Shandy Hall was the home of 18th-century English writer Laurence Sterne (1713-68) and is now conserved as a public museum. The ambition of the museum is to combine the preservation of this Grade 1 listed building - where Sterne wrote his most celebrated book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and the world's foremost archive of his works, letters, illustrations and ephemera remains - with historically progressive programmes which explore the former pastor's continuing influence on exploded narratives, innovative story-telling and experimental writing. Italo Calvino described Tristram Shandy as "the undoubted progenitor of all avant-garde literature of the 20th century", and in this spirit information as material and the Laurence Sterne Trust are proud to present a trio of events in celebration of experimental writing.

Bookshop 10am-5pm
From 10 am until 5pm the on-site gallery will be transformed into a one-day bookshop for experimental literature, open to everyone. Books and text based artworks have been donated from around the world by artists and poets, including: Sarah Bodman, Christian Bök, Paul Bonaventura, Christine Burgin, Craig Dworkin, Alec Finlay, Robert Fitterman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Daniel Jackson, Sharon Kivland, Simon Morris, Doug Nufer, Ed Ruscha, Peter Weibel and many more. These works will be sold to raise funds for the continued up-keep of Shandy Hall. As Sterne is hailed as the forerunner of modernist language works, it seems a fitting opportunity to temporarily bring together a melting pot of texts indebted to his lead.

Poetry Readings 3-5
Throughout the afternoon contemporary poets from Britain and America will perform readings of their work, invigorating the historical space with their literary experiments. The line-up includes conceptual noise artist Jarrod Fowler, conceptual poets Kenny Goldsmith & Ira Lightman, graphic-text artist-poet Alan Halsey, and conceptual reader Nick Thurston.

Film Screening 6-7.30
At 6pm the premiere of information as material's documentary film Sucking on Words will take place. This will be screened in Coxwold village hall, which hosted the 2005 world-premiere of Steve Coogan's film A Cock and Bull Story. Sucking on Words introduces the art of New York poet Kenny Goldsmith and the emerging movement of Conceptual Poetics, which his own books and curatorial activities have brought to the fore-front of writing's progression into the new millennia. Shot on location in Manhattan earlier this year, sucking on words features interviews with leading critics and poets Bruce Andrews, Barbara Cole, and Robert Fitterman. There will be one showing and admittance will be strictly by reserved tickets only, which can be freely ordered by emailing the address below. Following the screening, Sucking on Words will be released as a DVD, supported by The Poetry Foundation in America and distributed by Cornerhouse (Manchester). In November Sucking on Words will have its Scandinavian premiere when it is screened at the Oslo International Festival of Poetry. The film will give British and European audiences a rare insight into the American perspective of how conceptualism has engendered a fertile crossing of the linguistic sophistication of late modernist poetry with the contextual and material sensitivity of the visual arts.

From 20-28 October 2007 the American contemporary poet Kenneth Goldsmith, author of nine books and founder of Ubuweb (the world's largest online archive of sound and visual poetry) will be the poet-in-residence at Shandy Hall. During this time he'll be heading various public and academic appearances arranged by information as material in conjunction with York University and York ArtSpace.

We hope you'll join us to support this worthy cause and celebrate an exciting future for Shandy Hall.
Simon Morris & Nick Thurston, organizers of the one day bookshop for experimental literature.
For further information, please e-mail: simon@informationasmaterial.com