A Leap in the Dark 12 8pm Saturday 9th May 2020
Tonight’s Leap in the Dark features music performed by the composer Helen Ottaway, the Irish writer and artist Sara Baume, prize-winning short story writer Emma Devlin, publisher Kevin Duffy in conversation with author Heidi James and a French poem read by Aea Varfis-van Warmelo.
The Programme
1 The Pale usher welcomes you
2 Beethoven’s An die Freude scored and performed by Helen Ottaway
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
3 Sara Baume on her new book handiwork
4 Emma Devlin reads her short story ‘Home, Sisters’
5 Sara and Emma in conversation
Interval
6 Helen Ottaway performs 'L' from 'Alphabet for Piano' by Simon Rackham
7 Bluemoose Books Kevin Duffy and Heidi James
8 Helen Ottaway performs 'Overstrand, Norfolk', the first movement of 'Mmmm...I Hear Water'
9 Aea Varfis-van Warmelo reads a poem
10 The Pale Usher signs off
The Company
Sara Baume studied fine art and creative writing and her fiction and criticism have been published in anthologies, newspapers and journals such as the Irish Times, the Guardian, The Stinging Fly and Granta. She has won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature, an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer and the Kate O’Brien Award. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither (2015) was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Desmond Elliott Prize. She has received a Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A Line Made by Walking (2017) was her second novel and she recently published handiwork, her first non-fiction book. She lives in West Cork.
All Sara’s books are published by Tramp Press in Dublin: www.tramppress.com
Emma Devlin is a short story writer, and winner of the 2019 Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition. She lives in Bangor, NI.
Kevin Duffy has worked as a stage hand in pantomimes with Les Dawson, was a barman at Butlin's, Bognor Regis, wrote story boards for Bramall Hall in Cheshire, worked in a jigsaw factory in Stockport, served the good folk of Hounslow at Burger King and at a Library suppliers before entering publishing for Headline in 1987 as a sales rep for London. After that he worked in sales and marketing for publishers of fiction, non fiction,business and academic books for 20 years. He and his wife Hetha re-mortgaged their house and set up Bluemoose in 2006 at a time when publishing was becoming so risk averse that new writers were finding it almost impossible to get their work published. Their mission was to find those writers. Our authors have been short listed for and won
national and international literary prizes, and their books have been translated into 12 languages.
Heidi James has an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English Literature. Her poetry, essays and short stories have appeared in numerous publications including, Mslexia, Galley Beggar Press and Dazed & Confused. Her novel Carbon (Blatt 2009) is published in Spanish by El Tercer Nombre. Her novella The Mesmerist's Daughter (Neon Press, 2015) won the Saboteur Award. Wounding (2014) and So The Doves )2017) are both published by Bluemoose Books, the latter named The Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Month. Her next novel The Sound Mirror will be published by Bluemoose in August 2020. She lives in London, lectures at Kingston University and presents a podcast on writing called First Graft.
Helen Ottaway is a composer and sound artist. She is lead artist with Artmusic, creating and producing collaborative, site-specific art work. Her series of pieces for hand-punched and hand-wound musical box were composed during an artist’s residency in Sri Lanka in 2017.
Aea Varfis-van Warmelo is a multilingual actor and writer.
The Pale Usher organises and hosts these gatherings.
The pale Usher - threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Our next Leap will be on Friday 15th May and will include:
- the latest canto of Spring Journal by Jonathan Gibbs, read by Michael Hughes
- a new work written and performed by Amy McCauley
- new poetry from Astrid Alben, Christodoulos Makros, Rhys Trimble and Matthew Welton
- another yoga class with David Holzer
Stay well!
The Pale Usher
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