Claire Trévien

The Woman, The Gaze, The World

admin — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:06:33 +0000

I am part of a new exhibition of five artists and five writers, curated by Dr Crystal Bennes, which will open at the Hamni Gallery on 23rd April until 5th May. I have written four new pieces in response to the work of Eugenia Ivanissevich, including probably my strangest poem to date. I’d love it if you would go and see it. More info here.

Pamphlets, books,…

admin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:16:59 +0000

The Shipwrecked House

Penned in the Margins

Poetry Challenge #1

admin — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:51:41 +0000

An occasional series in which I set a poetic challenge.

You might have seen a post by the Free Word Centre do the rounds on Facebook recently with a list of words untranslatable in English:

Gigil (Filipino) – The irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze something cute.

Neidbau (German) – A building constructed with the sole purpose of inconveniencing a neighbor in some way.

Oppholdsvoer (Norweigan) – Weather just after the rain has stopped.

Qualunquismo (Italian) – Apathy and indifference towards politics.

Tartle (Scottish) – The act of hesitating on forgetting someone’s name.

Uitwaaien (Dutch) – Literally ‘to walk in the wind’: to take a brief break outside to clear one’s head.

Sehnsucht (German) – A sense of longing. A nostalgia for something that can still happen – (a concept loved by German Idealist philosophers).

Zhaghzhagh (Persian) – Chattering of the teeth.

Waldeinsamkeit (German) – The feeling of being peacefully alone in the woods.

Kummerspeck (German) – “Grief Bacon”, or the weight you put on from comfort eating.

с легким паром / s legkim parom – (Russian) “With a light steam”: a friendly remark made to someone who’s just come from the bath.

Hiraeth (Welsh) – Homesickness for a place you can never return to, or that never was.

风韵 / fengyun (Chinese) – “Wind sound”, or (a woman’s) charm.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to take one of these as the title of a new poem. If you take the line that poetry is putting words to what cannot be otherwise expressed, then translating an untranslatable word should be the perfect fit, shouldn’t it?

Here is my first attempt:

The Next Big Thing

admin — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:23:58 +0000

I was tagged by Don Share for this Meme.

What is the title of your Work in Progress?

The Shipwrecked House, named after two of the poems.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Originally it was spurred on by the death of my grandmother, the book is dedicated to her. She was a painter who lived on a house perched by the sea in Brittany. Her death was the catalyst for many other changes in my life and prompted the creation of the bulk of these poems. Mixed with these are differently painful poems dealing with my experience of domestic violence. This book has been a way to try to exorcise all sorts of pains.

At the same time, there’s plenty of reckless joy in it too, with poetry experiments and cameos from the likes of Cyrano de Bergerac and Buffy.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

If it could involve Eva Green I’d be over the moon.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?

Magically real poems of instability.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Almost a year, though some poems are six or seven years old. The youngest poem in it is a few weeks old.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As mentioned above, my grandmother, but also Brittany, my constant muse.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The characters in this book are not on their best behaviour.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Neither, it is being published by Penned in the Margins.

Make up a question you think is pressing in way of poetry today.

What can we do to stop newspapers from concentrating on fossilized poets and people uninvolved with the scene for their news stories?

I will be launching my collection in London on 21 March, Paris on 25 March, and Oxford on 11 April, with more dates tbc.

I tag for the next round Lucy Ayrton, Cat Conway, and Laila Sumpton. Look out for their blogs (or equivalents) next Wednesday!

A year in review

admin — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:56:27 +0000

Inspired by Amy Key and her gorgeous year in review poem, I have penned one of my own. Enjoy!

Franco-British reading coming up!

Jom — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 10:22:39 +0000

‘A rare chance to hear Occitan poet Aurélia Lassaque read her poems from her new book – Solstice and other poems, translated into English by James Thomas.

She will be accompanied by three other Francophone Poets, Lucile Deslignères, Sabine Chaouche and Claire Trévien, who will read their poetry in French and English.

The evening will also feature Galician piper Mano Panforreteio.’

Solstice flyer Oxford (1)

I am translating some of Sabine Chaouche’s poems into English especially for the event and can’t wait to share some of my more hybrid poems…

Last Saturday

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:24:12 +0000

I was honoured to be asked by Amy Key to read at the notorious The Shuffle (at the poetry café) and here’s the picture to prove it:

I discovered new poets to add my increasingly long list of favourites and was pleasantly surprised at the reaction one of my poems received.

In other news, Penning Perfumes is back! Odette Toilette and I have teamed up with Clerkenwell Tales this time, and will be creating a scentsational (sorry) extravaganza on 28th November for your delectation. Tickets are only £5 and available for purchase here.

New Poem

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:56:28 +0000

So I recorded myself reading a poem.

Why?

Well I’m one of many poets involved in a book called Estuary: A Confluence of Art & Poetry and each of us has been asked to provide a URL which would ideally, where poets are concerned, show them reading one of their poems. These will all become part of an Estuary ‘network’ or channel, I really love this idea and can’t wait to see it all happen.

So I gave it a go. My transitions aren’t too smooth, but hopefully I’ll get better at that.

Whales

A brief update

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:42:50 +0000

I apologize for not updating this in a while. A new job is about to begin, I am flat-hunting all over the place, and plotting to bring Penning Perfumes on tour. Speaking of which, we made an appearance in the Financial Times!

I am currently working on the manuscript of my first full collection called The Shipwrecked House (to be published by Penned in the Margins in 2013) and so have been writing many new poems as a result. One of these, based on tweets tagged with #GBBO features in Amy Key and Charlotte Runcie’s fantastic Great British Bard Off website. It’s a pop-up anthology to celebrate all cake-related poetic things during the Great British Bake Off.

Hope you enjoy mine, it’s called ‘Bread Cthulhu‘

On the subject of my publisher, I have just read Luke Kennard postcyberpunk novella Holophin, and it really is quite extraordinary. Cannot recommend it enough, especially if you like your writing experimental and your characters unstable.

Penning Perfumes

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:58:18 +0000

I somehow neglected to plug repeatedly the project I co-organized with Odette Toilette, Penning Perfumes, so this is a quick attempt to make up for it. To make things short: we had an amazing event on 12th June (reviewed by The Guardian no less) and have been selling anthologies accompanied by scented pens here.

The event was sold out. However! We are doing a take #2 version of it this very Sunday at the Betsey Trotwood, and best of all, it’s free! It’s part of a day of fun poetry events and I’m apparently reading with some other Salt Modern Voices pamphleteers. So I recommend you attend and experience a unique scent/worded event…