August Kleinzahler and Joe Stretch
August Kleinzahler and Joe Stretch hit the town
Acclaimed US poet August Kleinzahler was joined at the last minute by our writer in residence Joe Stretch for Monday's Literature Live event, after Helen Dunmore unfortunately had to withdraw due to illness. We hope that Helen will appear next academic year, but in the meantime it was a treat to hear a reading from Joe in the publication week of his debut novel Friction.He began by reading the opening passages of the book, described by Manchester Confidential as "...a hellhole vision of empty-headed young people bored out of their skulls seeking sensation to fill in the blanks."
Joe then read what he described as "...a short story which suddenly occurs" in the midst of the novel he is currently working on, Wildlife. While hitchhiking down to London, protagonist Joe's baby daughter begins to regurgitate tiny people, first the corpse of a lady he christens Dolly, and later - during a ride with a monstrous family from Wokingham - her living husband Sam.
Perhaps surprisingly, Joe claimed in the subsequent Q & A session that he had never read a horror novel and didn't consider genre when writing, certainly not seeing himself as part of the resurgence of interest in that type of work.
August Kleinzahler began with the title poem from his book Green Sees Things in Waves, about a homeless man who also hallucinates the presence of another person after taking 'too much LSD' at some point in his past. Somewhat fulfilling the stereotype of the San Francisco ageing drop-out, Green "...can't find the knob to turn off the show."
'The Dog Stoltz' contains a strong element of the absurd, its canine lead announcing that he must write an essay on First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, while 'Sleeping it off in Rapid City', the title poem from August's forthcoming collection, provides a 4am perspective on the place which claims to be the central point of the United States.
The title of his poem 'Almost Nothing' refers to modernist architect Mies van der Rohr's motto, and it was written in memory of a friend in that field who was an ex-patriot of Rochdale. As well as being a devotee of his architecture Gordon shared his hero's love of martinis, but there are also contrasts throughout the poem between purity of 'the great man's' creations and the ruggedness of Gordon's Rochdale roots.
After a brief Q & A the speakers and audience repaired to the wine reception with a lot to talk about, and perhaps some new perspectives on life in the modern city.