festivals
-
Went to a couple of events on the Festival of Politics on Thursday. The first, the Royal Society of Arts lecture on the impact of technology on society and politics, was interesting but didn’t enthrall me. The second event was billed as a discussion on Scottish culture, media and politics. Essentially, it was three journalists
-
Another Book Festival excursion yesterday evening. This time, it was to hear James Lasdun and Michael Symmons Roberts read from and discuss their second and first novels respectively. Typical Book Festival weather is either warm and sunny, with festival-goers spread over the lawn of Charlotte Square, or tipping it down. Last night was the latter.
-
My first trip to this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival yesterday. I had tickets for three events, but could only make it to two of them. I couldn’t make it to the poetry translation workshop with George Szirtes, which was the event I had really wanted to attend, but I managed to pass my ticket
-
Monday 22nd May, at The Village, 8 – 11pm, £3: Foakies present: TRAVELLING WAVERLIES. The Waverlies line-up will feature Bob Shields, Mike Dillon, Tom Fairnie, Mark Barnett, Nancy Somerville and Jane Fairnie. Shore Poet ANDREW PHILIP Dutch singer songwriter BERNARD BROGUE, a superb songwriter and guitarist who will play an extended spot on what will
-
Heavens, Edinburgh is home to more festivals that you can shake a wad of tickets at! This one was brought to my attention by fellow Shore poet Nancy Somerville. I might be reading on the Monday night in the–ahem–Foakie Doakies event, but that’s still to be confirmed. That’s this Monday coming, by the way.
-
The Debut Authors Festival now has its programme online. The organisers say the lack of poets this year is down to a lack of debut poets. All the more disappointing, then, that participation in the unpublished writers jam session is open to prose writers only.
-
The City of Edinburgh Council’s 2006 Festival of Scottish Writing begins this weekend. Don’t think I’ll manage to get to much, if any, of it. It’s a varied line-up. There are a few Gaelic events on the programme, but I didn’t notice any specifically Scots-language events. There ought to be one or two at least.
-
Just received an e-mail with the programme for this year’s Debut Authors Festival at the Traverse Theatre, 2nd to 4th June. Last year, there was a single event dedicated to poetry, with Matthew Hollis, Jacob Polley and Choman Hardi, chaired by Don Paterson; this year, the sole poet on the bill is Helen Farish, appearing
-
Some of the Shore Poets, including me, might be reading at the festival club for this year’s Ceilidh Culture Festival. Watch this space and the newly added “Readings” links for confirmation and details.
-
For an overview of StAnza 2006, I can’t better Susan Mansfield’s piece mentioned below, not least because I got there only on the Saturday afternoon and left again on the Sunday before Andrew Motion’s reading. But I always enjoy StAnza, whatever number of events I manage to attend. And I enjoy it as much for
-
I’ll write something more about StAnza when I’ve time and energy, but suffice to say for the moment that Susan Mansfield’s write-up of the festival in today’s Scotsman mentions my fellow Shore Poet Angela McSeveney and me: StAnza 2006 was another success, full of poetic richness. Some spellbinding performances, notably from [Andrew] Motion, Tony Curtis
-
StAnza 2006 Poetry FestivalSunday 19 March 11.30am Reading: Pamphlet Poets (£3.50/£2.00) (12.30)St John’s Undercroft, South Street, St Andrews, Scotland Richard Price, Siriol Troup & Andrew PhilipThree poets who have all published pamphlets as their work developed The youngest of the Informationist group of poets, Richard Price has work in numerous chapbooks and journals. His critically
Amy Jo Philip 