NEWLY RE-AVAILABLE FOR ORDER!

The publisher of SILENCE: LECTURES AND WRITINGS, Timglaset Editions, announced in the Spring of 2025 that it was no longer publishing, and the book was not available. I am pleased to announce that I now have copies of SILENCE: LECTURES AND WRITINGS available directly from me for the price of $25US (+$20 postage). Orders can be received via email (derek@housepress.ca) and payment received through paypal.

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In 1961 John Cage published his seminal book of essays, SILENCE: LECTURES AND WRITINGS. In that collection of essays, Cage expounds his theoretical framework and compositional style, and builds upon 4′33″. 4′33″—frequently disparaged as a farce played upon a devoted audience—is a composition which, focusses the musical potential of the ambient sounds of performance halls and shuffling audiences. While the audience is visually captivated by the (non)movements of the pianist, the auditory experience—the performance itself—takes place with the creaking of chairs, the clicking of HVAC systems, the coughing and jittering of uncomfortable audience members; 4′33″ is as much about the structures of performativity as it is about critical and close listening; the allowing of small ambient noises to be considered with as much import as musical notes on an orchestral score.

With his edition of SILENCE: LECTURES AND WRITINGS, Derek Beaulieu has created a visual response to Cage’s SILENCE, or more accurately, to a poorly-scanned PDF version found online found on monoskop.org (which coincidently also hosts a PDF edition of his a, A Novel). On each page Beaulieu has deleted all the text except the punctuation marks—which visually represents breath, pauses and breaks—and the grime and digital “noise” on the poorly-scanned page, the creaking digital performance space, of Cage’s lectures.

SILENCE: LECTURES AND WRITINGS is published in a form which mimics the size and shape of Cage’s Wesleyan UP edition, with the addition of a critical, explanatory afterword by noted scholar Peter Jaeger, grounding the edition in ambient sound, erasure, Buddhism, and conceptual writing.

Digitally printed in an edition of 200 copies, 304 pages, size 170×200 mm, with a full colour matte laminated cover.

• Gary Barwin performs a reading of a selection from Silence: Lectures and Writings
• Tom Bowden reviews Silence: Lectures and Writings for Bookbeat: the backroom
• Gary Barwin transforms his initial reading into “Silence Drone” a 4’33” soundscape
• Eduardo Abrantes performs a reading, in Portuguese (as filmed by Elee Kraljii Gardiner in Helsinki, Finland), of a selection from Silence: Lectures and Writings
• watch the launch of Silence at the London Small Publishers Fair, Oct 27, 2023
• named by Christian Bok as one of the “5 most engaging books of poetry in 2023“
• available as a downloadable PDF

Maryam Mulialee discusses my VEXATIONS Project as part of her paper “Recycling Destroyed Cities: Ruined Archives in Copy Art” in Frames Cinema Journal (issue 19, Mar 2022).

New from No Press!

SIGILS FOR INSPIRATION by Kevin Stebner
published in an edition of 50 copies, each with handsewn bindings.
copies are $5.00 each including postage
to order email or paypal derek@housepress.ca
A suite of masterful visual poems, SIGILS FOR INSPIRATION was created using dry-transfer lettering with breathtaking sensitivity exposing a beautiful, unexpected symmetry.

So excited to announce the 1st slate of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity‘s Literary Arts 2026/27 Residencies!

– Late Spring with Jessica Westhead, Philip Terry, and Sawako Nakayasu!

– Literary Journalism with Manjula Martin, Cheryl Thompson, and Shawn Micallef!

– Summer Writers with Adam Dickinson, Dodie Bellamy, and Jordan Abel!

– Crime Writing with Nita Prose, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and Wayne Arthurson!

– Computational Writing with Nick Montfort, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, and Kalen Iwamoto!

– Sports Writing with Dave Bidini, Morgan Campbell, and Mirin Fader!

HOLY SMOKES!: https://www.banffcentre.ca/literary-arts

I’ve just been alerted to the state of my artwork at Roehampton University. I was commissioned to create a monumental piece of visual poetry on the side of Fincham Court at Roehampton University (my alma mater); the building seems to have been abandoned, the offices sit empty, and the piece has been allowed to degenerate and degrade.

Sadly, this seems more than a little symbolic as Fincham Court was once home to Roehampton’s Creative Writing department. Roehampton University instituted mass lay-offs and the elimination of a number of humanities-based programs including classics, anthropology, photography, and creative writing. Those shameful lay-offs, which included the destruction of the department of creative writing, has meant job losses for many exceptional peers and colleagues – folks who were vital to the UK poetry and prose communities, who demonstrated mentorship and teaching of the highest level, who were publishing consistently, and who were instrumental in my own career. Many were given untenable options for the continuance of their careers, and have found themselves in tenuous positions since.

The mural, in better days, looked like this:

I sure hope that Roehampton is dedicated to restoring this work in memory of the exceptional creative writers who taught, studied, and wrote in those halls…

A reminder that Surface Tension remains in print from Coach House Books – and is a book that invites response. It includes poems from letraset and photocopy manipulation and degeneration – and each page asks the reader to imagine a few form of poetry, a liquid and flowing poetry. In Surface Tension, letters and words gather and pool into puddles of poetry; street signs and logos reflected in the oily sheen of polluted gutters of rainwater. Like a funhouse mirror reflecting the language that surrounds us, the pages drip over the margins, suggesting that Madge was right, we are “soaking in it!”

