James Byrne – författare

This is the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poets published in the United States and it includes the work of Burmese poets who have been in exile and in prison. The poems include global references from a culture in which foreign books and the Internet are regarded with suspicion and where censorship is an industry. The poets have been ingenious in their use of metaphor to escape surveillance and censorship, writing post-modern, avant-garde, performance, and online poetries. The anthology reveals the transition of Burmese poetry from traditionalism to modernism, as well as the development of Burmese poetry over the second half of the twentieth century, as Myanmar has changed. Through their wildly diverse styles, these poems delight in the freedom to experiment with poetic tradition.

The resurgence of Russian power in the Arctic and High North will be a key consideration for NATO planners. The Alliance’s northern flank represents both a potential vulnerability due to its relative isolation and an area in which NATO enjoys options for horizontal escalation in a conflict. Moreover, as the effects of climate change create opportunities for both navigation and resource extraction, peacetime control over the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and a contest to establish effective administrative control in this area are likely. Disagreements regarding the degree of Russia’s jurisdiction over the NSR could, for example, simmer into a form of sub-threshold competition. The purpose of this Whitehall Paper will be to examine the balance of power between NATO and Russia in this critical region in order to establish the level of ambition that the capabilities being developed by Russia can support.

This unique volume presents cutting-edge research on the nature and extent of a wide range of scams, cons, frauds, and deceptive activities, including sextortion, the use of ransomware, phishing, identity theft, Ponzi schemes, online shopping fraud, gift card scams, and health care fraud targeting elderly victims. The contributions to this book raise and attempt to answer several intriguing questions:Why have governments in each global region failed to respond more aggressively to these crimes? What can/should the private sector and social media giants be doing?Can the current responses of both governments and the private sector be linked to the public’s ambivalence about how to respond to these forms of offending and victimization?Does a large segment of the public admire individuals who get involved in these activities, in large part due to the positive portrayal of scammers, fraudsters, and con artists in both literature and cinema?Or does the public’s view of the harm caused by these scams and cons vary, based on our view of who is victimized (e.g., individuals or corporations) and/or why they were chosen?Will governments – as they have done in the past – attempt to influence the public’s views by restricting access to books and movies that focus on the latest scams, cons, and frauds taking place on-line and in-person via book banning and other forms of censuring?And finally, should this discussion of the influence of books and cinema on the public’s views of scams, frauds, cons, and deception be broadened to include the government’s ongoing attempts to censure a wide range of books and films that may influence the public’s view of morality—and more recently, the public’s view of our government—due to their content?Timely and thought-provoking, this book will be a key resource for researchers, scholars, and practitioners in criminology and criminal justice, sociology, law, psychology, and social work, while also appealing to interdisciplinary researchers seeking insight into the relationship between positive portrayals of scammers, fraudsters, and con artists in literature and cinema, and the public’s perception of individuals who get involved in these activities. It was originally published as a special issue of Victims & Offenders.

