Advanced Praise for Karen Perry’s

THE BOY THAT NEVER WAS - Penguin UK - March 2014


“Impossible to put down. This pulse pounding thriller is bristling with suspense—a fantastic debut.”—John Hart
　

"A truly remarkable novel. THE BOY THAT NEVER WAS is a pitch-perfect balance of driving plot and honest, complex human emotion. Written in a captivating, lyrical style and brilliantly structured, the story grips your heart from the first pages and simply never lets go."


--Jeffery Deaver, Best-selling author of The Bone Collector


 THE BOY THAT NEVER WAS is that powerful thing, a beautifully written mystery driven by its exploration of the characters' innermost hearts - of the inexorable ripples that loss sends out, and the terrible damage people can do to those they love most. Both as a crime novel and as an emotional journey, it's gripping stuff.'

-- Tana French, Best-selling author of Broken Harbour



 THE BOY THAT NEVER WAS kicks off with a gut punch of every parents' worst fear and never lets up. Part thriller, part introspective emotional novel, the book dives into what it feels like to survive the unthinkable, and then -- what if -- you could get it all back. No really good guys or bad guys here, just emotionally wounded people struggling to hang on. Highly original and highly entertaining

-- Ace Atkins, New York Times Bestselling author of The Broken Places

“Accomplished…A dark mystery about unimaginable loss and irrevocable choices…Perry delivers an intriguingly emotional and unconventional debut.”—Kirkus

“Smart…Deceit, infidelity, and surprising twists make this a satisfying debut.”—Publishers Weekly

“Deliciously taut…the haunting, sometimes vague flashbacks to Tangiers create a sense of alluring, exotic danger. Readers drawn to the intense emotion and zero-sum conflict of Andre Dubus III’s House of Sand and Fog (1999) will love this one, as will those captivated by the missing-person intrigues in Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know (2007) and Lisa Scottoline’s Look Again (2009).”—Booklist, Starred Review

Kay Ryan in Nenagh

A very enjoyable discussion and reading by Kay Ryan last week in Nenagh. Thanks to everyone down there for a thoroughly enjoyable evening of poetry.

Juan Graves

I was in Deia last week to see the Graves Museum. A man was sitting on a bench in the garden. It looked very like Robert Graves. It was Juan. The very same Juan as 'To Juan on the Winter Solstice'.  Here's a photo of us:

 

 

 

Robert Graves's office

River of Light

Marc Neys, aka Swoon, has made a new film based on my poem ‘River of Light’ which appears in my  first book, The Drowning of the Saints, (2003), and which will also appear in Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected, the Dedalus Press, 2014.

The poem is also a poem on the Leaving Certificate in Ireland from 2015.

See the film here:

http://vimeo.com/68851109

The Innocent Sleep

The Innocent Sleep - A Karen Perry Novel - see previous posts for what it's all about and who Karen Perry is anyway- is available to preorder on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk

Athens Inernational Creative Writing Summer School

I'm heading out to Athens next week to teach for the KWS / British Council Athens Inernational Creative Writing Summer School. Applications are still being taken. SOme Awards / Scholarships available. Click on image for more details - a wonderful line-up of writers including Jonathan Barnes, Jane Yeh , Fiona Sampson and Rachel Cusk.

DRIFT

Marc Neys' poetry film Drift, based on Paul Perry's poem 'For Two Nato Soldiers ...' has won first prize in the video poetry competition of  "La Parola Immaginita" 2013, which is part of Treviglio Poesia Festival.

Watch it here: 

http://vimeo.com/54629532

swoon-bildos.be 

paulperry.ie

Here we are - Karen Gillece and myself at Penguin's Crime Party in London at the Union Club in Soho. We met the lovely Nicci French who also blogged about the event and our meeting!

http://www.niccifrench.co.uk/blog/

Camarade Edition IV - Poetry

Film

The very talented Marc Neys, the Belgian filmmaker, has made a short film of a new poem of mine:

For two NATO soldiers who drowned in an attempt to recover supplies from a river in the province of Badghis, Western Afghanistan, November, 2009

You can watch the film by clicking on:

http://vimeo.com/54629532

Marc Neys aka Swoon, born 1968, lives in Mechelen (Belgium). He has produced over 60 videpoems and collaborated with various writers in different languages. His videopoems and Shorts are shown at international Festivals 

"Like all good art, the work of Swoon transports us to a state. It is a state of attention and reverie at the same time, where the artist shares with us his own intense experience of the moment, and then sends us each on our own inner investigations. Meditations on Nature, Time, Art, the human condition, and the spiritual cost of modernity - these are some of the dizzy heights that Swoon's audiovisual essays explore.“Longing,” as Heidegger defines it, “is the agony of the nearness of the distant”. Something of this delicious torment informs the dense visual and sonic tapestries found in these stills and videos. In his miniatures paintings and films, Marc Neys piles layer upon layer of information and sensation –ghostly voices and pathos, echoing memory’s dizzy playground, alongside snatches of half-forgotten dreams, or lives."

swoon-bildos.be 

vimeo.com/swoon

soundcloud.com/swoon-bildos

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope

A night of Music and Poetry

 

Curated by Maya Homburger and Barry Guy

 

Where: The Odessa Cluib

13 Dame Court, Dublin 2

When: Wednesday December 5^th,

Doors @ 8.30pm, Music @ 9pm

 

Tickets available from the Odessa Club on 016703080 - priced €10 (including €2 booking fee).

