The Importance of the Poetry Book in the Digital
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The Importance Of The Poetry Book In The Digital Age How Far Digital Technology Has Influenced Contemporary Poetry And The Status Of The Poetry Book & The Birth of Romance A Poetry Collection A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham by Philip Monks Submitted 27th September 2017 This corrected version 1st March 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT An examination through the creation and curation of a printed poetry collection, together with other practice-based and wider research, of how far digital technology has influenced contemporary poetry and the status of the poetry book. Personal practice is considered and analysed and, from this, and research leading out from this, a more general survey provided of the impact of digital technology on the poet’s persona, the creation of the poems themselves and on their dissemination. These wider issues, and the practice-based research that underlies them, inform the specific consideration of the extent to which digital technology has affected the nature and importance of the single collection poetry book in the early part of the twenty-first century. The conclusion is drawn that, for the poet, and for contemporary poetry more generally, the importance of the printed poetry book is greater than ever and that digital technology has further increased its impact, vitality and relevance. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express my indebtedness to my supervisor Luke Kennard for his unstinting support and guidance at all stages of the work and my gratitude to my co-supervisor Elsa Braekkan-Payne for her input at key points. I would also like to thank all the members of the West Midlands poetry community who have provided information, stimulus and informed comments to help me progress, especially Jonathan Davidson, Jane Commane, Jo Bell and Emma Wright. Thanks as always are due to my wife and children for their support throughout. 3 CONTENTS Section One How Far Digital Technology Has Influenced Contemporary Poetry And The Status Of The Poetry Book Introduction 9 Chapter 1. The Poet’s Persona in the Digital Age 15 The Poet’s Persona in Print and Online – Context and Control 16 My Own Poetry in Relation to My Poetic Persona 22 The Public and Private Life of a Poet 26 Personal Websites and Proxy Interlocutors 29 My Own Online Experience 35 Blogs 39 Publishers’ Websites 41 Other Websites 49 Anthologisation as Context 54 Chapter 2. The Effect of Digital Media on the Poems Themselves 64 More Than the Words on the Screen 65 The Challenge of Typography 72 Writing In The Medium 79 Tweet-Poems 81 The Pros and Cons of Prizes 84 I Competitions for Unpublished Poems 84 II Poetry Prizes for Published Poems 89 4 Poets Refusing Prizes 93 The Symbiosis Between Online and Print Publication 103 Video as Publication and Transmedia Applications 114 The Organising Principle – Books and Websites 119 My Own Poetry Collection 125 Chapter 3. Publishing The Poetry Book 128 The Route to Book Publication for the Poet 129 The Role of the Book Publisher 130 The Major Poetry Book Publishers 135 Smaller Publishers 141 Print-On-Demand 145 Self-publishing and Collaborative Publishing 148 e-publishing 152 Conclusion 159 References 171 Appendix 1: Two Poems for Young People 189 Appendix 2: Original Version of ‘Therefore Let The Moon’ 192 Appendix 3: The Poem ‘Metal’ 193 Section Two Poetry Collection The Birth of Romance Part 1: Women and Men My Friend In His Pretty Dress 196 Business Meeting 197 5 Mrs Sissal Caressing Her Muff 198 Marigold Child 199 Girl For A While 200 We Are The Men 201 Girls Of The Coal Tip, Lancashire 203 Rubble Women In Post-war Dresden 204 The Three Women 205 Greek God’s Gift 208 Left And Right Shoes 209 He Built Them An Ark 210 We are the / children 211 Mr Wordsworth at St. Catherine’s 212 The Sandpilot of Morecambe Bay 214 He’ll Not Come Back Again 215 Watch How She Smooths 216 What Are They For, The Eyebrows? 217 To You, Sara Hildén 218 Pointy Shoes 222 Five Poems For Ezra Pound 223 The Sewing Basket 228 Babyish 230 Part 2: If I Touch Your Sleeve Alluring Darkness 232 Love Potion From The Old Lore 233 If I Touch Your Sleeve 234 Evening In Her House 235 The Kiss 236 He Whispered Such Words To Her 237 If I Had A Pound For Every Time 238 like a bumblebee 239 If You Hold Me 240 Weave The Sunlight 241 What Is A Man To Do? 242 Part 3: The Birth of Romance Early Morning Coffee 244 Park Bench. 