John Stammers interviewed by James Byrne on Panoramic Lounge-Bar and love poetry

James Byrne interviews John Stammers for issue 7 of The Wolf. A headnote describes Stammers as one of London's best new poets, whose first collection, Panoramic Lounge-Bar, appeared from Picador in 2001 and took the Forward Prize in the first-collection category, and whose poem 'On Love' was commended in the National Poetry Competition of 2000. A second Picador collection is announced for the following year.

Byrne starts by asking whether Stammers is the Midas of modern poetry. He jokes that Midas's talent destroyed him, credits his good fortune to having Don Paterson as editor, and says he obsesses over perfecting poems, one in his next book having taken seven years. Asked whether poetry is closer to film or music, he calls both cousins, says he has written a screenplay, and adds that television advertisements are closer still. Stammers then discusses being left out of the Next Generation poets list: he was disappointed more than surprised, accepts that a distinctive artistic style divides people, and was stunned at the omission of Colette Bryce, Kate Clanchy and Roddy Lumsden.

The middle of the interview is about his own identity as a poet. He expects his next collection to contain much that is wolfish, after the attention given to 'The Wolf Man', and calls himself a love poet, post-postmodern, working within English lyric tradition from Wyatt onwards. He says he writes in the ironic, Americanised idiom of pop culture while detesting what he sees as the spurious intellectuality of academic postmodern verse. He compares his aim to the English Pop artist Patrick Caulfield, whose images appear on his covers, where the beautiful and the ironic coexist.

The last questions cover London. Stammers, who has lived in Islington most of his life, declines to name a best living poet, listing several who might be seen on Upper Street, and describes the poetry scene as friendly and sometimes cosy, with open-mic nights crowded and delicate work at risk of being drowned out. He ends with two forthcoming books, the pamphlet Buffalo Bills from Donut Press and the full collection Stolen Love Behaviour from Picador.

Work

Panoramic Lounge-Bar

Author

John Stammers

Publisher

Picador

Poems in this selection

• On Love
• The Wolf Man

Well, Midas' talent destroyed his life because he couldn't control it, so I hope not.

John Stammers, The Wolf, issue 7

I detest, however, the unrelieved tedium of spurious intellectuality so, so usual in academic, postmodern poetry.

John Stammers, The Wolf, issue 7