Avoiding the Void (Through Movement & Poetry)

& Our Photo Tour Diary from New York

Hi again!

Sorry about all the emails! I’m so busy publishing books, producing book-adjacent content and touring with said books right now. But I won’t always be in your inbox this often, I assure you.

I’m writing today because the fourth episode in our series of round-table podcasts is out now!! It’s called AVOIDING THE VOID and it’s all about using movement, meditation and poetry to do just that.

This episode stars (incredible poets):

Carrie Lorig, author of The Blood Barn (Inside the Castle, 2019)

Ted Rees, author of Hand Me The Limits (Roof Books, 2024)

Oscar d’Artois, author of The Island (Shabby Doll House, 2024)

& is hosted by Kristen Felicetti, author of Log Off (Shabby Doll House, 2024)

This conversation feels really special. I hope you will enjoy it.

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Available now, wherever you get your podcasts!

• Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

Or even right here!

Here’s an excerpt:

Ted: Language is so alive and exuberant. And so even if I'm reflecting how horrible the world is, you know, it's through this exuberant medium. Right, and then with, climbing, it's a thing where it's, yeah, very silly, you know, it's like, oh, I'm going to go climb this rock. People are like, what the fuck? You know? Like I'm going to risk life and limb to climb this rock. And people are like, you are crazy. But then for me, it's like, no! I'm trying to display my exuberance, you know. And my aliveness. Right. And so, then when you're doing that with others too. And collaborating, as I was saying before, like with others and kind of talking about climbing or running or yoga or whatever, that you're kind of, you're resisting that sort of like… the envy, despair and all those sorts of things because you're working on things with other people. And that's when you're trying to help each other. And that is kind of a bulwark against the sort of void that I think we're talking about maybe.

Oscar: Yeah, yeah. It's like you're working towards being or something, right? I feel like genuine being functions as a denial of a void that's of a soulless universe, that's just like a bunch of indifferent stars or whatever and yeah, just automatic functioning within humans’ sort of, um, nastier feelings. And yeah, I do feel that. I feel very like… if I'm having a good practice day, it's definitely like I have the same feeling, like singing is being. Like I'm just doing a prayer and, I mean, I don't know, but like creating something. And it's dumb. I know that it's dumb. The poses are, they're not even good for you. A lot of them, you know, they're not even really good exercise, but I have a sense that, yeah, on a good day, again, that I'm, uh, birthing a denial of non-existence or something.

Carrie: Yeah. And you do it in collaboration with people, too. Exactly. I was thinking about, when I finished my answer, I was like, oh, it's so selfish too, but I think what we're talking about, being able to be yourself, is also about being able to be alongside people without that thing of I need to be better than you or I need… You know, it's that collaboration piece that is about just being excited for people to just be able to do the things that they're doing, despite everything that gets in the way of us trying to do things, whether that's pollution, capitalism, war, all this stuff. It's just us being able to move and be in our bodies and and be with each other in this way.

If you exercise and/or write, I think you’re going to love this.

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Okay, I want to show you some photos from our reading in Brooklyn last weekend.

The first thing you need to know is that the reading took place in our friend’s backyard. Actually the same friend who The Island is dedicated to, which he didn’t know when he offered to host the reading. When we first talked about it, he asked me, How many people do you think will come? And I said, I have no idea… Probably a lot. And he said, okay cool.

The second thing you need to know is that we named the venue after the cat, Daddy, who lives in the apartment, but she didn’t want to show face on cam.

When I saw this, I gasped and thought, ‘My life’s work!’

Theo Thimo’s delivery was perfect as always.

Caroline Rayner’s The Moan Wilds finally live in New York.

Sebastian Castillo invited one of his legal representatives to read on his behalf. You can see here he was giving me the signal that it was all going to be okay.

Kit Schluter, who illustrated SALMON, and who has his own new book out this summer, CARTOONS (from City Lights!) delivered a hilarious, impromptu performance. This felt really special to me because Kit lives in Mexico, I live in France, Sebastian lives in Philadelphia, and we made this book happen together over the internet.

A lot of people said it felt like a music festival…

I absolutely love these moments, when Shabby Doll House comes to life.

All the readers! You can’t really see Peter BD because he’s famously anonymous. I love how happy Kristen looks.

You can really feel how much this means to us in this 51 second video.

I don’t understand how this photo happened. The Island live in Brooklyn. This reading was amazing. I’m so happy we did it the way we did it. So proud of everyone.