prose fiction
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A busy but doubtless exhilarating day awaits me tomorrow at Linlithgow Book Festival 2013. In the morning, I’m running a poetry workshop as I have done for the part several years. It’s at the Mel Gray centre at the canal basin from 10.30 to 12.30 and there are still some tickets available. In the afternoon,
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I had a whale of a time at Linlithgow Book Festival this past weekend. The Saturday was particularly busy but hugely rewarding. I worked out that I must have done almost a 13-hour day, starting with the final prep for my poetry workshop through to leaving the Masonic Hall after the open mic at nearly
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Tonight, one of my children asked me what poetry is. I answered poorly, talking vaguely about lines. (Well, how do you explain it to a five-year-old?!) But it got me thinking again about that imponderable. Does the difference between prose and poetry, perhaps, boil down to this: in poetry, the focus is on the relationships
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Wow! There’s been some truly amazing news for my hard-working, tireless, dedicated publishers, Chris and Jen Hamilton-Emery: one of Salt’s novels has been longlisted for the Booker prize! The book in question is Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse, which is out next month. Chris’s Facebook and Twitter feeds have been full of the frenzy (print runs, rights
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At Rob A Mackenzie‘s instigation, poets Dorothy Baird and I, children’s author Lari Don, novelists Stephanie Taylor and Craig Sterling, and storyteller/entertainer/author Peter Snow will be reading at the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School Christmas market on Saturday 19 November. The market runs from 11 am to 4 pm. Dorothy and I are reading at 12:30 pm;
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I had an amazing weekend at Wigtown Book Festival. My previous experience of the town, described here, could not have been any more of a contrast. There was a real buzz about the place and, unsurprisingly, I kept bumping into people I know from the literary scene. The town seemed to have come into its
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Fear not, dear friends: this is not me fessing up to an alcohol problem. No, in fact, it is simply to say that I’m taking part in Gutter magazine‘s “A Night in the Gutter” cabaret evening at Wigtown Book Festival. The other readers will be Rodge Glass — whom I met for the first time
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While song may share 99% of poetry’s DNA, it isn’t poetry, any more than, say, a chimpanzee is a bonobo. This, from Adam Newey reviewing Hard Ground, poems by Tom Waits, photographs by Michael O’Brien, in yesterday’s Guardian Review, strikes me as a shrewd snippet on the difference between song and poetry. (Newey has a
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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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Wena Poon and Roberto the matador* discuss how they could go about raising money for Wena’s publisher and mine, Salt. Roberto’s old, torn and bloodied matador outfits are out of the running, but he has better ideas. Find out what they are! *One of the eponymous stars of Wena’s new novel, Alex y Robert, generally available
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Tania Hershman’s The White Road and Other Stories is a wide-ranging and imaginative debut collection of short fiction, some of it very short. Much of this moving, gripping, entertaining and thought-provoking work is inspired by articles from the New Scientist, making it a unique fusion of the two cultures. I was thrilled when Tania agreed
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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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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
Amy Jo Philip 