Bringing together poet Fiona Benson, printmaker Anupa Gardner and publisher Luke Thompson from Guillemot Press, watch a recording of 'Collaborations in Publishing', an online event exploring print, poetry and publishing to coincide with the recent launch of Fiona's pamphlet 'Bioluminescent Baby'.
Collaboration is such an important part of the creative process, and something that we wanted to celebrate in Fiona Benson’s new poetry collection,* Bioluminescent Baby*, illustrated by Anupa Gardner and published by Luke Thompson, Co-Director of Guillemot Press.
From 2019-20, poet Fiona Benson undertook a University of Exeter ‘Urgency Arts Commission’, responding to the biodiversity crisis of shrinking insect populations. Fiona worked with sound artists Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas, and a broad network of entomologists, poets, technicians, and artists to create In the Company of Insects, an online audio collection of new poems arranged in three chapters – new poems by Fiona, new poems by those who participated in Fiona’s writing workshops, and new poems created by local school children, also led by Fiona.
Since the Arts Commission concluded, further opportunities for collaboration have come along. Fiona worked with Cornwall-based publishers, Guillemot Press, on the creation of Bioluminescent Baby. This beautiful publication presents Fiona’s insect poems from the Urgency Arts Commission alongside newly-commissioned woodcuts by print-maker Anupa Gardner.
For this event on Monday 25 October, Fiona shared readings from Bioluminescent Baby and we heard from Anupa and Luke about bringing together different creative disciplines. We discussed what it means to translate ideas across artforms, and gained insights into how contemporary publishing operates.
Our friends at Double Elephant Print Workshop ran four workshops over the following days, inspired by Bioluminescent Baby.
University of Exeter
Room 153, Queen's Building
The Queen's Drive
Exeter EX4 4QH