 

 

Featuring: Maya Homburger on violin, Barry Guy on double bass, Siobhan Armstrong on Harp, Benjamin Dwyer on Guitar, and Lucas Niggli on percussion, with poetry by Paul Perry

 

 

 

Kaleidoscope night, described by the Irish Times “one of those life-saving, spirit-lifting, pioneering Cultural Ventures we keep hearing about” brings a vibrant, dynamic musical experience to audiences and performers. Innovative and imaginative programming offers a diverse range of music from ancient to contemporary and experimental in a relaxed, intimate and beautiful setting.

 

 

 

 

 

Maya Homburger

Born and educated in Zurich, Switzerland, Maya Homburger moved to England in 1986 to join John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists, Trevor Pinnock’s The English Concert and other period instrument groups. Concerts and Recordings as leader of the Chandos Baroque Players and founding her own Trio Virtuoso led her to specialise more and more in chamber music and solo performance. In 1993 she recorded the twelve fantasies for solo violin by G.Ph.Telemann and in 1995 the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach together with Malcolm Proud.

Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy - on the occasion of an extended concert tour with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music in 1988 - she has devoted her time developing her own personal style on the baroque violin as well as managing the Barry Guy New Orchestra, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and running her own CD label MAYA recordings.

The idea to perform baroque solo works in the context of free improvised music and newly commissioned pieces sparked off the Homburger/Guy Duo and together Maya Homburger and Barry Guy have given concerts in many major Jazz, New Music and Baroque Music Festivals all over Europe.
New works in her repertoire include Barry Guy’s compositions Celebration, Inachis, Aglais and Lysandra for solo violin, Ceremony for violin and tape, Bubblets for violin and harpsichord and compositions for baroque violin and double bass, especially commissioned for the Homburger/Guy Duo from Buxton Orr, Roger Marsh and Giles Swayne.

After living in Ireland for nine years where they contributed both to the early as well as the contemporary music scene, they have moved to Switzerland in 2006.

In 1999 Maya Homburger organised her own music Series in Dublin called “Now and Then”. In 2000 she was one of the leaders and soloists for J.E. Gardiner’s Bach pilgrimage which took her to many of Europe’s most beautiful cathedrals and churches where she performed in 52 Bach Cantatas.

Recordings include the Duo CDs “Ceremony” (ECM) and “Dakryon” (Maya Recordings), Bach/Guy solo works (Maya Recs.) and “Folio” (ECM) where she appears as violin soloist together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

 

 

Barry Guy is an innovative bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of jazz improvisation, chamber and orchestral performance and solo recitals is the outcome both of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication.

He is founder and Artistic Director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the BGNO (Barry Guy New Orchestra) for which he has written several extended works. His concert works for chamber orchestras, chamber groups and soloists have been widely performed and his skilful and inventive writing has resulted in an exceptional series of compositions.

Barry Guy continues to give solo recitals throughout Europe as well as continuing associations with colleagues involved in improvised, baroque and contemporary music. His current regular ensembles are the Homburger/Guy duo, the Parker/Guy duo, piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton, Jaques Demierre and Lucas Niggli and a recently formed trio with Agusti Fernandez and Ramon Lopez. He continues the longstanding trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton as well as projects with Mats Gustafsson.

 

 

The Innocent Sleep

Karen Perry is the pen name of Paul Perry and Karen Gillece. Together we have written 'The Innocent Sleep.'

It appears  in English from Penguin UK and Holt in the US next year. German, French and Italian publishers are on board with others to follow. More details on our agent's site at Curtis Brown: http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/karen-perry/

We're also writing a second novel 'Carry Me Home.' But, for now, here is a brief outline of 'The Innocent Sleep.'

Award winning authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece come together as Karen Perry to deliver a compelling psychological thriller set in present-day Dublin and Tangiers.

The course of Harry and Robin’s married life was set when their only child, Dillon, was killed in an earthquake in Tangiers. Five years on, their lives have returned to a fragile normality. That is until one day in November 2010. As the snow falls in Dublin and amidst the melee of a protest against a failing government, Harry catches sight of his dead son, Dillon. Or does he? He rings his wife, desperate to tell her, but Robin has some news of her own.

