readings attended
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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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It really is time I blogged about the Reel Festivals reading at the Scottish Poetry Library on Friday 20 May. But how to sum it up? As I said on Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/ambulancebox/status/71809397503967232 and I can think of no more apposite description. Among all the anxiety about why poetry is marginalised in our culture, against all
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StAnza seems so long ago now that it’s almost hardly worth reporting any more on it, but there are a couple of things don’t want to slide into the dim and distant without comment. First and foremost of those is Roddy Lumsden’s reading. I’ve known Roddy since I was a student, since before he published
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St Andrews was bathed in glorious sunshine this weekend past for StAnza, even if there was a bit of a chill to the wind. It certainly brought to mind Alastair Reid’s “Scotland”, famously burnt by the man himself two years ago. Reid was there in spirit, as you can hear in the podcast exerpt of
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To the Book Festival yesterday for a reading by three Lithuanian poets: Eugenijus Alisanka, Gintaras Grajauskas and Sigitas Parulskis, representing one half of the anthology Six Lithuanian Poets. It was a fairly small audience, not even filling up the smallest of the festival’s performance tents. A pity, really, because the absentees missed themselves: it was
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Shore Poets on Sunday went head to head with the Euro 2008 finals. That, coupled with the start of the holidays, might well have had something to do with the somewhat reduced numbers. I have to say, it was a cracker of an evening. The new poet, Simon Pomery, was one of the best we’ve
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A week past Tuesday, I went to the launch of Angela McSeveney‘s new Mariscat pamphlet Slaughtering Beetroot at the Scottish Poetry Library. I can safely say it’s the only launch I’ve been to where beetroot cake was on offer. Angela had baked it herself, and it was, you may say, delicious. And the poetry was
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The audience for Sunday’s Shore Poets was a little thinner than usual, possibly because of the holiday weekend. Music was provided by Just Voices, a four-part acapella group, who treated us to French, Bulgarian, Scots and American songs. Beautiful stuff. Stephanie Green kicked off the poetry in the newcomer slot. I’ve seen Stephanie around the
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Not having been out in Glasgow for absolutely ages–possibly not since I read at Tchai Ovna west end in 2006, unless you count the Mitchell event Helena Nelson and I did with the Scottish Poetry Library–I really enjoyed heading west to join the audience for the reading at Tchai Ovna southside on Friday night. I
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Last night, though tired out after a busy day that included helping our neighbour to rebuild the fence along our boundary, I headed into Edinburgh for the third Poetry at the Great Grog event. Elizabeth Gold kicked off. The work she read jumped off from anecdotes, snatches of overheard conversation and tabloid headlines, but took
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I jumped into the car first thing yesterday morning and zipped up the road to St Andrew’s for my fix of StAnza 2008, listening to The Guardian CD of great 20th century poets on the way to get me in the mood. My first event was the masterclass in translation with Helmut Haberkamm and Fitzgerald
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Mark Ogle’s family and several Shore Poets past and present. Alison playing. The Mark Ogle Memorial Poem trophy. Hamish Whyte, Jacob Polley and Diana Hendry relax. Angus Peter Campbell receives the trophy from Lizzie and Deborah. Angus Peter with Mark Ogle’s family. (These photos, with full tags, are also on the Shore Poets Facebook pages.)
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Out last night to Polly Clark‘s reading at Edinburgh Uni’s Office of Lifelong Learning, where she’s the Royal Literary Funding writer in residence. Polly was reading along with three OLL students. Debbie Cannon, who read at last month’s Shore Poets, was the only poet of the three. She kicked off with a reduced version of
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If you’re one of those people who thought about going to the reading at the Great Grog last night but decided to stay in and watch, oh I don’t know, the Antiques Roadshow, kick yourself. No: harder. Colin Will and Rob Mackenzie have already blogged on the night, so I won’t go on at length,
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One of the things I love about Shore Poets is that the format of our events often produces rich and varied evenings of music and poetry. October’s reading with James W Wood, Christine De Luca and the wonderful, quietly intense Gillian Allnutt was no exception (the only problem being that Allnutt’s quiet reading voice didn’t
Amy Jo Philip 