John Barnie Double Book-Launch

It was a great pleasure to help launch two books a couple of weeks ago at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The first was John Barnie's latest poetry collection, Departure Lounge, published by the indefatigable Cinnamon Press. 

The second was my own edited volume of poetry and prose honouring John's long career in writing and editing - Wired to the Dynamo (again, published by Cinnamon).

John Barnie reading from his new collection. Photograph © and by kind permission of Adam Craig, 2018

It is testament to the wide affection and respect in which John is held that the Performance Studio was pretty much bursting at the seams. And the full house got to hear a number of songs from John's highly entertaining blues band, Hollow Log - a trio made up of John himself, Richard Marggraf Turley, and Dilwyn Roberts-Young. There were also readings from three of Wales's most prominent contemporary poets writing in English: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Matthew Francis, and Damian Walford Davies. 

John Barnie (l) talking to me (r). Photograph © and by kind permission of Adam Craig, 2018.

As part of the evening's events, I conducted an interview with John, in which we talked about issues ranging from the trajectory of his own career, through the influence of formal questions on the production of his poetry, to the current geopolitical situation. John is a genuinely fascinating interviewee, intellectually acute in a way that keeps the interviewer on their toes. And for anyone who wants to know more, I included an extended interview with him in Wired to the Dynamo​ itself.

It was entirely appropriate that the evening ended with a round of applause for John - in fact, not just applause, but a spontaneous standing ovation. It was a wonderful moment, and a very fitting tribute to one of Wales's most important English-language literary voices of recent years.