1. Aid for Ukraine
2. This week’s online gathering
3. Indie press news
And Other Stories
CB editions
Paper Visual Art
4. Joanna Walsh live in Paris
5. On Frank Ramsey
6. I Am Curious, Gialli
7. Three prizewinners!
8. The Peirine Stevns Translation Prize 2023
9. Ineluctable modality of the risible
10. Next week's online gathering
11. Nudge
12. PS
13. PPS
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1. Aid for Ukraine
This is always on the first item on the weekly newsletter (which also ends with an appeal for donations) But please don't skip to the next item. The conflict in Ukraine continues, and horribly. By the end of the year it will have been a stain on history for 300 days. This is hard to imagine. The most far-reaching aid programme has been, and remains, the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. You can donate quickly and easily here, whatever you can, whenever you can.
Thank you.
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2. This week’s online gathering
The first part of the programme has an Italian theme, with Cristina Viti on her translation os Pasolini’s La rabbia / Anger marking the centenary of Pasolini’s birth. The President of OpLePo, Elena Addomine, joins us from New York to share some of her 'homographic translations' and a reading of “Chimera”, an Anglo-Italian literary mosaicism connecting sonnets by Shakespeare and Dante.
Paolo Pergola will introduce his fellow author Paolo Albani who will deliver his Esercizi di stile di lettura, a reading of the following two-line poem in 11 different ways.
Italian original English translation
Meriggiare pallido e assorto To rest at noon, pale and thoughtful
presso un rovento muro d'orto near a blazing orchard wall
The styles Paolo Albani uses are (in this order):
1. Standard reading
2. Reading at a fruit and vegetables market in Naples
3. Reading during a kidnapping attempt
4. Reading forward and backwards (this could be cut)
5. Reading at a Futurists meeting
6. Reading at a Gregorian mass
7. Reading as a verdict at a tribunal
8. Reading during a revolutionary parade
9. Reading when giving directions
10. Reading at an aristocratic dinner
11. Reading in a silent movie
Following which Paolo Pergola will read some of his own Shakespearean deconstructions, with a nod to Hamlet.
In the second part it's Apostasy Now - three former members of the Jehovah's Witnesses share thoughts on their escape from the clutches of this weird evangelical cult and the consolations of literature. Joining me will be authors Ali Millar and Ariel Anderssen
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3. Indie press news
And Other Stories
The publisher Michael Watson has sent the And Other Stories catalogue for the upcoming Spring/Summer season, with works ranging from a memoir by Xiu Xiu founding member Jamie Stewart to the latest novel from Johanna Hedva; from a translation of a serial-novel-written-as-blog-posts-during-the-invasion-of-Iraq to a collection of stories by an Italian master.
He highlights two of next year’s titles, Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera (February) and Your Love Is Not Good by Johanna Hedva (May):
- Ten Planets is 'a rich and genre-defying collection, blending the best of science fiction, noir and the philosophical parables of Calvino and Borges.'
- Your Love Is Not Good is 'smart, propulsive, and challenging. Johanna Hedva's prose is phenomenal, practically crackling with energy on the page. Grappling with identity, activism, artistic endeavour and more, Your Love Is Not Good is that amazing blend of critical intelligence and brilliant narrative.'
Here are links to the past year's catalogues from this outstanding indie press. Get stuck in!
Penhaligon Press: Balchin reissues in 2023
My friend Derek Collett is single-handedly reviving the fortunes of the author Nigel Balchin (1908-1970). I've just received the latest in his beautifully designed and edited series of re-issues: In the Absence of Mrs Petersen, originally published in 1966. Praised by Anthony Burgess ('superb entertainment'), it's new to me, and comes from late in the author's career.
There will be three more Balchin titles coming out next year:
Spring 2023 - Sundry Creditors (a factory novel with a proto-Angry Young Man as one of the principal characters).
