The Hotel Eden (Carcanet), CBe publishes her White Sheets and Hunting the Boar, and her translations of Francis Ponge (Unfinished Ode to Mud) and Apollinaire (The Little Auto), for which she won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize. www.beverleybiebrahic.com

Will Eaves is a novelist and intermittent poet. Published by CBe: The Absent Therapist, The Inevitable Gift Shop, Murmur (winner of the 2019 Wellcome Prize, co-winner of the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize and (forthcoming, September 2020) Broken Consort. With Sophie Scott, he co-presents The Neuromantics – ‘a monthly podcast for writers, psychologists, neuroscientists, poets, philosophers, comedians, musicians, and anyone interested in the exchange of ideas’.

Phil Hancock is the author of City Works Dept. (CBe, 2018) 

Paulette Jonguitud lives in Mexico City. She is the author of Mildew (CB editions) and Algunas margaritas y sus fantasmas. https://paulettejonguitud.com

Todd McEwan was born in California and now lives in Edinburgh. His The Five Simple Machines was published by CBe in 2013. Who Sleeps with Katz (‘One of the great American novels’- Salon), first published by Granta in 2002, is reissued by CBe this year. 

Dan O’Brien is an award-winning playwright and poet based in Los Angeles. CBe publishes his War Reporter, New Life and Scarsdale; essays forthcoming in 2021. www.danobrien.org

Julian Stannard lived and taught for many years in Genoa. His most recent poetry book – with artwork by Roma Tearne – is Average is the New Fantastico (Green Bottle Press). CBe publishes his What Were You Thinking? He co-edited a CBe book about Michael Hofmann, The Palm Beach Effect. A film of his poem ‘Sottoripa’ (about a district of Genoa) is on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/81617966

Dai Vaughan (1933–2012) was an editor and producer of documentary films. He wrote on film (For Documentary: Twelve Essays, 1999) and also published fiction. CBe published his Sister of the Artist in the year that he died, and – posthumously – his pamphlet Parallel Texts.

Natalia Zagorska-Thomas is a visual artist, art conservator and curator. She runs the studio and exhibition space Studio Expurgamento in Camden town. Co-originator of Blush (CBe, 2018). www.studioexpurgamento.com

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Our next Leap in the Dark on Friday 8th May features:

- the latest canto of Spring Journal by Jonathan Gibbs, read by 

  Michael Hughes

- Modern Chinese fiction: Jia Pingwa’s Broken Wings with translator 

  Nicky Harman

- Music (performers to be confirmed)

- All Along the Watchtower - another extract read by The Pale Usher 

Stay well!

The Pale Usher