Amy Jo Philip
-
The date for my Great Grog reading has changed. In view of the fact that The Ambulance Box is due out in March, I’ll now be reading on Sunday 10th May 2009 alongside Robert Crawford, Brian Johnstone (co-founder of Shore Poets as well as co-founder and director of StAnza) and one other poet to be…
-
Here is the full information for my reading tomorrow at the Four Hour Festival: Venue: Evolution Cafe, Evolution House. This is the entrance to eca on the West Port. It’s a big glass building right on the corner of the crossroads, apparently. Time: I’m on at 3pm. The event starts at 1pm with Shore Poet…
-
The new PBS Bulletin and choice arrived today. I can’t let this pass without noting that Katy Evans-Bush (aka Ms Baroque) is the first Salt poet to have her first collection mentioned in the Bulletin. (Curiously, her book’s cover isn’t shown.) Big congratulations to Katy! Next quarter, Tim Dooley goes one better by being the…
-
Here’s all I have to say about this story: The Pax can belt a Mac at NightxxMiscaw wir Bard and aw thatBut critic’s care’s abuin his might;xxGuid faith, he mauna faw that!For aw that and aw that,xxHis sarky sneers and aw that,The pith o sense and pride o worthxxAre higher ranks than aw that. Meanwhile,…
-
To the Book Festival yesterday for a reading by three Lithuanian poets: Eugenijus Alisanka, Gintaras Grajauskas and Sigitas Parulskis, representing one half of the anthology Six Lithuanian Poets. It was a fairly small audience, not even filling up the smallest of the festival’s performance tents. A pity, really, because the absentees missed themselves: it was…
-
My poem “45 Minutes” has just been posted on the Artisan Initiatives website. It was written for the Artisan magazine time-themed issue, but they couldn’t fit in. Never mind, I’m happy with online publication and very pleased to contribute. However, when you read it, bear in mind that each of the lines beginning “time enough”…
-
My 2008 Edinburgh festival season began last night with a trip to the Usher Hall to hear the BBC SSO under Ilan Volkov perform Thomas Adès’s Tevot and Olivier Messiaen’s final work, Éclairs sur L’Au-delà. Tevot, a recent composition, was described in the programme note (which you can find here) as “effectively Adès’s second symphony”;…
-
More excitement here yesterday when I discovered that “Yasser” was on at the Assembly Rooms this Fringe. Why? Well, it’s written by someone I know: the Dutch Moroccan novelist Abdelkader Benali. I haven’t seen or heard from Abdel for a long while, but I keep loosely up to date with his life and career through…
-
A big moment here yesterday: my contract from Salt for The Ambulance Box came through. It feels such a significant point to have reached; the book is that next step closer to becoming a reality! I was almost as excited as when Chris Hamilton-Emery accepted it! (You can tell by the number of exclamation marks…
-
The Herald reports today that the title painting from Alison Watt’s recent National Gallery exhibition, which I saw during my trip to London in May, has been bought by the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. I’m delighted it’ll be on permanent display reasonably close to home.
-
Just heard the excellent news that Dedalus Press in Dublin will be publishing my friend Ray Givans next year. Ray has had several small press publications previously, but this will be his first full collection. I’m delighted our first collections will be out in the same year.
-
My time for the “Four Hour Festival” event has been confirmed: I’m on at 15:00 and it’s a 10-minute set. Plenty time to get myself organised for that. The event is open to prose as well as poetry and I’ve no idea what the balance between the two will be, but it should be fun.…
-
Dropped into the Scottish Poetry Library to pick up a couple of the books on the shortlist for the Forward best first collection prize. I’ve decided to focus on that prize because of the stage I’m at in my own publishing history. Frances Leviston‘s and Andrew Forster‘s books were the only two from the list…
-
In the past few days, this year’s Forward Prize shortlists have been announced. Here they are in full: Main PrizeJamie McKendrick – Crocodiles & Obelisks (Faber)Sujata Bhatt – Pure Lizard (Carcanet)Mick Imlah – The Lost Leader (Faber)Jane Griffiths- Another Country (Bloodaxe)Jen Hadfield – Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)Catherine Smith – Lip (Smith Doorstop) First Book Simon Barraclough –…
-
Just discovered this page of interview excerpts from a small gathering of big-name poets. It’s something of a mixed bunch to my eye (no great fan of Betjeman, me), but it looks worth investigating and at least it’s pretty international. I’ll certainly be commenting on Walcott‘s remarks on rhyme at some point once I’ve digested…
Amy Jo Philip 