2016. 245 The Derelict Bandstand 246 April Incident 247 The Chroniclers 248 For a moment I dreamed 249 6 No Stairs To The Attic 250 On The Edge Of The Seat 251 10 Shoe Stories 252 3 x Car Park 253 Sitting On The Wall Outside On A Break 255 Stock-taking In The Empty Classroom 256 The Retail Park 257 The Tattoo Parlour 258 Arrival 259 The Balloon Ride 260 Views Of Mount Fuji 261 In Venice In Search Of The Pristine 262 Therefore Let The Moon 263 The Birth of Romance 264 Knickerbocker Glory Sunset 265 Part 4: In Times of Trial To Kill A Dragon 267 The Tiger In The Corner 268 Taking Off My Hair 269 The Operation 270 On Feeling A Little Fed Up 271 Screw The Lid Down Tight 272 The Cup 273 Candle Poem 274 Two Peasants Binding Faggots 276 My Gecko Was Impacted / This Was The Situation 277 The Idea Of A Dog 278 The Importance Of Cats In Ancient Egypt 279 Strange Creature – A Riddle 280 The crane is not eyeing the water over the wetlands 281 In My Humble Opinion 282 The Computer Generates 283 Self-help Bookmark 284 Condition Report 285 The Box 287 The Mirror of Literature 290 The Hubris Of Its Maintenance 291 7 Section One How Far Digital Technology Has Influenced Contemporary Poetry And The Status Of The Poetry Book We are currently living in the midst of a massive cultural revolution. For the first time since the development of moveable type in the late fifteenth century, print has lost its primacy in communication. The proliferation of electronic technology has gone far beyond providing new means for the communication, storage, and retrieval of information: the new media have gradually changed not only the way we perceive language and ideas but also the world and ourselves. The shift in the modes of communication has had an extraordinary impact on every aspect of contemporary life, but literature, an imaginative enterprise created entirely from words, has been profoundly affected in ways that we are still in the process of comprehending. Dana Gioia, Disappearing Ink: Poetry At The End Of Print Culture (Gioia, 2004, p. 3) 8 Introduction This thesis is based on a practice-as-research methodology. Using my own practice as a poet both in itself and to inform, underpin and contextualise my wider research, I examine how far digital technology has influenced contemporary poetry and the status of the poetry book. In order to provide a general context and explore the current environment in which the poetry book currently exists, I begin by considering the poet’s persona then discuss online publication and the impact of digital technology on the poems themselves before focusing directly on the published book. In this way I investigate responses to the opportunities and challenges of digital technology from: myself and other poets; poetry communities, both my own and those that contrast with these; the poetry audience, again as it relates to my own work and that of others; and poetry publishing, here referencing my own publication and publishers more widely. In the light of this practice-as-research, and the wider research following on from it, I consider how these responses and the digital and print ecology itself have influenced the printed poetry book, in particular in the UK in the early twenty-first century. From this I draw conclusions with regard to my own approach, and approaches other poets might take, in terms of a poetry aesthetic (the nature and type of poems written) and in terms of interacting with the poetry community, both online and offline. I consider throughout how the creation, revision and curation of my poems for the print collection that forms the second part of the thesis enables me to reflect on the themes and ideas explored in the first part. This is considered in greatest detail in the sections where I directly discuss my own poems and poetry practice, ‘My Own Poetry in Relation to My Poetic Persona’, ‘My Own Online Experience’ and ‘My Own Poetry Collection’ and also at some length in the conclusion, but throughout my practice as a poet informs my wider survey and analysis of the impact of digital technology on contemporary poetry generally and the poetry book specifically 9 and the conclusions I draw from it. This can be seen most explicitly in my discussion of my own practice in the sections ‘Writing In The Medium’, ‘The Pros and Cons of Prizes’, ‘The Symbiosis Between Online and Print Publication’ and ‘Video as Publication and Transmedia Applications’, but is applied throughout and is fundamental to – and therefore implicit in – my overall approach.