Scottish Poetry Library
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It’s exactly a week until the launch of The North End of the Possible and Rob A Mackenzie’s The Good News at the Scottish Poetry Library! If you’re within striking distance of Edinburgh on Saturday 4 May, come on down for 1:00 pm to savour some readings from me and Rob, enjoy a glass of
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This week, I’m busy preparing for a poetry retreat I’m leading at Nether Springs, the mother house of the Northumbria Community, this weekend coming (12 to 14 April). I’m excited about this because it’s the first extended opportunity I’ve had to put together poetry and spirituality. My previous visits to Nether Springs — always as
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It must have been the summer of 1995, the summer following my first year at university. The book was Edwin Morgan’s Themes on a Variation, borrowed from the Scottish Poetry Library, which was still crammed into Tweeddale Court at the time. The beach was Cocklawburn near Berwick-upon-Tweed — a favourite of my family’s for heaven
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A quick reminder about the Chinese Whispers event at the Scottish Poetry Library on Wednesday this week. It’s part of the Poetry Beyond Text season, which I blogged about here. It’s free and it starts at 6 pm. E-mail reception@spl.org.uk if you’re planning on going. Various artists and poets involved will discuss the process of
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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 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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There was a goodly crowd for the Scottish Poetry Library‘s flash mob outside St Giles this lunchtime. It was fun! I saw several lovely people I wouldn’t normally see of a lunchtime and was interviewed by a journalist, though I probably wittered nonsense away at her. There’s a video on The Scotsman website with footage
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January 25th is nearly upon us once more, and the world resounds to the tones of Burns’s poems. The Scottish Poetry Library and Let’s Get Lyrical have come up with a typically fun and inventive way of celebrating our most celebrated of Scots poets: a flashmob outside St Giles cathedral tomorrow at 1 pm. Instructions
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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
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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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In the latest Scottish Poetry Library podcast, you can hear me discuss my writing, the poets I carry with me and read “Summa” from The Ambulance Box. There’s also piece about the Southbank Centre’s new project, the Global Poetry System plus an interview with my fellow Salt poet Julia Bird. Rather than discussing her writing,
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My choice of classic poem has just gone up on the Scottish Poetry Library’s Reading Room site. Click here to read my thoughts on Henry Vaughan’s “The Night”. Don’t omit to browse the growing wealth of previous choices too.
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Lifting the Lid: the Ambulance Box virtual book tour gets under way today over at Our sweet old etcetera … the blog of the Scottish Poetry Library. Pop by and read about my earliest influences, Weebles, my writing methods and more besides.
Amy Jo Philip 