My contributor’s copy of Gutter 4 arrived the other day and very good it looks too! I’ve not had time to delve into the contents, but I’m very pleased to share the pages with such a vibrant mix of writers, from newcomers to leading names of the new generation and senior masters such as Alexander Hutchison.

I’m particularly pleased because the piece the editors chose was “10 x 10”, a 10-poem sequence written for my 10th wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. For obvious reasons, it has a special significance to me. I really hope it strikes the celebratory chord I wanted with others too.

“10 x 10” also happens to the largest single magazine publication I’ve had so far — 100 lines, to be exact, not counting titles! Mind you, at over 220 pages of prose and poetry, Gutter is more like an anthology than a magazine, which gives it the scope to take work of that length.

Gutter is also an extremely well-produced magazine, a pleasure in the hand and on the eye. I’d say it’s easily one of the best, most exciting things to have happened on the Scottish literary scene over the past few years.