This unique volume presents cutting-edge research on the nature and extent of a wide range of scams, cons, frauds, and deceptive activities, including sextortion, the use of ransomware, phishing, identity theft, Ponzi schemes, online shopping fraud, gift card scams, and health care fraud targeting elderly victims. The contributions to this book raise and attempt to answer several intriguing questions:Why have governments in each global region failed to respond more aggressively to these crimes? What can/should the private sector and social media giants be doing?Can the current responses of both governments and the private sector be linked to the public’s ambivalence about how to respond to these forms of offending and victimization?Does a large segment of the public admire individuals who get involved in these activities, in large part due to the positive portrayal of scammers, fraudsters, and con artists in both literature and cinema?Or does the public’s view of the harm caused by these scams and cons vary, based on our view of who is victimized (e.g., individuals or corporations) and/or why they were chosen?Will governments – as they have done in the past – attempt to influence the public’s views by restricting access to books and movies that focus on the latest scams, cons, and frauds taking place on-line and in-person via book banning and other forms of censuring?And finally, should this discussion of the influence of books and cinema on the public’s views of scams, frauds, cons, and deception be broadened to include the government’s ongoing attempts to censure a wide range of books and films that may influence the public’s view of morality—and more recently, the public’s view of our government—due to their content?Timely and thought-provoking, this book will be a key resource for researchers, scholars, and practitioners in criminology and criminal justice, sociology, law, psychology, and social work, while also appealing to interdisciplinary researchers seeking insight into the relationship between positive portrayals of scammers, fraudsters, and con artists in literature and cinema, and the public’s perception of individuals who get involved in these activities. It was originally published as a special issue of Victims & Offenders.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick ('Dez' to his friends and close personal enemies) is a man with a shadowy past, certain useful hard-won skills, and, if one digs deep enough, a reputation as a good man to have at your back. He was trained as a 'gatekeeper' - he can open any door, keep it open as long as necessary, and control who does - and does not - go through. Now retired from his previous life, Dez still tries to keep his skills up to date.Knocking around the country, picking up the occasional gig as a guitarist, Dez is contacted by a friend in urgent need of his musical skills. At his behest, Dez flies to the East Coast to a gig at the brand new massive complex, the Liberty Centre. But he's barely landed before he finds himself in the midst of a terrorist attack, a group has taken over the whole centre and thousands of hostage lives are in danger. With the semi-willing help of a talented thief, Dez takes on the impossible task of outfighting and outwitting a literal army. But that's just the beginning, as Dez learns he was actually lured there under false pretenses, by someone who knows more about Dez, his past and his skills, than any living person should.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick—'Dez' to all who know him—is a man with a shadowy past, certain hard-to-replicate skills, and a reputation as a good man to have when the going gets tough. Dez is doing his best to enjoy his retirement, wandering the country, doing what interests him, and occasionally helping friends when they find themselves needing any of his particular skills—mundane or extraordinary. For Dez was trained as a 'gatekeeper' - someone who can open any door, keep it open, and control who does and does not go through.It's those skills that are now in demand when the State Department comes calling looking for his help. A multinational scientific research facility on the coast of Newfoundland has gone dark, the facility on full lockdown, and no one can get in or out. No one knows what is going on, but it can't be good. And a close friend of Dez is presumed locked inside the facility along with everyone else.Even getting to the facility is an insurmountable challenge. The weather has flights grounded, some shadowy group is doing everything they can to impede the rescue team's progress, and hidden enemies are embedded in the rescue team. But anyone who thinks this is more than one man can face has never met Dez Limerick.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick ('Dez' to his friends and close personal enemies) is a man with a shadowy past, certain useful hard-won skills, and, if one digs deep enough, a reputation as a good man to have at your back. Now retired from his previous life, Dez is just a bloke with a winning smile, a bass guitar, and bullet wounds that paint a road map of past lives.Raziah Swann calls him with an urgent request for help. Jaleh, her sister, has been attacked and seriously injured and hospitalised, just one day after her apartment was ransacked. She's a business journalist who was working on a profile of an auditor who was himself mugged and killed. The firm he was auditing is Clockjack - a major multi-national technology company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Fearing that there was more coming, she asks Dez to come to Portland.Her worst fears were right - and the sisters were both attacked in the hospital by a trio of hired thugs, a trio who weren't expecting to face Desmond Limerick. The two captured men (and one corpse) have now attracted the attention the U.S. Marshall's, the D.E.A., as well as the Portland police, with the only thin thread that connects them leading straight back to Clockjack, a massive corporation with ties and resources that dwarf most nations. And only Dez stands in the way of whatever comes next.

A NATION IN DANGER. ONLY ONE MAN CAN SAVE IT.'Great plot, great pacing, and a voice that jumps off the page' GREGG HURWITZ'Adrenaline charged...an action-packed, twist-a-minute thrill ride' LISA GARDNERDez Limerick is a retired mercenary, previously known as The Gatekeeper - the man who opened doors that others wanted shut.He's checking out sunny California when his hotel suddenly falls under attack. In the wrong place at the right time, Dez stops a meticulously planned scheme to kidnap Petra Alexandris, the daughter of a major military contractor.While helping her uncover a secret plot buried within her father's company, Dez exposes a conspiracy that becomes more sinister at every explosive turn: a deadly operation involving media manipulation, militias, an armed coup, and an attempt to fracture the United States themselves.There's only one obstacle between the conspirators and the downfall of a nation . . . The Gatekeeper.'The Gatekeeper is a flat-out, high speed winner. I loved it.' ROBERT CRAIS

Robert Sheppard has been at the forefront of innovative poetry since the 1980s. From early contact with Bob Cobbing, Robert Creeley, and Lee Harwood, and a rejection of Movement orthodoxy, Sheppard quickly began to form/reform our perceptions of British poetry. This wide-ranging volume celebrates the writings of Sheppard, offering extensive of his work-from poet, to critic, editor, teacher, and inventor. Including contributions from major contemporaries, as well as a new generation of scholarship, The Robert Sheppard Companion situates the remarkable writing life of one of Britain's most imaginative poets.`Sheppard has been a champion of British poetry that actively resists the complacent and the convenient, the merely competent. That has meant evading bullies who would "banish us," to use Dickinson's phrase. Sheppard's aesthetic justice has never been just for him; his social imagination is at one with poems, essays, teaching, and editing. His work is restlessly agile, generous at heart.' -Charles Bernstein, from `Preface' to The Robert Sheppard Companion`[Sheppard's] poetry skews language to takes on big themes and his writing can be seen as comprehensive poetic chronicling of our times on an epic scale culminating in his Complete Twentieth Century Blues. Sheppard's writing is rough, rude, quirky, serious, learned, and never afraid to be humorous. In short it is as irreverent as it is relevant. Finally, his generosity in writing about and promoting the work of others has been unstinting and invaluable, especially in a country which largely chooses to ignore its innovative poets.' - Geraldine Monk, from `The Robert Sheppard Roundtable'`This book shows how far-reaching and generous Sheppard's writing life has been. He has argued and sung for the benefit of an entire community, to keep opening the possibilities of poetry itself. He stands and stands up for the breadth and depth and future of modern poetry. He's written it, written about it, published it; theorized, organised and celebrated. It is not often that innovative practice, political engagement, a thorough knowledge of poetry, and wit are combined in one body of work. But this valuable Companion provides the necessary spread of insights and perspectives to do justice to the extraordinary range of Sheppard's achievements. And that is some achievement in itself.' -Peter Hughes

