Scottish writers
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Over at desktopsallye, Sally Evans of diehard press and Poetry Scotland has begun writing about meter. She seems quite defensive of pentameter for some reason. Metrics is an interesting subject to explore, and is obviously related to a consideration rhyme, but trying to defend any particular approach against another seems to me like defending red
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Just over a week until my reading with Gerrie Fellows for the Poetry Association of Scotland! Having been a member of the Association for a good few years, I know I can expect not only a warm welcome but an acute audience. It’s the best combination a writer can have. Here are the details: Wednesday
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After the horror of the photoshoot, we settled down to writing, with Ken first recording an introduction to the renga for the BBC Radio Scotland arts show Radio Cafe. Elspeth had to shuffle off for a live studio interview with them at lunchtime, but Richard and I were left voiceless on the airwaves. Participating in
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I am beginning to think that the necessary qualifications for working in PR and media relations must include a degree of–perhaps that should be “degree in”–Schadenfreude. It seems to me a truth universally ignored, at least by PR people, that the unfortunates who have to appear in quirky publicity shots are never the folk who
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Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the headline “Poets’ work to form basis of city literature collection” in my daily e-mail from The Scotsman and found it was a report of the poems on pillows commission! As you’ll see if you read the piece, they’ve got rather confused about what is being written when
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The programme for StAnza 2007 is now available. It’s the 10th StAnza, and the line-up is a good ‘un. I’m particularly interested in hearing Jorie Graham, but I’m disappointed that the Eric Gregory Award showcase reading is at a time utterly inaccessible for me. However, I’m appearing in The Gathering: 100 poets reading a poem
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The Spring programme for the Poetry Association of Scotland came through the door this morning. The blurb for my reading with Gerrie Fellows on 7 February proclaims us: “Two poets who describe the modern world with an ironic yet lyrical voice.” Other events in the season include a reading by Robert Crawford, Douglas Dunn lecturing
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Just before Christmas, the Scottish Poetry Library asked whether I’d be willing to take on a commission for a new three-star metro hotel in Edinburgh, Ten Hill Place. The library and the hotel have put together a project to produce poetry postcards that will be left on the pillows at Ten Hill Place when guests
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The Scottish Poetry Library’s third annual online choice of Scottish poems published in the past 12 months or so–Best Scottish Poems 2006–went live on St Andrew’s Day. As ever, it’s a highly inpidual choice by this year’s editor, Janice Galloway, as you can see if you compare it with the 2005 choice by Richard Price
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There was a good crowd in Mai Thai–the new Shore Poets venue–on Sunday night to hear Alan Hill, Jim C Wilson and Matthew Hollis. The readers strained a little bit to make themselves heard at the back, so I think we’ll might be using a small PA in future. Nonetheless, it was a good reading.
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Rilke has been a significant figure for me for a while, although there’s much of his work I’ve yet to read. When I lived in Berlin in the early 1990s, a friend gave me his collected poems in German for Chirstmas. The same friend later gave me the Letters to a Young Poet (in English,
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David Kinloch now has a website. It’s pretty easy to navigate and contains poems, essays, an interview with David, reviews, translations, news and other information. Worth looking at if you’re interested in his work.
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On Saturday night, the Shore Poets celebrated Stewart Conn‘s 70th birthday at the Counting House in Edinburgh. The evening, which was open to the public and more or less sold out with various bodies from the poetry world, involved readings from a number of poets whom Stewart admires and counts among his friends, including Anne
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Went to hear the fine Gaelic poet, publisher and scholar Derick Thomson (or Ruaraidh MacThomais in Gaelic) read on Wednesday at the usual haunt. The audience was far smaller than that for Sharon Olds. That, I suppose, is predictable, but it’s also a poor reflection on the knowledge of the poetry-reading public in Edinburgh. Gaelic
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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
Amy Jo Philip 