Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds
Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds is an urgent, meditative text of urban and rural language and landscapes. Its non-linear narrative moves between London’s Isle of Dogs and the Western Isles of Scotland and is both a topographical journey through two landscapes and a highly personal meditation on the history and geographies of these locations. First published in 2016 and republished in 2020.
About the Artist
Stephen Watts is a poet & translator. Among recent books are Ancient Sunlight (Enitharmon, 2014) & Gramsci & Caruso, a selection of poems with Italian translation by Cristina Viti (MilleGru, Monza, 2014). Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds was written on a typewriter in the late 1980s, then mislaid & lost. Found again in 2012 it was typed onto a laptop with minimal editing. Where it seems unfinished, this is mostly intentional (aren’t our lives as well) & most of the names are of people alive at the time of the original writing, though their acts may be fiction. A feature-length 16mm black-and-white film The Republics was made from the book in 2019 by Huw Wahl.
Next Up
Cadence Casual [online]
proof that we were here
