Author: M E Grey

M E Grey is a British-origin poet based in Brussels.

‘swan’ appears in Still Dancing, by Habib William Kherbek

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A new poem by M. E. Grey, ‘swan’, appears in the flipbook Still Dancing: Writing about dancing about architecture, infrastructure, access, economics, inter alia, published by TLTRPreß. The book brings together Kherbek’s photographs of a performance by dancer Leah Katz, alongside poems and prose from Sydney Beaumont, Alexis Calvas, Kitty Ray Harper Fedorec, Susan Finlay, M. E. Grey, Mina Khanlarzadeh, and Greg Nissan, with the collective aim of opening ‘new approaches to thinking about dance’ – and advertising, public transport, social media…

From the work of Kitty Ray Harper Fedorec:

What if we’re not always our best? I mean – we’re not always at our best, are we? What if your best is not my best?
If I take out of my zoetrope all the photos bar the one where all four hooves are off the ground, the horse can no longer run.

From ‘Movement for Beginners’, by Greg Nissan:

you should know
the camera adds
four corners
to your hips

Taxi poems published by Eurolitkrant

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Remember taxis? A regular feature of professional and personal life for many – and then absent from those same lives since early 2020. M. E. Grey has selected a series of poems featuring taxis for publication in Eurolitkrant:

  • taxi driver
  • NY AIRPORT PICKUP SATELLITE RADIO JAZZ
  • Through the bois after nightfall
  • Relation to an abstract shape
  • taxi poem
  • walking poem

Eurolitkrant is an interdisciplinary, European, online literary journal recently launched by Ali Bader.

INDOCTRINATION: William Kherbek reads in Brussels on 13 March

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Update: This event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

William Kherbek’s chapbook ’26 Ideologies for aspiring Ideologists’ sold out shortly after its publication by If a Leaf Falls Press in 2018. But on Friday 13 March, you have the opportunity to absorb a doctrine of your own – you will leave knowing one of these poems by heart. How this affects your life thereafter is up to you.

Kherbek is an artist, novelist, poet and critic based between London and Berlin – a little like Brussels itself. His most recent novel, Ultralife, was published by Arcadia Missa in 2019; you can find more information on his activities at www.kherbekistan.com.

The evening will also feature other readers, to be announced. It will take place at KANO at 8pm.

This event continues M. E. Grey’s collaboration in organising readings that feature visiting and local writers with the support of KANO.

Yong Shu Hoong reading in Brussels, 1 March

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Poet and two-times Singapore Literary Prize winner Yong Shu Hoong will read at an event at KANO at 4pm on Sunday 1 March.

Shu Hoong will read a selection of work from his extensive catalogue (six full collections), and provide insights into Singapore’s unique literary scene.

Joining Yong Shu Hoong to read will be Brussels-based poet Loretta Stanley. Originally from Ireland, Loretta and Shu Hoong’s work build on two very different forms of island experiences.

This reading is organised by M. E. Grey, and builds on the series of private readings he has been organising in Brussels since 2018. He is pleased to take this format public with the support of KANO.

For more information, please contact M E Grey via the contact form on this website.

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New work in The Circle 19, anthology launch and reading

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Three poems from M. E. Grey will feature in The Circle 19: A Brussels Anthology: ‘flashbulb handshake’, ‘impact pathway metric’, and ‘scenario’.

The Circle 2019 is the new anthology from the Brussels Writers’ Circle, edited by Cynthia Huijgens and featuring twenty seven writers from fourteen countries.

The anthology launch takes place at Brussels Waterstones on Tuesday 26th November from 17:30 until 19:00.

M. E. Grey will be reading at a second event at Muntpunt Grand Café on Saturday 30th November, from 19:00 until 21:00, featuring readings and discussions with Huijens and contributing authors.

The anthology is available to purchase from Brussels Waterstones, Amazon and elsewhere.

 

First poems posted in ‘Pages of an Autumn Journal’ sequence

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‘Pages of an Autumn Journal’ is a sequence of poems written between October and December 2016. The poems offer the perspective of a British narrator based in Brussels, and her/his political, personal and professional experiences during that period. In this engagement with matters public and private during a season of turbulent events, they have a precedent in Louis Macneice’s Autumn Journal of 1938.

The poems are now being published one year later at www.autumnjournal.eu, between October and December 2017, following the timeline of their composition. In this way, they allow the reader to experience how the experiences described in the poems unfolded, as well as finally offering a record, through one poetic interpretation, of their specific period and place in history.

Citizens of Everywhere publishes ‘Power Mediated: Three Poems from Brussels’

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The Citizens of Everywhere project, from the Centre for New & International Writing at the University of Liverpool, has published a blog piece by M E Grey, including three poems examining different ways that political or bureaucratic power can be discussed, and challenged or valued, in poetry.

The Citizens of Everywhere project is commissioning writers, artists, scientists, academics, cultural organisers and more to write for the Guardian and the Conversation. Their blog also provides a home for writers tackling issues related to citizenship, belonging and borders in the aftermath of Theresa May’s ‘citizens of nowhere’ speech in October 2016. Content ranges from reflections on the borderless nature of plastic waste, to work on the linguistics of politics that is ripe for rediscovery.