Amy Jo Philip
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Interesting piece in today’s Sunday Herald about independent bookshops in Scotland. It seems Hugh Andrew of Birlinn is branching out into bookstores. This has to be a welcome development for writers and readers in Scotland, given the dominance of identikit chain book stores, but the big challenge is how independents will not just survive but…
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It seems Matt Merritt will be recorded for Poetcasting at some point in the autumn. Alex Pryce, the brain behind the project, is planning a trip to Scotland in the summer and I’m hoping to be recorded. Perhaps HappenStance is poised for (virtual) world domination …
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The next reading I have in the diary at the moment isn’t until October, but it’s one I’m particularly looking forward to. Pam Beasant, the first George Mackay Brown writing fellow, contacted Shore Poets convener, Christine De Luca early this year enquiring whether we would be interested in an exchange with some Orkney poets. We…
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So the notion of a “Scottish Six” is back on the agenda, though probably not very far up it. I don’t know how far this is an intitiative of Pete Wishart‘s or of the wider SNP but, if a Scottish Six O’clock News comes into being, I suspect it won’t happen in a great hurry.
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Rob Mackenzie has gone and got himself interviewed by Yang-May Ooi of FusionView. Part 1 of the piece is here. I was intrigued by the two following questions and answers: Is being Scottish a strong part of your identity? What does being Scottish mean to you? I’m not particularly nationalistic, until someone criticises Scotland. I…
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I’m sorry, but I just had to post this link. (Thanks to Yang-May Ooi of FusionView for posting it originally.)
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Richard Dawson, musician of the month, provided a fine complement to the poetry, as on his previous Shore Poets appearances. In fact, to Richard goes the best rhyme of the evening: gregarious:areas. If I remember rightly, the lines were: “my pocketbook guide says they [bullfinches] are naturally gregarious; and found in cemeteries and heavily wooded…
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Reading Kate Clanchy‘s Samarkand the other week, I spotted the word “rheumy” in two consecutive poems*. It stood out enough in the first as that unusual beast, a rare cliché**, but for it to be found twice in not only the same collection but in such close proximity struck me as a significant slip-up in…
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(This post is in Gaelic* then English) Tha mi dìreach air làrach-lìn ùr mu bheatha is bhàrdachd Somhairle MacGill-Eain lorg a-mach. Tha mòran ann: dàin, eachdraidh-beatha, dealbhan, clàran is bhideo, is mapaichean. Chan eil facal Beurla ann idir ach anns na earrannan bhideo anns a’ bheil Iain Mac a’ Ghobhainn neo Somhairle fhèin a’ bruidhinn…
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It seems something of a shame that my day job constrains me from blogging about this fascinating new era in Scottish politics. But there we go. Instead, I recommend to anyone interested in an analysis of developments the new blog by BBC Scotland correspondent Brian Taylor. His is a far more interesting, more entertaining analysis…
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Just got word that Kate Clanchy has had to cancel for Sunday due to bronchitis. Fortunately, we have managed to secure a last-minute replacement: Alastair Finlay, writer of Sex, Death and Football* and, more recently, The Love Songs of John Knox, both from Luath. The rest of the line-up and other arrangements remain as advertised.…
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The programme for the the Debut Authors Festival 2007 came through the door this week. This year’s festival has a 100% increase on the 2006 poet count: there are two–namely Daljit Nagra and Annie Freud–but that’s still one down on 2005. Also as with last year, the poets are mainstreamed into the programme alongside the…
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A little time to write today. I shouldn’t be spending it scribbling a note on the blog but I haven’t had enough mental space for poems to grow in since the baby was born, although I’ve had plenty feverishly paced thoughts about poetry, politics and various other matters. As a consequence, I’m facing the fear…
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Salty ruminations on bad news from Bloodaxe. * Which come after Mark Ravenhill writes on arts funding vs sport funding in The Guardian. * Meanwhile, here’s a new poetry podcasting project. * And something else that could set poetry alight.
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So, the SNP came out on top, only just. Given my day job, it’s inappropriate for me to express any opinion on the result, except that there’s no denying it’s a momentous change in Scottish politics. However, with the possibility of challenges to the result and no prospect of a coalition big enough to form…
Amy Jo Philip 