The Machineries of Joy

The Machineries of Joy is the vibrant, uproarious, pointed, & wildly entertaining new collection from renowned Cardiff-based performance poet, Peter Finch. Known for his inventive and multi-faceted formal strategies & his best-selling psycho-geographical peregrinations around Wales and the USA, he gives us the world in all its contemporary complexity.

Peter Finch is a poet, writer, performer, psychogeographer, and literary entrepreneur living in Cardiff. He was at the forefront of the UK’s small press revolution in the 60s and the 70s and pioneered performance poetry in Wales during the 1980s. From 1974 to 1995 he ran the Oriel Bookshop in Charles Street, and later The Friary, Cardiff. From 1996 to 2011 he was Chief Executive of Yr Academi Gymreig / The Welsh Academy, an organisation which was later rebranded as Literature Wales. He specialises in books about the Welsh capital including the successful Real Cardiff series (4 vols, published by Seren Books), Edging The Estuary (Seren Books), and The Roots Of Rock From Cardiff To Mississippi And Back (Seren). His latest book is Walking Cardiff which he wrote in conjunction with the photographer John Briggs.