poetry
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Right now — 3 pm on Saturday 17 July 2010 — a flashmob is taking place at the Southbank Centre in London to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Salt Publishing. The assembled throng is reciting the great Pablo Neruda‘s “Ode to Salt”, reproduced below. And across the salinated literary blogosphere (there’s a phrase I never…
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MacAdam Essays the Epistemics of a Dream It used to chase me through the dark each night, though the dark was a crowded beach dizzy with sun and I was never alone but running with my father and it was two men dressed in dark suits who were agents of HM secret services, though how…
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Michelle McGrane has been generous enough to offer to post a couple of poems from The Ambulance Box on her blog Peony Moon. You can now read “The Invention of Zero” and “Lullaby” on there, along with blurby bits and a short bio. Many thanks, Michelle! It’s turned into quite an encouraging week on the…
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More on my B-Day: I’ve picked up another couple of phrases at work, but nothing scintillating and nothing yet that really feels like it’s likely to spark a poem so I’m just about to repair to a nearby cafe to practise the art of creative eavesdropping. If nothing else, this is certainly making me think…
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Bugged is the brainchild of Jo Bell and David Calcutt. Basically, they’re asking writers throughout the UK to eavesedrop on conversations tomorrow — 1 July 2010 — and submit to them poetry or fiction based on our overhearings. The best work will appear on the website and the best of the best in a Bugged anthology. The…
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Just a quick note that Alexander Hutchison has been confirmed for the Salt Scotland launch. He joins me, Rob A. Mackenzie, Wena Poon and Ryan van Winkle, with guest Tim Turnbull. It’s shaping up to be a very good line-up indeed, if I do say so myself. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing Wena read.
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Please note that the times for the Salt Scotland launch reading on 29 May have changed. You are asked to arrive at 4:30 pm for a 5 pm start and we have to be out of the building at 7 pm. I’ve changed the time in the diary page and on the original post. When…
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My friend the Belfast poet Ray Givans published his first full collection, Tolstoy in Love, with Dedalus Press last year. The collection, which was one of only four books shortlisted for the Eithne Strong Award, is by turns playful, passionate and contemplative but always well crafted. I caught up with him over Facebook to explore…
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I’ve been toying with the idea of running a regular evening poetry workshop based in Linlithgow, perhaps starting next year, but I’d like to gauge whether there would be any takers for it before I make any hard and fast plans. Linlithgow is very easily accessible by train from Edinburgh, Glasgow and the metropolis of…
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Here’s some competition news, by way of public service blog announcement. This year’s National Poetry Competition is already open for entries. The judges this year are the estimable George Szirtes, Deryn Rees-Jones and Sinéad Morrissey. The prizes are: £5,000 for the overall winner, £2,000 for the second, £1,000 for the third and seven commendations of…
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Salt is opening a new Scottish arm based in Glasgow and plans to extend its Scottish list significantly. On Saturday 29 May, there’lll be a series of events in Edinburgh to launch and celebrate this new venture, culminating in a reading of new fiction and poetry 4:30 pm for a 5 pm start, finishing at…
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I was asked by my church leadership a while back to write something based on the prayer from chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah to be used in a sermon series on the prophet’s story. Requests like that are always tricky, but I accepted and, having managed it, I read the piece at the…
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It’s turning into a year of collaborations with visual artists for me. Douglas Robertson, who interviewed me on my blog tour, has an exhibition coming up at the Scottish Poetry Library from 8 May to 14 June, which will include a sequence of small theatre-like assemblages entitled ‘Horizontals’, based on five one-line poems of mine…
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The Rialto, which has a swish new website — at least, new since I last looked, which will be a while ago — is planning a feature on “younger poets” (35 and under, not under 35 as reported in some quarters) and is seeking submissions. The deadline is 31 March, so there’s less than a week…
Amy Jo Philip 