Here’s some of the responses to Surface Tension from across the internet – I invite you to read and respond to the book ,,, and send me your thoughts, i’ll share them here and build on this conversation!

• B&W promotional postcard, issued by Coach House Books
• a series of 4 colour promotional postcards, issued by Coach House Books
• Digital artist “Elephant Zebra” created a eye-popping response to an excerpt from Surface Tension‘s “Page Break”
• 49th Shelf listed Surface Tension on their “Most Anticipated: Our 2022 Fall Poetry Preview“
• CBC listed Surface Tension as one of the “27 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in September” and “48 Canadian poetry collections to watch for in fall 2022“
• rob mclennan reviews Surface Tension on his blog
• Michael Greenstein reviews Surface Tension for The Miramichi Reader
• Greg Thomas reviews Surface Tension for Spam Plaza
• Rupert Loydell reviews Surface Tension for Tears in the Fence 
• Andrew Brenza reviews Surface Tension for heavyfeatherreview.org
• Philip Terry reviews Surface Tension in Gorse
• Gordon Phinn reviews Surface Tension in WordCityLit
• Steven Ross Smith reviews Surface Tension in Freefall
• Sarah Burgoyne reviews Surface Tension in Arc
• Astra Papachristodoulou reviews Surface Tension in Periodicities
• Sarah Burgoyne interviews me about Surface Tension in Periodicities
• Carousel Magazine lists Surface Tension in its “Carousel Recommends: More books from 2022 to check out!“
• Christian Bok named Surface Tension one of his favourite books of 2022
• Astra Papachristidoulou named Surface Tension one of her “Books of the Year” the Poetry Society’s Poetry News
• rob mclennan named Surface Tension in his “‘Best of’ List of 2022 Canadian Poetry Books”
• Kevin Stebner included Surface Tension in his “Favourite Books I read this Year” YouTube video (Surface Tension mentioned at 7:42)
• Kyle Flemmer includes Surface Tension in his “favourite reads of 2022“
• I discuss Surface Tension with Matthew James Weigel as part of the Coach House Books podcast
• The CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses) includes Surface Tension in its Poetry of 2022 Round-up
• Watch as Calgary’s Shelf Life Books hosts the launch of Surface Tension & the post-reading Q&A
• Carve or Melt meets Scratch and Tint, a chapbook of visual responses to Surface Tension by Jeff Crouch was published by Paper View Books.
• Gary Barwin’s video response to “A Poem Should not mean” (an excerpt from Surface Tension) [Facebook]

Poets are often taught to “write what they know.” That dictum is supposed to bring comfort and solace, to suggest that poets can draw upon their own existence and that will be enough.

I disagree. Write what you don’t know.

Write what you wish you knew, what you wish you could read, the books that you encounter while dreaming, the manuscript which lies just on the edge of your fingertips.

Imagine the younger you, the you that yearned for the book that was just out of reach, the book that you wished was on the shelf—the book that you imagined would fulfill your fantasies, that would make you feel seen and heard, the book that would be just so cool to read. Write that. Write the book that you wish someone had handed to your teenage self. Be able to dream that you can hand that book to your teenage self and say “you’ll be ok.”

I believe that we don’t write for today; we write for tomorrow. A book is not a head of lettuce.[1] It doesn’t go bad. It stays on that shelf calling to a reader that we can’t even fathom. Imagine writing in terms of apprenticeship: learning takes place over several lifetimes of engaging with a subject; it is passed down intergenerationally from writer to writer. Compose with the next generation in mind: pose questions, offer potential solutions, suggest pathways for the reader-poets who come next.

Writing is not individualism; it’s the dream of community.

Continuously be mentored, and mentor in kind.

Celebrate the authors of the generations before you that have inspired and celebrate the authors of generations after you that are about to inspire.

There is no good, better, best in poetry.

[1] Unlike some contemporary politicians.

Three new editions from NO PRESS!:

THE MINUTE REVIEW #15
No Press’ little magazine of poetry, prose, and reviews; this issue includes contributions from Kate Siklosi, Greg Thomas, Steven Ross Smith, Douglas Messerli, Aaron Tucker, Billy Mavreas, Paul Eluard (translated by Ross Belot and Sara Burant), Laura Kerr, Hugh Thomas, Rachel Smith, and Erica Baum. limited edition of 75 handbound copies. $5ea

PENTERACT PRESS 2016-2025: A CONTRIBUTOR’S REFLECTION by Derek Beaulieu [MINUTE BOOK #1]
A personal essay reflecting on the history of the UK’s Penteract Press, alongside a retrospective interview with Penteract’s Anthony Etherin, and a full bibliography of the press. limited edition of 50 handbound copies. $5ea.

ANOTHER PIECE OF REASSURING PLASTIC [2nd edition] by Derek Beaulieu
A photocopy manipulation of “Another Piece of Reassuring Plastic“, this version treats the language of the original essay itself as plastic, manipulating and swerving the text into abstraction and degeneration. A visual essay. Limited edition of 50 handbound copies. $5ea

…and don’t forget that Moez Surani’s The Death of Volodya Putin remains available for $10ea.

To order copies paypal or email derek@housepress.ca …