Amy Jo Philip
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Ron Butlin, the current Edinburgh makar, has chosen The Ambulance Box as one of his books of the year in today’s Sunday Herald. (The piece doesn’t seem to be online so I can’t link to it.) Recommending it alongside Brian McCabe’s Zero, Tom Pow’s Dear Alice and Polly Clark’s intimate and powerful Farewell My Lovely,…
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We always knew that the heart of Salt’s sales operation was an immensely technical process to rival Amazon. Watch and be dazzled …
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At last you can see me haver briefly about The Ambulance Box in the video that Jen Hamilton-Emery took before the Northern Salt reading at the Manchester Literature Festival. Here it is in all its autumnal Manucunian glory: Over at the Salt blog, you can also see new videos of Tony Williams (whose book was…
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I’m a bit slow on this one, others having blogged it already, but there’s free shipping on all UK orders until Christmas from Salt’s online shop! Not only will it make your present buying easier, but you’ll make Chris, Jen and the rest of the redoubtable Salt team — not to mention the authors — very…
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Following on from yesterday’s complaint against the lack of poetry in the shortlists for the Saltire Society literary awards, it occured to me that, if a specific poetry award is the solution, perhaps StAnza might be the organisation to oblige. Of course, the funding and administration of such an award would need to be sorted…
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I didn’t want to sully my celebration of the wonderful news that Alison Lang has been shortlisted Saltire Society literary awards with this gripe, so I’ve held it over for today: where on earth are the poetry books on the shortlists? There’s Crawford’s biography of Burns, but that’s the closest we get. No Hunt in…
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Big congratulations to my friend and erstwhile colleague Alison Lang, whose short-story collection Caint na Caileige Caillte has been shortlisted for the first book award in the Saltire Society Literary Awards this year! Readers furth of Scotland may not be familiar with this prize, but it’s a significant achievement in Scottish terms. Fingers crossed for…
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In the latest Scottish Poetry Library podcast, you can hear me discuss my writing, the poets I carry with me and read “Summa” from The Ambulance Box. There’s also piece about the Southbank Centre’s new project, the Global Poetry System plus an interview with my fellow Salt poet Julia Bird. Rather than discussing her writing,…
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Surprise, surprise: St Andrews was damp and cold when I arrived there yesterday for Distant Voices. How many StAnza memories are wrapped in that grey mizzle? Still, the Byre Theatre was as inviting as ever. After the five or six festivals I’ve been to, it’s becoming something of a home from home. A small crowd…
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I’m delighted to be reading at Distant Voices, the StAnza Virtual Poetry Festival on Saturday 14 November. It’s a free event linking up poets and poetry from 12 cities and towns across the world, from Mumbai to Sacramento, and streaming them live into The Byre Theatre, St Andrews — StAnza’s usual hub venue — and…
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Yesterday, the winner of the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize was announced as JO Morgan for Natural Mechanical. It’s a fine book and a deserving winner. A book-length narrative poem that so deftly handles shifts in time, perspective and voice would be an impressive achievement at any point in a poet’s writing life, but to produce…
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The reason for the shortness of breathing space mentioned in the previous post was, of course, Linlithgow Book Festival. LBF is now in its fourth year and simply going from strength to strength. This year, I was nowhere near as involved in organising and running it as I was the previous two but, aside from…
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Feels like I’ve hardly had time to breathe since last week’s reading in Aberdeen, where Rob A Mackenzie and I read for Dead Good Poets. In Books and Beans, they certainly have a good venue: a good space with a clear acoustic and a great chai latte! The evening kicked off with half an hour’s…
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It’s just over a week to Linlithgow Book Festival 2009. The festival has managed to attract another great line-up on the usual funding shoestring, so please support it. I’ll be running a workshop on the Saturday morning, compering the open mic event on the Sunday evening and reading along with Jane McKie, Alistair Findlay, Douglas…
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I’m particularly pleased that my next reading will be in the city of my birth and of my father’s family, Aberdeen. Come and join me and Rob A Mackenzie at Dead Good Poets in Books and Beans on Belmont Street on Thursday next week (29 October). Times and entry details are here. I lived in…
Amy Jo Philip 