Later that night they meet and what is set in motion is nothing less than a dark tale of secrets and lies. Harry and Robin must embark on a journey into their shared past, a journey that demands they reevaluate everything they believe to be true, and one that will test their love for each other to the limit. A gripping and ultimately heart-breaking story of a young married couple and their missing son, The Innocent Sleep is a thrilling page-turner where the past returns to haunt the present and where no one can be trusted, not even those you love the most.

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Poetry Now

Full programme available for Poetry Now at www.poetrynow.ie

Poetry Now

Poetry Workshops at Poetry Now

Venue: Pavilion Theatre

Date: Saturday September 8th @ 11am - 1pm

Price: e25 / e20 Concession

These workshops will be facilitated by contemporary poets and teachers Ilya Kaminsky and Moya Cannon. Both workshops are aimed at poets who are building towards a new collection. As places are limited, applicants are asked to apply by e-mailing 3 poems and a list of publications before Friday August 15th, marking clearly your preferred workshop to mountainstosea@dlrcoco.ie

Tickets for other events including readings, talks and films with James Fenton, Ilya Kaminsky, Mark Doty, Khin Aung Aye, Paula Meehan, Tess Gallagher, Juris Kronbergs, the launch of Macdara Woods’ Collected Poems, supported by Poetry Ireland, and many others events can all be booked by phone on 01 2312929 or online at www.mountainstosea.ie

Full poetry programme available at www.poetrynow.ie

Beyond the Workshop - out now

Beyond the Workshop

Now available to pre-order on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Workshop-Creative-Writing-Practice/dp/1899999523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329146584&sr=8-1

Beyond the Workshop arrives at a crucial time in the debates around creative writing studies. More and more writers, students and scholars are asking the questions: What is the role and future of creative writing in the academy? Does the workshop remain central to creative writing studies? What comes 'beyond the workshop'?"




Unlike many other studies on the evolution of the creative writing workshop, Beyond the Workshop not only provides a compelling suite of essays on the subject, but also contains a range of practical creative writing exercises.



The exercises are original and effective 'triggers' from the contributors to Beyond the Workshop who are all writers and teachers of creative writing.

Kingston University Press Ltd. registered in England no. 06504362, Registered office: River House, 53-57 High Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 1LQ.


Contact KU Press at KUPLtd Editorial [kupltd@hotmail.co.uk]

Dlr Poetry Now

Paul Perry announced as new curator of Poetry Now

Poetry Now at Mountains to Sea, dlr Book Festival

Friday 30th August – Sunday 8th of September 2012

 

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Arts Office are delighted to announce that poet Paul Perry has been appointed as the curator of Poetry Now at Mountains to Sea, dlr Book Festival.

The dlr Poetry Now International Poetry Festival has been a core strand of the Dún-Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Arts Office programme for the last sixteen years. It is highly regarded for its artistic excellence and has become the most anticipated event on the annual poetry calendar in Ireland. Previous curators have included Patrick Galvin, Conor O’Callaghan and John McAuliffe. The outgoing curator is Belinda McKeon, who curated the festival from 2008 to 2011.

In 2012 for the first time dlr Poetry Now International Poetry Festival will become an integral strand within Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival. Poetry Now will retain the quality and variety that the festival is renowned for while introducing new audiences to poetry and providing them with enriching artistic experiences.

Paul Perry is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books of poetry including The Drowning of the Saints, The Orchid Keeper, and most recently The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance (The Dedalus Press, 2010) which Dermot Bolger described as ‘the work of a singular imagination.’ His work has appeared in the TLS, The Irish Times, The Best American Poetry 2000 and The Best Irish Poetry 2007. His translations include 108 Moons: The Selected Poems of Jurga Ivanauskaite and he is editor of the forthcoming Beyond The Workshop, KU Press 2011. A winner of The Hennessy New Irish Writer of The Year Award, he is a Lecturer in Creative Writing for Kingston University, London, and Writer Fellow for University College Dublin.

Loose leaves

Loose leaves

Bee Loud

Bee Loud will be performing poems by some Dedalus poets - including one of my own - and other treats! for Halloween

Ilya Kaminsky : The Poetry Foundation

Ilya Kaminsky : The Poetry Foundation

I met IIlya at his Oxfam reading in London last week. It was a brilliant reading!

A Presidential Epigram

A Presidential Epigram

- after Mandelstam


we live without feeling
the border between us

and our feet do not touch the ground

listen -
our voices are accent-less
and the echo of money
is like the sound of rigging in the wind

the talk of any small-town is the Áras
and the one who chuckles

shall he ascend -
his bloodied hands unseen
boots put away
worms rising

his words are like anchors

circled by snivelling and mewling henchmen
he flings decrees like horseshoes -
you get it in the balls
the temple
between the eyes

like poisoned berries
he spits each execution from his mouth