Helena Fornells Nadal - I Could Not Ask You To
Attendance options:
We’re so delighted to announce that, for the first time, one of our booksellers is going to be launching their work in the bookshop! Helena Fornells Nadal joined the shop way back when we opened, and has been both a bookseller and assistant manager. She’s now pursuing a PhD, but happily still works at the shop occasionally. We’re extremely excited that her new poetry pamphlet, I Could Not Ask You To, will be published by Mouse Press and the launch will be celebrated here in the bookshop on Wednesday 8th October.
Join us for an evening of poetry, with Helena reading from her work along with other fellow poets. We’ll have drinks to celebrate, and can’t wait to have her work on our shelves from next month! There’s a livestream option too for those of you unable to make it to Edinburgh. We’re looking forward to a special evening.
About I Could Not Ask You To:
Helena Fornells Nadal's I Could Not Ask You To harnesses the self and its shadow to convey, or rather define, a completely unique way of seeing. Marked by a chatty causality that frequently leads to a sudden assertion - inarguable, deadpan statements - these are exploratory, improvisatory, elegiac poems, at once decisive and tentative, surgically precise and strategically unclear.
These pieces manage to evoke a double impression of an immediate and vivid reality, and an aerial, abstract perspective. They are attentive to landscape, friendship, loss, memory, the spaciousness and drift of a dream state, of lyric distraction, of consciousness-as-environment – and also how these experiences are intruded upon by the realities of a life ‘outgrown by weeds / in someone else’s muscular garden’. They are concerned, too, with metamorphosis and displacement, with how materials of the exterior are changed by being brought inside; similarly, by the ways in which words and voices change according to context, border crossings, (linguistic) colonisation. The result of encountering this work is a continuous sharpening of attention and feeling.
Please note: Tickets for our events are non-refundable. Professional photography and videography may take place during this event. Thank you for your understanding.
Participants:
Helena Fornells Nadal Author
Helena Fornells Nadal is a Catalan poet based in Edinburgh. She is currently engaged in research on the intersection between land politics and ecopoetics. Her work has appeared in publications including DATABLEED, Magma, Gutter, New Writing Scotland, PROTOTYPE 6, and Propel.
The venue
The Portobello Bookshop
46 Portobello High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1DA
Telephone: 0131 629 6756
Website: www.theportobellobookshop.com
Wheelchair Access
We have a ramp at the front of the shop which has a ratio of 1:10 and loading capacity of 300kg, and so should be able to be used by most wheelchair users or those with mobility vehicles. The front doors are fully automated. Our shop interior is designed to allow access throughout for wheelchair users and prams, though please note there is only 700mm wide clearance to access the staff toilet.
Sound
We use a PA system to enhance the audio at our live events. We also have a hearing loop system installed, if you’d like to use our loop system during an event please let us know and we’ll make sure we have it set up and connected to the live audio feed during the event. If you wish to attend an event and require BSL interpretation, please give us a few weeks notice and we’ll do our best to arrange an interpreter.