Subterranean Books

Hailed as “One of the most important studies of Bob Dylan to date”, Mike Marqusee ’s highly acclaimed new work, Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan’s Art (The New Press, £14.95) traces the evolution of the young Dylan’s poetry, politics and highly charged social movements – and in the process “rescues one of the most urgent poetic voices in American history from the condenscension of his own later cynicism.” The evening will feature Mike in conversation discussing Bob Dylan’s early poetics, imagery and eventual transformation Interspersed with the discussion will be the exciting new poetry of Carcanet poets: Matthew Welton makes tunes out of words. Using the sounds and structures of language, he finds new understandings of what poetic form can do. He refuses to be constrained by convention. The title poem to his new collection, The Book of Matthew, borrows its structure from Roget’s Thesaurus to spin thirty-nine variations on sounds, images and rhythms, creating a puzzling, dazzling kaleidoscope of effects. Robert Saxton 's first collection of poetry, The Promise Clinic , was published by Enitharmon in 1994. He is also represented in Faber's Poetry Introduction 7 and Carcanet's Oxford Poets 2001 anthology. In 2001 he won the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association's poetry prize for ' The Nightingale Broadcasts'. His latest collection, Manganese, starts with a murder in China in the age of Confucius and ends with a sestina about a difficult family Christmas in front of the television. Sparkling with bravado and wit, Manganese is one of the most abundantly various collections of poetry to appear in recent years.