John Harvey Remembers Lucille Clifton

Lineup 2 contributor John Harvey has blogged a remembrance of American poet Lucille Clifton, who died Saturday, February 13, at age 73.

photo © Dorothy Alexander

John Harvey reflects on The Lineup 2

John Harvey received his contributor copy of The Lineup 2 today and blogged an account of our meeting at last year's Bouchercon:

One of the most pleasant times I had at last year’s Bouchercon in Baltimore was sitting quietly, having ducked out of some fun party or other, and talking to Gerald So, the fiction editor of the Thrilling Detective web site and editor-in-chief of The Lineup, an annual magazine of poems on or about crime. I’d met Gerald earlier, when we were both on a panel discussing poetry and its links with crime writing, and it was good to get a chance to speak with him at greater length.

The new issue of The Lineup has just been published – I have my copy in front of me – and it looks very smart indeed. Aside from the couple of poems Gerald winkled out of me – a reworking of “Always Chinatown”, which appeared in Bluer Than This, and a little poem now called “Story”, which had never previously been published – there are poems by, amongst others, Sophie Hannah, Carol Novack, Manuel Ramos and the redoubtable Reed Farrel Coleman.

Thanks again, John.

John Harvey

John Harvey has enjoyed close to 35 years as a writer, mostly of fiction, and for some 25 of those years he ran Slow Dancer Press and edited Slow Dancer magazine. In 2007, he was awarded the British Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in the field of crime writing. Two collections of his poems have been published, Ghosts of a Chance [1992] and Bluer Than This [1998], both Smith/Doorstop Press. His contributions to The Lineup: Poems on Crime 2 are his first published poems for some time.

"Poetry in Motion" at Bouchercon 2008

I arrived early for the "Poetry in Motion" panel last Friday and sat in the audience for a few minutes until the room organizer looked from my nameplate on the table to the name badge around my neck and said, "Excuse me. You're supposed to sit up here."

I then tested the steps to the dais and talked with a few people in the audience until my fellow panelists arrived.

Reed Farrel Coleman

Moderator Reed Farrel Coleman had us introduce ourselves and talk briefly about how we got into poetry. He then opened the floor to questions, and between answers we read two poems each.

Reed read "Jungfrau" from The Poetry of Murder (a chapbook printed for his well-remembered poetry panel at Bouchercon 2005 with Ken Bruen, Peter Spiegelman, and Jim Fusilli) and "The Dying Man", forthcoming in Issue 2 of The Lineup.

John Harvey

John Harvey read "Chet Baker" and "What Would You Say?" from his 1998 collection Bluer Than This.

Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah read "Don't Say I Said" from Pessimism for Beginners and "Occupational Hazard" from Leaving and Leaving You.

It seemed a decent turnout, mostly fiction readers who were curious about poetry. The first question, for example, was "How do you keep your prose from becoming too flowery and 'poetic'?"

Reed smiled at "flowery" before explaining that poetry involved cutting, distilling language to its essence. John Harvey agreed that poetry was about choosing the right word.

Reed also talked about his time as editor of a poetry zine and how he forgot the lessons of poetry with his first book, but remembered them in writing his Moe Prager P.I. series.

Gerald So

My poems "A Single Bound" and "Witness Protection" were by far the shortest, but they proved Reed and John's point that poetry is more focused than flowery.

Of course, a panelist's perspective is different from that of the audience. If you attended the panel, please comment with your thoughts, If anyone has pictures from the panel, I will replace these file images.

The rest of my first Bouchercon experience is covered here.

Empanelled

I'll be on the "Poetry in Motion" panel at Bouchercon with Sophie Hannah, and John Harvey—moderated by Reed Farrel Coleman.

Date/Time: Friday, October 10, 10:00-11:00 A.M.

I will also bring copies of The Lineup with me to B'con.