Following Manson Papers from the Peter Manson Symposium

Abstract

Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Peter Manson (1969-) is a poet and translator of poetry from Glasgow. He is the author of several volumes of poetry including For the Good of Liars (Barque Press, 2006), Between Cup and Lip (Miami University Press, 2008), English in Mallarmé (Blart Books, 2014) and Poems of Frank Rupture (Sancho Panza, 2014), and of the prose-work Adjunct: an Undigest (Edinburgh Review 2006; ubuweb 2001). Recent poetry includes Factitious Airs (Zarf editions, 2017) and a collaboration with Mendoza, WINDSUCKERS & ONSETTERS: SONNOTS for Griffiths (MATERIALS, 2018). Manson is also a translator of poetry from French: his translation of Stéphane Mallarmé’s Poesies, twenty-five years in the making, was published as Stéphane Mallarmé: The Poems in Verse in 2013 (University of Miami Press). Further translations include Mallarmé’s The Marrying of Hérodiade (Free Poetry, 2016) and early poems by Théophile Gautier, Darkness (2018). With Robin Purves, Manson co-edited the poetry magazine, Object Permanence, from Glasgow, between 1994 and 1997, establishing vital transatlantic links between experimental poets from the UK and Ireland and the US. In October 2017, a symposium dedicated to Manson’s poetry and translations was held at the University of Glasgow, including an evening of celebratory readings and music, and a poetry reading by Manson. This special issue of the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry collects essays extending many of the papers given that weekend. This editorial is in three parts. First, Ellen Dillon discloses the personal impact of her compulsive engagement with Peter Manson’s work on her life as a reader and scholar, then Tom Betteridge reads ‘Gray Squirrel’ from Manson’s early pamphlet Birth Windows.1 These are followed by an introduction to each of the seven essays collected in this special issue.