This book is also available as an ebook: buy it from Amazon here.Byrne's poetry sparkles with wit and irony, and Blood / Sugar is his long-awaited first collection. The editor of a highly-regarded poetry magazine, Byrne maintains great technical proficiency in his structuring of verse, moving effortlessly between the traditional and the innovative to shape poems that brim with lyricism and confidence."James Byrneís second collection, Blood / Sugar is packed, ambitious and absorbing... The comparison that comes to mind is with Christopher Middleton, with whom Byrne shares a restless hunger."Sean O'Brien, Poetry Review"His poetry is clean, clear and contemporary; it cuts to the bone of the beast every time."Keith Richmond, Tribune"In Blood Sugar James Byrne's fine poems explore a variety of themes, combining light and shadow, tenderness and wit."Wayfarers "The way the Peruvian avant-gardist poet Cesar Vallejo described language as being the ëdark nebulae of life that dwells on the turn of a sentence...í can be applied here to the irrefutable poetics of James Byrne. For he has constructed a collection of poems of considerable imaginative pressure, a vice-like poetical ethos... poems of such exactitude and accuracy that it is almost as if Byrne is attempting to replicate and reconstruct his own jaw at the potterís wheel of his imagining... According to Geoffrey Hill, 'difficult poetry is the most democratic, because you are doing your audience the honour of supposing that they are intelligent human beings', and this can most definitely be said of the requirements of the reader facing these innovative poems."Paul StubbsJames Byrne was born in 1977 and is the editor and co-founder of The Wolf poetry magazine. His debut collection, Passages of Time, was published in 2003. In 2008 he won the prestigious Treci Trg poetry prize in Serbia. Since 2006 James has taught Wolf Workshops, which have helped many students with first book and pamphlet publications.

James Byrne is a widely-travelled poet and editor, and in this, his 4th book from Arc, he reflects on the places, their histories and people that have made a lasting impression on him. He journeys to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox' Bazar; through Bangaladesh on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway; from Mexico City to the ancient city of Puebla and back again; from Quito to the Ecuadorian city of Esmeraldas and back to Peru; through Turkey, along the north coast of Germany, from Buenos Airies to Uruguay and back and finally to the Spanish city of Granada. So vivid are his descriptions of his travels that the reader is enveloped in colours, sounds, scents and surrounded by people.

Atlantic Drift is a major contribution to transatlantic poetry and poetics, publishing twenty four poets from the UK, Ireland, USA and Canada. Partnering with Arc Publications for this anthology, Edge Hill University reveals its long history of teaching innovative poetry and poetics from both sides of the Atlantic, seeking to highlight new and existing writing and to define/redefine the discussion between poets from both sides of 'the pond'. Atlantic Drift develops a dialogue between English-speaking traditions that haven't always spoken enough to each other enough and publishes some of the most exceptional poetry and poetics written in the twenty-first century.

“The Rohingya poets gathered here for the first time in English hold a mirror to the light for the rest of humanity, flashing their poems of misery and warning from the genocidal zone and refugee camp of Cox’s Bazaar. Their songs are more accurate than news reports for word of the plight of the most oppressed. These are poems that begin with the fragrance on the bird’s handkerchief and end by walking among the mass graves. They write from a dire present to a possible future, wondering in their peril if the world outside was too quiet to hear them. Let the world not be quiet, let the world listen to these poems.” Carolyn Forché“I Am a Rohingya implores the world to listen to the spirit of a people who have experienced some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet. These poems have no alternative but to speak out, they are from a crisis that must be addressed. There is brilliance in here!”John Kinsella

This chapbook by Ro Mehrooz is the first time that the work of a single Rohingyan poet has appeared in print in a bilingual edition. The Rohingya people continue to experience genocide at the hands of the Myanmar military, so it is not surprising that Ro’s poems are full of anger, anguish and despair, although there are moments of light as he reflects upon the traditions and customs of his people. James Byrne’s informative introduction, together with Ro’s deeply-affecting poems, paint a stark and unforgettable picture of this war-torn, torture-ravaged and largely forgotten area of Myanmar.

The poet writes: ‘I’m always interested in the possibilities of change, moving through forms and aesthetic modes, and I’d like to think this Selected Poems epitomises these kinds of shifts’.

These poems were written to accompany the Los Caprichos images, originally published by Francisco Goya on February 6th, 1799. The images are part of the original ‘Prado’ manuscript, republished by Dover Publications in 1969.Excerpts from this sequence first appeared in Ambit, Buenos Aires Poetry, Blackbox Manifold, Granta, The Common, Long Poem Magazine, Morning Star, Poetry Review and on University of Liverpool’s ‘Citizens of Everywhere’ blog. The author is grateful to the editors of these publications. A brief selection also appeared in Everything Broken Up Dances (Tupelo Press, 2015).