leevilehto.net

The main guest to this year’s Kuopio Sound Poetry Seminar (The Conference Room of Kuopio City Library, Sat. Sept. 6, 1 to 3 PM, as part of the Kirjakantti literary festival) will be ADACHI Tomomi from Japan (in the photo by Christian Yde Frostholm performing at Audiatur, Bergen, Norway, Fall 2007). The Seminar will be chaired by me and also addressed by poet Miia Toivio; in the evening’s Sound Club event, hosted by poet Jouni Tossavainen, Tomomi will perform together with Jonimatti Joutsijärvi, Marita Lindholm, Miia Toivio, and me. Apart from Kuopio, Tomomi’s Scandinavian tour will take him to LitteraturHaus, Copenhagen (Sept 2.), Fylkingen, Stockholm (Sept 3.), Muusajuhlat, Oulu (Sept. 7), and Helsinki (Sept. 9, incl. improvizations together with Jone Takamäki; details forthcoming). For more on this wonderful and inventive artist/performer, visit www.adachitomomi.com and his page at UbuWeb.

is a new poem of mine based on Charles Bernstein’s ”Johnny Cake Hollow”, together with variations of it by the author (into English), Jörgen Gassilewski (into Swedish), me (into Finnish), Jörgen Gassilewski (from my Finnish into Swedish; all these homophonic) and by me into Swedish from my Finnish (metrical-semantic), that were published in ”Oversettelse 2” issue of nypoesi.net. I use all the lines of these versions in sequence, permutating them stanza per stanza following the pattern of Sestina end words. I performed the poem (see photo by Susanne Christensen) as part of the launch of Charles’ Swedish book, De svÃ¥ra dikterna anfaller, eller Högt spel i tropik-erna. Dikter, essäer, samtal (OEI editör) in Weld, Stockholm, July 1, 2008. The poem is here.

was extolled (with reservations that on closer look will prove self-cancelling) by poet-critic Markku Paasonen in today’s Helsingin Sanomat.

Thought it was time for an update of my Ulysses project. During the months of Spring 2008, I produced the first integral draft for the new Finnish translation (the main reason for my markant absences online). The earliest possible date for publication is now Fall 2009. I have removed the earlier (now partially antiquated) samples, yet offer now a new excerpt from Section 14, “Oxen in the Sun” (“Auringon härät”) where I make the following initial substitutions for the writers Joyce consulted for this his “history of English prose writing”: Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884) for Daniel Defoe (c. 1661-1731), K. A. Gottlund (1796-1875) for Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Antero Varelius (1821-1904) for Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Richard Steele (1672-1719), Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) for Lawrence Sterne (1713-68), and August Ahlqvist (1826-1889) for Oliwer Goldsmith (1728-74).

The issue 2/2008 (52) of the Finnish poetry magazine, Tuli&Savu, celebrates the history of the first 50 issues – featuring editorials by all previous editors-in-chief. This is what I had to say in my piece.

The anthology of new Finnish poetry that I curated in 2006 for the special issue of OEI, the Swedish magazine of poetry (with my preface both in Swedish and English) now downloadable as PDF at the new Nordic Poetry Center (formerly EPC Scandinavian Portal) hosted by nokturno.org.

OEI Poetry Area; Extension #6: Charles Bernstein, Susan Bee, Leevi Lehto.

Uppläsningar och framföranden av Charles Bernstein (USA), Susan Bee (USA), Leevi Lehto (Finland), Jörgen Gasilewski (Sverige).

Release för den första samlingen med Charles Bernsteins texter i svensk översättning, det komplexa, humoristiska, tonfallsrika och oupphörligt växlande montaget Charles Bernstein. De svåra dikterna anfaller, eller Högt spel i tropik-erna. Dikter, essäer, samtal. (OEI editör).

Tid: Tisdagen den 1 juli kl. 18:30 – 21:00.

Plats: Weld, Norrtullsgatan 7 (t-bana Odenplan)

As part of this large-scale event, Charles Bernstein and I will discuss our “lifes” “in the digital word”, in Hall C of the City Conference Center, Folkets Hus, Stockholm, Monday, June 30, 2 to 2.40 PM. For more about the conference, go here (for more detail, click Day By Day Program, then Seminar Program at a Glance (pdf).

Kenny the G is at it again: “Unpublishable” being a feature of UbuWeb where he examines what constitutes an unpublishable text (“it may be too long, too experimental, too dull”… but, what is crucial, “the web is a perfect place to test the limits of unpublishability. With no design or distribution costs, we are free to explore…”). The series will conclude when the 100th manuscript is published; there are 33 of them now – and I’m in that number, you might even say I’m the only one of them, though you cannot see me there. Why? You guessed it: since I’m unpublishable.

Tiina Lehikoinen (Sitruunalumilyhtyjä, ntamo 2008) interviewed in Turun Sanomat.

In a deligthful assignement from the Teos publishing house, I got to translate the poetry in Possession by A. S. Byatt – a book considered by many as a landmark work of 80’s/90’s “Postmodern” fiction. 2000 lines by non-existent Victorian poets into a diction that never was – my kinda job. Here’s “Swammerdam” by “R. H. Ash” for you. Possession as Riivaus, transl. by Marja Alopaeus, was published in April this year.

(a bacherol machine after Duchamp after Kafka) is a powerful new poem by Charles Bernstein (check out this video recording from the conference on “Conceptual Poetry & Its Others”, Poetry Center, University of Arizona Tucson, May 29, 2008). It’s in line with “Thank You For Saying Thank You” (With Strings), only “deeper” in its humor/agony. I found listening to it very addictive! & the discussion on it at Poetry Foundation’s “Harriet” blog is a piece of found poetry on its own right! – & while we are in Tucson, Marjorie Perloff makes good use of Northern European impetus (nypoesi.net, Aleksandr Skidan, Cia Rinne’s and my work) in this her keynote address there.

The dear Miikka Mutanen sends me this (to be honest, I don’t quite know what it is).

My piece for the Wuhan (China) conference on 20th Century American Poetry, in July 2007, now at Sibila English.