Interrobang Interrogation – JL Williams

Are you feeling it?! INTERROBANG: Lost in Space?! looms large on the horizon. It’s only T-2 DAYS until Saturday, 29th April at 2pm.

Fortunately, that gives us time to fit in a couple more Interrobang Interrogations. Today’s crew member donning the helmet and spacesuit is JL WILLIAMS. She’s been a dream guest for us for a while, and the timing of her appearance is most fortuitous – her timely new collection, After Economy, is out now and gets its formal launch next week. That takes place on 3 May, 6pm, at the Talbot Rice Gallery – more details on her website.

Either that, or someone's reversed the polarity
JL Williams messing with the gravity generator on the cloister level, again.

JL Williams practice incorporates expanding dialogues through poetry across languages, perspectives and cultures and in cross-form work, visual art, dance, opera and theatre. And did we mention that After Economy, her third collection, is out now with Shearsman Books? You can find out much more at www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk.

And here’s how she answered our questions:

?!:  You’re packing before blasting off with the Interrobang Space Cadets. What item are you taking with you to represent the human race?

JLW:  A pencil.

And then they all climbed out of the paper...
A pencil? That feels like it could get pretty dangerous…

?!: Sitting on the launch pad, you feel like you’re starring in a sci-fi movie. What’s your favourite piece of science fiction?

JLW:  Blade Runner.

?!:  Ricky Interrobang’s a big fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Wonder how apprehensive we should be about Blade Runner 2049?

?!:  Anyway. As the Space Ship Interrobang pulls away from the Earth, you look down and see the curve of the planet. You play a piece of music to accompany this incredible moment. What is it?

JLW: Nirvana, Come As You Are.

Come to the Biscuit Factory on Saturday. We swear we don’t have guns.

?!:  When the track ends, you look down again and see home is a little blue marble. For some reason, you’re hit by a vivid memory of a time you lost something down there. What was it?

JLW:  My first poem – it was about a blue glass bluebird

?!:  Finally, back on the spaceship, you’re looking forward to presenting a piece of poetry or prose or music to the weird-looking people you’re going to encounter with the Interrobang crew. Without being too spoiler-ific, what can you tell us about it?

JLW: Poems from my new book – an exploration of the fine line between abundance and apocalypse.

Between a great set and this cover art, you'll want one
After Economy and other of JL Williams’ work will be available at the show

After Economy sounds really intriguing! Thanks a lot to JL Williams for indulging the INTERROBANG?! Interrogation. Together with Ever Dundas and Claire Askew, she’s going to be giving the spoken word aspect of INTERROBANG: Lost In Space?! at The Biscuit Factory on 29 April (admission free, £5 suggested donation) a pleasingly chewy aspect. 

Come as you are. Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late.

UPCOMING: Lost In Space?! 29/04/2017

Hi, folks!

We enjoyed the INTERROBANG: A New World?! show so much, we wanted to keep shaking things up for the new show. So here’s the skinny on Lost In Space?!

Good luck with that!
#1: We’re banning Ricky from making ancient references.

Never fear, we have the traditional line-up of awesome writerly talent:

  • JL WILLIAMS joins us as her third collection, After Economy, prepares to hit the shelves?!
  • EVER DUNDAS, a writer specialising in the weird and macabre, should fit into the INTERROBANG?! vibe perfectly. Her first novel, Goblin, will be published in May. You can find out a little more about that here?!
  • CLAIRE ASKEW, Bloodaxe Books poet, writer in residence at Golden Hare Books, and Jessie Kesson Fellow 2017, is dropping a fresh new set. How exciting is that?!

As well as all that, we have the awesome AURORA ENGINE and MATT NORRIS bringing the choons. We’ve been angling to have them both in for a while, and having them both in the same bill is gonna be incredible!

But, wait! There’s more?! If you can’t take the Bing Crosby/Walt Disney joke again, we present an actual, honest to goodness comedian.

  • Beth had the good fortune recently to catch GEMMA FLYNN as part of the Dangerous Women Project, and knew we had to have her at INTERROBANG?! Gemma performs stand up comedy regularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh and is part of the alternative comedy collective Chunks, as well as host of the academic pop culture podcast Dash Kapital?!

And of course, the theatrical stylings of our resident short-form playwright, JACQUES TSIANTAR and his notorious JACQUES’ BIG TWO-HANDER! Will YOU be one of the volunteer actors who gets to be Edinburgh-famous for fifteen minutes?!

Ooft. Queen Bitch, much?!
“Yeah. Make that *Bonnington*-famous” – Andy

We’ll be releasing some awesome Interrobang Interrogations with our guests this week, but for now, know these further exciting developments:

  • Lost in Space?! will be on a Saturday, starting at 2pm. This means you can supplement your Interrobanging with a swing through the Edinburgh Indoor Market – great food, fab art, and Ricky’s still banging on about the candles he got last month from The Soap Farm. QED.
  • With the market taking place downstairs, we’ll be upstairs. If you haven’t seen the upstairs at the Biscuit Factory yet, you’re in for a treat. New INTERROBANG?!, new vibe?!

We’re looking forward to seeing you!