SJ Fowler - MUEUM launch

SJ Fowler

Steven J Fowler introduced his first novella MUEUM at Waterstones, Kingston on Wednesday 13th October 2022. MUEUM is a work of 'watchers and the watched, a testament to the fact that people are always more interesting—and far stranger—than things. [...] An essential artefact for our troubled times, proving that travel of the mind is always more powerful than the real thing.' (Chris McCabe)

Kayona Daley

Poets and writers from Writers' Kingston (Kingston University's literary cultural institute) joined with their own work, exploring museums and museum culture. With Kayona Daley, Martin Wakefield, Simon Tyrrell, Agnieszka Studzinka, Dominic Jaeckle, Julia Rose Lewis and Jessica Sequeira.

Martin Wakefield

Steven J Fowler's work has become known for its exploration of the potential of poetry, alongside collaboration, curation, asemic writing, sound poetry, concrete poetry, and performance. He was nominated for the White Review Short Story Prize, 2014, and his short stories have appeared in anthologies, such as Isabel Waidner’s edited collection, Liberating the Canon (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2018).

MUEUM is published by Tenement Press, and edited by Dominic Jaeckle, BUY IT HERE

Dominic Jaeckle

About MUEUM:
Suspended in unknowable time there is a city; in the city, an event, a conflict. Amid the ash, fog and cloud, there is the manufacturing of a space—a many-winged museum on the make. On the plinths, exquisite remnants of life present and past—adorning the walls, portraits of gentle torture sit hand in hand with brutal and statuesque portrayals of camaraderie—and the gift-shop is littered with plastic curios and gilt revulsion.

Goya, as atmosphere rather than artwork, hovers amid iron age ghosts, bronzed ideas, and antiqued anxiety.

Julia Rose Lewis

Pacing the hall, atrium and corridor, there are those who keep the museum—the various midwives to the building’s demands—and those, like the reader, who merely visit; those who pass through the vacant galleries adrift with questions. What can I touch? What is next to Egypt? What is hidden in Mesopotamia? Where do we eat? Drink? Where is the entrance? The exit?

Simon Tyrrell

Following the tradition of the Nestbeschmutzer authors (“one who dirties their own nest,” vis-à-vis Bernhard and Gombrowicz, et al), in Fowler’s curt, spiralling, and acute work, the museum’s keepers will answer..

Jessica Sequeira

Agnieszka Studzinka

Austrian Poetry Celebration - European Poetry Festival

Fabian Faltin and SJ Fowler

A brilliant event celebrating contemporary Austrian poetry through three of its most dynamic and exciting practitioners, visiting London to present brand new collaborations, made for the night, with British counterparts. A full house witnessed the 5th Austrian celebration at the European Poetry Festival, and as before this event shared remarkable cross-genre and cross-lingual literature of the most original kind. https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/

Han Smith and Hannah Bründl

The event also saw the launch of a new publication in the Occasions series - an anthology documenting the collaborations that make up the history of the EPF and the ACF, published by Sampson Low.

David Spittle and Max Höfler

The European Poetry Festival celebrates, in the UK and beyond, the grand resurgence in avant-garde and literary poetry that has marked the 21st century in Europe. It aims to not only innovate what a live poetry experience might be, but to inculcate community and engagement between poets across the continent, as well as between new audiences and complex poetries. 

Lavinia Singer and Jessica Sequeira

The Austrian Cultural Forum London promotes cultural contacts between the UK and Austria by organising events and supporting artists and projects in the fields of music, performing arts, visual arts, literature, film and science. We provide a venue in central London for recitals, lectures, readings, film screenings, conferences and exhibitions, while also cooperating with various partners throughout the UK.

Waltraud Dennhardt-Herzog

The ACF London is the Cultural Section of the Austrian Embassy in London and offers free admission to all of its events, which are organised in cooperation with Austrian and Austrian-based artists. The ACF London arranges, initiates, facilitates and supports about 150 events per year, half of which take place at the ACF’s own premises at 28 Rutland Gate, in the heart of Knightsbridge.

Ollie Evans

Stephen Watts