This was a well-organised and well-attended conference which took place at the Old Fire Station in Salford University. It was heartening to see how time and again the emphasis was placed upon the passionate concern for communicating which was not confined to economic market forces.
Robert Sheppard (Edge Hill University) gave an energetic and high-velocity talk on Bill Griffiths, Nickolai Duffy (Manchester Metropolitan) took us through the fifty years of Burning Deck publishing which was run by Rosmarie Waldrop from the basement in Providence Island and Lila Matsumoto (University of Edinburgh) presented a witty and visually delightful tour of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s connection with Wild Hawthorn Press. Ian Brinton gave an account of the early years of Ferry Press and how J.H. Prynne’s Brass nearly got de-railed.
Quote of the day: ‘A culture which despises its artists may be in greater need of those people than the one which values them.’
All credit to Scott Thurston, Lucie Armitt and Ursula Hurley for a terrific day’s word-hammering.
Tears in the Fence 