poetry
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I’ve only just discovered that “A Rough Guide to Monday Morning”, the first piece in Tonguefire, was poem of the week in Saturday’s Scotsman. If I’d known on Saturday I’d have bought the paper! Irritatingly, they have the title slightly wrong. I wonder whether that was a sub trying to shoehorn it into a preconceived…
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Thursday’s New Voice session went very well. For the first half of the evening, Helena Nelson gave a short workshop on how to raise your profile as a poet. In the second half, she interviewed me as a live case study. Poems were interspersed with the interview in roughly chronological order. Out of the 17…
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Friday’s reading went really well. It was held in the lounge of Bryerton House, aka St John’s Christian Centre, in Linlithgow High Street. The lounge set-up lent a cosy, intimate atmosphere to the evening, but it was bittie cramped for some of the 20 or so folk who came! Guitarist Phil Melstrom kicked us off…
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There was a rare opportunity to hear American poet Sharon Olds read for the Poetry Association of Scotland on Wednseday night at the Scottish Poetry Library, so I took it. In the first half of the evening, she read mostly from her Selected Poems. After the interval, the usual PAS order was reversed, with questions…
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Although it irritates me somewhat that the BBC uses the entertainment section of its news website to trail some of its programmes, pretending that the reports are real news, I was interested to see this report of Radio 3’s plans for a Wilfred Owen week following rememberance day. I vividly remember reading some of his…
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My next reading is the Celebrate Linlithgow! one on Friday this week (27 October). There has been a slight change to the programme, as the line-up will now consist of me, Douglas Briton and my fellow HappenStance* poet Rob A Mackenzie, all bookended by jazz from Phil Melstrom. The event kicks off at 8pm in…
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What would life be without it? Radio 3 is the cut and polished diamond of radio in Britain. I love it for the breadth of its music programming. I love it for the fact it presents whole works by default, unlike the bargain basement Classic FM. I love it for the regular new drama, even…
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island magazine, published by Julie Johnstone’s Essence Press is a beautifully produced, hand-bound biannual publication concentrating on poetry concerned with nature. I don’t like to use the term “nature poetry” lest it conveys something twee, which island is not. Julie describes it as “new writing inspired by nature and exploring our place within the natural…
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The New Voices event in Dumfries I’m appearing at is not at Lochthorn Library, but the University of Glasgow Crichton Campus, which is to the south of Dumfries. Details are therefore as follows: New VoicesAndrew Philipwith Helena Nelson of Happenstance Press How do you set about building your profile as a new poet – getting…
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No, I’ve not undergone a road-to-Pittodrie conversion to the Church of Two Halves; the season I’m talking about is the Shore Poets autumn programme, which got off to a superb start last night with Jackie Kay, Christine De Luca, Mandy Maxwell and music from the Linties. Mandy Maxwell is a graduate of the creative writing…
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My next reading will be at the Poetry and Jazz event on the Celebrate Linlithgow! arts festival. The reading is at 8pm on Friday 27 October in Bryerton House. Tickets are free and can be reserved by calling 01506 517031. The other main reader is Douglas Briton, who writes in a kind of Wendy Cope-ish…
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The inaugural Linlithgow Book Festival took place today. I managed to get along to three of the events: the opening talk, the poetry workshop and the closing reading. In the first event, Lithgae resident John Fowler talked on the subject of his book Mr Hill’s Big Picture, namely, David Octavius Hill and his huge painting…
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I’ve just been added to the Poets’ A to Z on the Scottish Poetry Library website. There’s a short biographical note, a couple of links, a “books I love” feature and a poem–“Man With a Dove on his Head”–from Tonguefire. There’s also a link to the SPL’s holdings of my work. You can see my…
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The British Council Scotland website has some pages with new Scottish poetry. It’s a good selection of poets, if a short one: John Burnside, Matthew Fitt, Ann Frater, Rody Gorman, Alan Jamieson and Jackie Kay. There are poems in Scots, English and Gaelic. Matthew Fitt’s “Scottish National Diction” is a smashing poem with more than…
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I’ve just discovered that Linlithgow is about to give birth to a book festival. Over the three years I’ve lived here, I’ve often thought the town could easily house a small-scale literary festival. It already has a folk festival, and Celebrate Linlithgow!, a broader arts festival, is to take place for the first time this…
Amy Jo Philip 