Join Poet Ed Steele’s Second Book Launch This Weekend (May 20)

Beijing-based Australian poet Ed Steele will be launching his second book, titled 24 SEASONS, this coming Saturday (May 20) at 4corners. Steele is a regular reader at Spittoon Poetry Nights and has performed at various other poetry events around the capital.

Steele will be reading some selected poems from the book during the launch and there will also be copies of the book as well as re-prints of his first book, STEELE THESE WORDS, available for purchase. All funds raised at the event will be donated to a local Beijing charity.

Ahead of the poetry book launch, I reached out to Steele to find out more about the book and how he first become involved in poetry. 

First off, can you tell us how long have you been writing poetry, and how you first got started?
I started writing when I was about 19. Basically, I developed a rhyming diary to process my thoughts after becoming disillusioned with my initial tertiary study course: developing animations and digital graphics. I’d always sketched a lot and done art at school and believed my strengths were in visual media, not word-craft. Verse was an outlet I wasn’t used to, but I’ve never looked back from this genre.

This is your second poetry book launch. How does the process feel this time around, compared to the release of your first book STEELE THESE WORDS?
Even though I released my first book while I’ve been living in China, I’d sat on STEELE THESE WORDS for a number of years, so you could say it was a very protracted process! Its content is really about my 20s and early 30s, and reflects on how I spent those years – effectively a continuation of my “lost boy” years and before I met my wife! During that period, I was combining studying towards my dual degrees in Education and Arts with working in construction, so every semester break I’d go back to surveying and save enough to support myself for the next study period. Once I graduated I yearned for a different pace, which led me to spend 18 months teaching in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands; some of the verses are inspired by my time there. 

So, while STEELE THESE WORDS covered diverse experiences and is about my experiences before I came to live in China, 24 SEASONS is all time-spaced around my time in China.  

After the release of my first book, there was a distinctive moment when my thought process shifted. I’ve chronicled a lot, not just about the decision that we [my wife and I] made in 2019 to take a three-year contract in Beijing, but also about how it felt after we’d taken a summer break in 2022 back in Australia and then returned for this final year of my contract. 

Enduring a second lengthy quarantine period last year and the re-adjustment after coming back from holidaying with family and friends who had moved beyond Covid lockdowns to mass inoculations, put me in quite a different mind space. It was pretty challenging.

Can you explain the meaning behind the title of the book 24 SEASONS?
Where I live in Sanlitun in Beijing there’s a well-known mural of the 24 seasons in China. Coming from a Western world that defines only four seasons, and where the turn of the seasons is set with calendar regularity, it’s always fascinated me how seamlessly change occurs over here; how there doesn’t need to be an exact alignment.

There can be nationwide seasonal recognition but suddenly a name will change. The speed at which things changed after August last year, where the situational responses seemed to change every two or three weeks, carried over into all aspects of life. 

I appreciate the fluidity that situations call for, especially after seeing what happened in Shanghai with its lockdown last year. The ability to pivot, especially in a teaching environment, meant one had to be ever flexible to work practices that changed overnight because you never knew what the situation or reality would look like on a day-to-day basis. This is not something most expats are geared up for where they come from, but you need to adapt fast here. 

Without giving any spoilers, what can readers expect from your book?
Lots of this poetry was written on my phone on the bus en route to work. I’d grab a thought, quite often it might be something as mundane as recognizing a student, group, or someone riding a bike and thinking about what they might be feeling at this exact moment while I’m sitting commuting. 

There are repeated motifs about this constant testing, precautions my school was taking, and the impact of the attrition rate on the staff as well as students and parents who decided to opt out, and some new ones who arrived into a world they could never anticipate. I ponder how other people faced the outside world and how it aligned with the manner in which Covid was being viewed and treated. Part of this is also about me moving on as I’m about to leave China.

Can you tell us more about the artwork featured in the book?
It’s been an amazing, authentic, collaborative experience to include works by the new DP visual arts teacher of the school art department, Daniel Avila, who moved from Shanghai after teaching there for several years and is now at Western Academy Beijing. Daniel had done work with another poet in Shanghai during the long lockdowns. He has made really meaningful, authentic connections of his own, so some of those are now partnered throughout the book alongside the pertinent verse by way of his beautifully-rendered ink drawings, which are full of symbolism, and, truthfully, they are beyond my wildest dreams.

Your poetry book launch is happening on Sat, May 20. What do you have in store with the event?
I don’t want to give too much away but we’re actually auctioning some of Daniel’s originals with all funds raised going to [local charity] Our Learning House. There’ll be a merch desk with a re-print of my first book STEELE THESE WORDS, which had sold out. We’re offering a fun and artistic afternoon for anyone – whether you’re staying in China or moving on, just come and connect with the expat family and hear one man’s way of how I’ve dealt with life in China during Covid, then kick back for a good bit of banter and a beer.

You’re set to be leaving Beijing soon. Do you have any poetry-related plans for after you leave?
I’ve been fortunate to connect recently with someone in Penang and a friend at Tsinghua University and the Georgetown music scene, so I’ll be pushing into new grounds. 

I’ve been lucky here to have had great collaboration experiences. Beijing remains a rich expat destination where you can enjoy brilliant authentic experiences with fellow artists, be they musicians, pianists, or fellow poets. I’ve been working with a friend on an ambient sound album to complement STEELE THESE WORDS, and we’ll continue to explore that, so that’s pretty exciting.

Lastly, do you have any words of advice for other fellow aspiring poets in Beijing?
I’d like to make a big shout-out to Anthony Tao and the Spittoon Group. China is such a welcoming place for poetry and for people to work on their craft, so I’d echo their words: back yourself, and have a go at it.  
Here you have the time and dedication to work on your craft; ask for guidance and reach out if you’re floundering because this is a community that’s willing to see other people succeed. It’s definitely a place where I’ve grown as an artist. The fodder here is rich for you to draw upon so get out and have a crack!

Ed Steele’s book launch will be taking place at 4corners at 4pm, Sat, May 20. The event is free to attend – you can scan the QR code in the poster above to register.

4corners
27 Dashibei Hutong (near the west end of Yandai Xiejie), Xicheng District
西城区大石碑胡同27号 （烟袋斜街西口附近）

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Images: courtesy of Ed Steele