Christmas in Kingsport

It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten.

- H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Festival'

Happy Christmas!

Tarkovsky's VGIK Films Reconsidered

My article, 'The Stilyaga from Siberia: Tarkovsky's VGIK Films Reconsidered' is now available on Academic.edu. In English, this time. It's slightly revised (3 paragraphs longer) than the Portuguese translation that appeared in January of this year for the Belo Horizonte Tarkovsky retrospective.

https://www.academia.edu/34705087/The_Stilyaga_from_Siberia_Tarkovskys_VGIK_Films_Reconsidered.pdf 

The Girl Who Got onto the Ferry in Citizen Kane: Poems

I have won a Templar Portfolio Poetry Award, which will see Templar Poetry publishing my first official pamphlet of poems, The Girl Who Got onto the Ferry in Citizen Kane, in a few months' time. A few of the pieces have been published before: the title poem in Gutter in 2014, another appeared in an issue of Butcher's Dog last year, and the collection will also include my Wigtown prize-winning piece, 'Chop Wood, Carry Water'. But the rest are new to publication. I expect to be doing some readings when the pamphlet is launched. I will post more information when I have some.

International Association for Comparative Mythology 2017 Conference

The International Association for Comparative Mythology's 2017 Conference takes place in Edinburgh 8-11 June. All welcome. More details can be found at www.compmyth.org.

Poster by Ollie Benton

Tarkovsky: Eternal Return in Brazil

My essay 'The Stilyaga from Siberia: Tarkovsky's VGIK Films Reconsidered' has now been published (in Portuguese). It's in the catalogue of the retrospective Andreï Tarkovski: Eterno Retorno, which ran at the Cine Humberto Mauro in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between 20 January and 9 February. The essay will appear 'in English' at some point later this year I hope.

The Stilyaga from Siberia

I have a new essay on Tarkovsky, 'The Stilyaga from Siberia: Tarkovsky's VGIK Films Reconsidered', publishing in the not too distant future. The paper has been written for a Tarkovsky retrospective that is happening in Brazil. More details as and when...