This Carcanet event launches the new collection The Banquet by Stav Poleg. Featuring readings and discussion and hosted by Leo Boix. Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask their own questions and text will be shown during readings so that attendees can read along.

‘In the story, a metropolis took off like a dark-flying machine—a ship floating on air—the bridges opened and stretched, letting go of the river, waving silver-dark wings. In the story, a stone fell from the sky like a closing-in fear—leaving a hole on the path heading towards the sea. There’s a note I’ve been drawing and throwing away like an unsettled sketch—in a different country a girl is always still running, crossing / a field.’

The Banquet explores the fragile, intricate links between language and longing —how words can reconstruct great cities out of memories and dreams, tear them apart, or carry them from one place to another, as if each city, house and chamber were made of sonic and visual images rather than walls and bricks. Moving between the worlds of philosophy, theatre and poetry—from Dante’s Florence to Wittgenstein’s Cambridge; from Tom Stoppard’s theatre stage to the harsh landscapes of Rimbaud’s poetry—The Banquet explores the ever-growing tensions between words and action, knowledge and ethics.

Registration for this online event will cost £2, redeemable against the cost of the book. You will receive the discount code and instructions for how to purchase the book in your confirmation email as well as during and after the event.