Summer 2023 - Mine Own Executioner (a London psycho-analyst tries to prevent a former Spitfire pilot from murdering his wife following his brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese in WWII)
Autumn 2023 - The Fall of the Sparrow (the case history of Jason Pellew, a loveable charmer who distinguishes himself as a cloak-and-dagger boy in WWII but drifts into petty crime afterwards)
Look out for all of these. Balchin is a wonderful writer and in Derek Collett has found the ideal publisher. His Balchin biography His Own Executioner is recommended
CB editions
A snapshot history of CBe, written in instalments over the years, is downloadable (pdf) from the ‘About & News’ page of the publisher's website.
Also available from the website home page, not one but two Season Tickets. The original is still there, 12 books for £75, free delivery. There’s now a 6-books-for-£40 option as well. If you're wondering what to give X or Y for Christmas, here is your answer.
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4. Joanna Walsh in Paris
My Life as a Godard Movie
Experience Jean-Luc Godard through the eyes of author Joanna Walsh as she discusses Paris, art, youth, beauty, and cinema with Summer Brennan.
Tuesday 6th December from 7:30pm to 8:30pm (assume this is Paris time)
Free (and it's a hybrid event so open to join online, but you have to register in advance here:
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5. On Frank Ramsey
For any of you who would like to know more about Frank Ramsey, the young genius who featured on last week's programme marking the centenary of the English publication of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (which Ramsey translated) here is a BBC radio documentary from 1978.
I lamented the fact that there was no biography, just a memoir by his sister. Thanks to Callum McCarthy for making the very good point that few if any biographers would be up to the task of understanding Ramsey's work. So perhaps a fetschrift of some kind is overdue, one to which experts in (e.g,) economics and cognitive psychology and philosophy and statitsics etc might contribute. Any takers?
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6. I Am Curious, Gialli
David Spittle appeared on the Glue Factory a few weeks ago, as a guest of Vik Shirley, speaking about the Italian film genre known as 'Gialli' (i.e. Yellow). A handful of directorsd and films aside this was all new to me, and to many audience members who asked for more detail
So David has kindly provided a filmography (below) as well as suggested further reading and notes on culktural antecedents. Too much to include in the newsletter but if you'd like to now more drop me a line and I can send you the very interesting and useful file.
Gialli filmography
Mario Bava and Luigi Bazzoni
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Bava, 1963)
The Possessed (Luigi Bazzoni,1965)
Blood and Black Lace (Bava, 1964)
Danger: Diabolik (Bava,1968)
The Fifth Cord (Bazzoni, 1971)
Lisa and the Devil (Bava, 1974)
Footprints on the Moon (Bazzoni, 1975)
Lucio Fulci
Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971)
Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972)
Sergio Martino
The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971)
The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale (1971)
All the Colours of the Dark (1972)
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)
The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975)
Dario Argento
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971)
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972)
Deep Red (1975)
Tenebrae (1982)
Ricarrdo Freda
Double Face (1969)
Murder Obsession (1981)
Guilio Questi
Death Laid an Egg (1968)
Emilio Paolo Miraglia
The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave (1971)
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)
Joe D’Amato
Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)
Modern Gialli / Films influenced by Giallo
(a select few - there are LOADS)
Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)
Brand upon the Brain (Guy Maddin, 2006)
Peter Strickland
Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
Flux Gourmet (2022)
Knife + Heart (Yann Gonzalez, 2018)
The Wild Boys (Betrand Mandico, 2017)
After Blue (Betrand Mandico, 2021)
Helene Cattat & Bruno Forzani
Amer (2009)
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (2013)
Let The Corpses Tan (2017)
Red Nights (Laurent Courtiaud and Julien Carbon, 2010)
Piercing (Nicolas Pesce, 2018)
Thanks David - something to enjoy this winter....
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7. Three prizewinners!
An Post Irish Book Awards.
The Short Story of the Year category, sponsored by was open to single stories which have been published either in collections or magazines. The 2022 winner (announced last week) is Nuala O’Connor for 'This Small Giddy Life'. Glue Factory audiences will know Nuala as the author of NORA, a wonderful novel about James Joyce's other half. Congratulations Nuala!
