Description: Muttertongue: what is a word in utter space - by Lillian Allen (Toronto's seventh Poet Laureate, a dub poet, writer, and Juno Award winner), Gary Barwin (poet, writer, composer, multimedia artist, performer, and educator), and Gregory Betts (whose writing explores the boundaries between self, other, and alien - the radical other) - is a collaborative collection that crackles in its exploration of land, language, and page space. Combining the intensity of Dub Poetry with the intricacies of experimental poetics, Muttertongue presents a sonorous soundscape echoing with the question of where (and why) is here (hear). The book opens with a dialogue between the three authors, and concludes with an Afterword by Kaie Kellough. The release of the book recedes a new music LP by the three authors (June of 2025). This is a project by the Muttertongue Trio: Allen - Barwin - Betts.
Review Quotes: "Muttertongue is a linguistic and poetic cornucopia of inters: intercultural, intertextual, and interlocutory. Sound-poetry and sound-theory is here. What a pleasure to be allowed to listen in to Allen, Barwin, and Betts, to be here for such a vibrant and magical interchange."
--Wayde Compton, author of Toward an Anti-Racist Poetics
"Muttertounge is a sonic ceremony scored for the page. This work invites us into its joyous and radical cacophony of words and images, collaborative experiments, and resistant portals of languaging that '(re) inscrib[e] a possibility for a new order.' What a thrill to be a participant in this borderbreak of utterance!"
--Liz Howard, author of Letters in a Bruised Cosmos "muttertongue is an amayzing work lillian allen gary barwin n gregory betts have put 2gethr in conversaysyun they talk abt theyr wayze in2 sound konkreet n vizual poetree how it happend as a relees from th constraints sumtimes felt with ordinaree langwage n th opnings they each in theyr wayze found in uses uv langwage that did elevate n escalate theyr awareness n practise furthr n byond anee linealiteez each had previouslee encounterd wundrful dscussyuns uv all thees transisyuns n passages n byond brillyant genius robust sampuls uv theyr work in these fields uv konkreet sound n vizual poetree that ar sew uplifting n carreeing thees works by allen barwin n betts dew transport byond byond with elegans piersing enerjee eloquens thees works cum 2 us seeld by onlee opn heartid loves uv th art n th viewr kaie kellough sz sum startling n wundrful words what is a word in his brillyant essay abt muttertongue brillyant superb genius awsum book find ths book opn it yu will love n admire n b up liftid."
--bill bissett, author of its th sailors life/still in treetment mystery.