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This special issue of Painted, spoken is intended to give an indication of the activity at the reading series Crossing the Line during its first eight months.

Crossing the Line began in July 2001, with Lee Harwood and Sean Bonney giving the first reading to an enthusiastic audience that more than filled the seating capacity of the downstairs room of London’s Poetry Café. The series had emerged from my discussions with Sean Bonney and Jeff Hilson, sometimes in combination with other poets and friends, regarding the need for a different approach to poetry readings. We felt that there were too many good poets who were rarely offered a reading in London, whether because their work was unfashionable or because it didn’t fit in with the narrow and polarised categories of poetry that are far too prevalent. Our aim was to present a diverse range of poets whose work was variously challenging, singular, exciting. This led us to include poets, sometimes on the same evening, who would be unlikely to appear together at all in other series. In most cases, the results have been well worth whatever risks have been involved.

Since the first eight months of readings, we have included Michael Heller, Jane Augustine, Danielle Hope, Frances Presley, Johan de Wit, Doris Kareva, Wendy Saloman, Robert Sheppard, David Rees, Elizabeth James, Peter Manson, Harry Gilonis, Paul Holman, Alexis Lykiard, John Rety, and others.

The work in this little anthology is previously unpublished, with the exception of Lee Harwood’s poem, which has appeared in The North. Thanks are due to all the contributors.