Also announced last week, the joint winners of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2022:
Osebol by Marit Kapla, translated from Swedish by Peter Graves
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
I'm very keen to read the latter. The former, of course, featured on the Glue Factory when the author joined poet Caroline Clarke for a discussion about verbatim writing. Osebol is among my favourite non-fiction books of the year. An immersive masterpiece.
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7. The Peirine Stevns Translation Prize 2023
The Peirene Stevns Translation Prize 2023 is now open. This year the prize is aimed at emerging translators from German to English. Entrants are invited to translate a sample from Ein simpler Eingriff by Swiss writer Yael Inokai (Carl Hanser Verlag, 2022) – a haunting novel following a young nurse working in a psychiatric unit as she loses her faith in the medical establishment.
The prize winner receives a £3850 commission to translate Ein simpler Eingriff (to be published by Peirene Press in 2024), a translation retreat in an 18th century mill house in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, and a translation mentorship with acclaimed literary translator Jamie Bulloch.
Established in 2018 with the generous support of Martha Stevns to provide opportunities for emerging translators, the prize is open to any translator over the age of 18 who has not yet published a full length literary translation. For full entry instructions, prize details and eligibility guidelines click here.
Please address any queries to
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8. Ineluctable modality of the risible
Still stumped for last-minute gift ideas?
Published in Dublin on (Bloomsday) this year, Multiple Joyce: 100 short essays about James Joyce's cultural legacy is the only book about James Joyce's cultural legacy you're likely to need to give this year. Or to own.
Fill yer boots (and read some extracts):
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10. Next week's online gathering
The last book-length study of Samuel Beckett's poetry appeared in 1970. After half a century the second is about to be published by Cambridge University Press. Samuel Beckett’s Poetry is a collection of essays edited by James Brophy and William Davies, and they will both be joining us to talk about the book, and the man, and the poetry
‘The editors and a distinguished team of contributors have produced a superb collection that leaves no poetic allusion unanalyzed. This book will be a classic of Beckett criticism. Here is scholarship taken to a high degree, adding contexts and glosses to Sean Lawlor’s and John Pilling’s pioneering work. Everyone interested in Beckett will need to read this engrossing book on the poetry and rediscover Beckett the poet.’
- Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvani
Toby Litt will join us to discuss A Writer’s Diary (following his appearance on The Glue Factory in January to launch this superb long-form writing project)
And the launch of Exacting Clam issue 7. Publisher Jacob Smullyan and editor Guillermo Stitch present the latest edition of this transatlantic quarterly featuring (among illustrious others) Glue Factory stalwarts Kevin Boniface, Jake Goldsmith, Kurt Luchs, Melissa McCarthy Paolo Pergola and Paul Stanbridge.
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11. Nudge
Since we started back in March 2020 the driver behind the Glue factory (and its earlier iterations) has been to raise funds for The Trussell Trust, the UK food bank charity. They do good in these bad times. Please make a donation, in cash or in kind to your local foodbank. Details here:
And thank you!
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12. PS
For more than ten years Twitter has been part of my daily life and perhaps yours too. It's also supported the fragile eco-system of indie publishing. At the time of writing it still seems likely that the platform will go belly up.
In common with many I've set up a Mastodon account and if you're on the mailing list for this newsletter I hope you'll follow me there:
https://mastodon.social/invite/wdoKuQ2r
I'll carry on using Twitter to promote The Glue Factory and be rude about the Tories until the online gatherings end in December.
I may shut down my account before then if the site becomes unendurable.
Here's the best thing I can find about the likely impact of Twitter disappearing, and the alternatives.
Mastodon is not (yet) as user-friendly, at least not for this newcomer, but -how best to put this? - there's a room in the elephant. See you there.
13. PPS I'm thinking about the future and about you, and all of the 1,000+ newsletter subscribers. I've invited a number of indie publishers to use The Glue Factory as a platform to promote new and forthcoming books and to showcase their past, current and future writers. So while the Glue Factory itself will vanish under the waves the platform will opearte as an occasional 'pop up shop' for special one-off events in 2023. So you'll get occasional invitations in the future and I hope you'll join the audience (as shall I). Some terrific things are coming.
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