festivals
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Rob A Mackenzie was born in Glasgow. He studied law and then abandoned the possibility of significant personal wealth by switching to theology. He spent a year in Seoul, eight years in Lanarkshire, five years in Turin, and now lives in Edinburgh where he organises the Poetry at the GRV reading series. His excellent first
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It’s a busy one, week after next: not only will I be reading at the Salt gig on the Free Fringe, but I’ll be back at the Banshee Labyrinth on the Wednesday afternoon (2.50 pm to be precise) to read with Claire Askew, Sophie Cooke, Gavin Inglis, Jane McKie and Andrew Wilson as part of the
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Mark Granier was born in London but moved to Dublin in 1960, where he has been living ever since. He has published two collections with Salmon Poetry, Airborne (2001) and The Sky Road (2007). Fade Street was published in June this year. Catch Mark and seven other Salt poets on Monday 23 August at 6.30
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Ryan Van Winkle is reader in residence at the Scottish Poetry Library and runs the monthly literary cabaret The Golden Hour at the Forest Cafe. His Crashaw Prize-winning first collection Tomorrow, We Will Live Here will be published this autumn. Catch Ryan and seven other Salt poets on Monday 23 August at 6.30 pm in
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In the run-up to the Salt gig at Utter! on the Free Fringe, I’ll be posting a poem by, and a mini-interview with, the other readers. They’ll all be answering the same questions, which I’m hoping will be an interesting exercise in itself. First up is Julia Bird, whose collection Hannah and the Monk was
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The programme for this year’s Linlithgow Book Festival is now on the festival’s website. As you’ll see, there’s a distinctly criminal tone to the proceedings this time, but we’re also welcoming — among others — that Scottish magus the great Alasdair Gray along with his biographer, the novelist Rodge Glass. I’ll be running a poetry
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Hidden Door is a brand new mini-festival of the arts that takes place at the end of this month. On 30 and 31 January, 30 bands, 40 artists, 10 poets and 10 film makers will take over the Roxy Art House in Edinburgh and transform the space with an art maze, hidden stages and innovative
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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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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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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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Got back a couple of days ago from a week away near Manchester, which happened to coincide with the Manchester Literature Festival. There was a fair bit I’d have loved to have seen, but one I certainly couldn’t miss was the Northern Salt reading with my fellow Salt authors Elizabeth Baines, Robert Graham, Mark Illis
Amy Jo Philip 