Sam Riviere in conversation, and reading from, Conflicted Copy

In Conflicted Copy, Sam Riviere steps into the creative breach of now and the future by using AI as a source for writing the collection.

As readers and booksellers, we find AI a really worrying spectre for the future of writing and publishing; its use is already becoming normalised in various contexts, and with precious little opportunity afforded to consider the ramifications. We welcome Riviere’s approach to using AI in a way that opens up this conversation and actively interrogates the presence of AI in creative production.

Here’s more from publisher, Faber:

“Sam Riviere is a past master of taking and exploiting ‘found’ content and process and transforming it into poetry that captivates and unsettles. Here, he harnesses anxiety about AI only to exploit it for his own extraordinary ends. In this case, Generative Pre-trained Transformer 2 (GPT-2), an open-source neural network, is used to produce poems that, stripped of the usual authorial clutter, find themselves nonetheless cohering around a voice that speaks of the uncertainties, fears and desires of a world that is desperately, poignantly and recognisably human.”

Reviews of previous works:

‘These poems are both body and screen, the site of endless re-pinging between self and other, and their underlying subject is editing the way others see us.’ The Guardian

‘If you want to know what new things poetry can do, you’ll find this an exhilaratingly authentic way to confront the inauthentic, both in ourselves and in society.’ Ruth Padel

‘Full of clever postmodern flourishes, self-referential winks and riotous set pieces. It’s funny, smart and beautifully written.’ Alex Preston

Sam Riviere was educated at Norwich School of Art and Design and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the author of 3 previous poetry collections published by Faber which include his Forward Prize for Best First Collection winning, 18 Austerities, and Kim Kardashian’s Marriage published in 2015. His debut novel, Dead Souls, was published in 2021. Sam has also had several limited-edition poetry titles published by small presses, including Standard Twin Fantasy (Egg Box, 2014), True Colours (After Hours, 2016), and Old Poem (A6 Books, 2019). As well as writing, Sam runs the micropublisher, If a Leaf Falls Press, which publishes “limited-edition titles with an emphasis on appropriative and procedural writing processes.” Sam is also Associate Professor in the Department of English at Durham University.

Mair Bosworth is a radio producer from Bristol. She’s been with the BBC since 2013, where her work spans podcasts, documentaries, audiobooks, crafted features, studio discussions and drama. She has a special interest in poetry and fiction and works closely with writers on new commissions and adaptations of books for radio. She was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020. She’s part of the production team for Radio 4’s A Good Read and Soul Music. She’s also part of the In the Dark audio collective – curating listening events to celebrate the best storytelling in sound from around the world.

Award-winning poet, Isabel Galleymore, comes to Gloucester Road Books to read from and discuss her brilliant new poetry collection, Baby Schema, with radio producer and creative writing facilitator, Mark Smalley.

Baby Schema is a 2024 Poetry Book Society Choice and opens up several worlds at once; from the impact of climate and nature degradation to species extinction, in part seen through the lens of ‘cuteness’ and what it reveals about our place in the disconcerting world of hyper-capitalism. The title refers to the anthropologist Konrad Lorenz’s description of what makes babies of many species appealing – the big eyes, small chin etc. Some of the poems ask whether this is the kind of world to bring a child into.