Rob A Mackenzie
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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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Feels like I’ve hardly had time to breathe since last week’s reading in Aberdeen, where Rob A Mackenzie and I read for Dead Good Poets. In Books and Beans, they certainly have a good venue: a good space with a clear acoustic and a great chai latte! The evening kicked off with half an hour’s
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I’m particularly pleased that my next reading will be in the city of my birth and of my father’s family, Aberdeen. Come and join me and Rob A Mackenzie at Dead Good Poets in Books and Beans on Belmont Street on Thursday next week (29 October). Times and entry details are here. I lived in
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Family circumstances mean I’m almost absent from Edinburgh this festival season, but I’ll be reading at Blackwell’s Writers at the Fringe on Thurs 20th. Rob A Mackenzie is reading there tomorrow night. There are, of course, numerous literary events going on in Edinburgh this month. I hope that I might manage to hear one of
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Kevin Cadwallender, editor of Red Squirrel Scotland, has organised an Edinburgh benefit reading for Salt. It’s at Out of the Blue arts centre, Dalmeny Street on Thursday July 30th at 7 pm. Poets include JL Williams, Rob A Mackenzie, Colin Donati, Kevin Cadwallender, James Oates, Anita Govan, Steve Urwin, Alistair Robinson and others TBC, all
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The first print review of The Ambulance Box is in! It’s part of a piece in Magma 44, where Rosie Shepperd reviews it alongside Paula Meehan’s Painting Rain (Carcanet) and River Wolton’s The Purpose of Your Visit (Smith/Doorstop Books). The review is thorough and extremely positive. Here’s a headline quote: delights readers with a dance
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Less than a week now till Rob A Mackenzie and I hit Stoke Newington! I’m hugely excited about this opportunity for us to read with Katy Evans-Bush and Yang Lian. Katy read a great set at the Jekyll and Hyde a week past Sunday. I first came across Yang Lian when I did some Chinese
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I’ll be busy on Saturday: besides the Word Power reading (see the post below), I’ll be popping up along with Rob A Mackenzie at the thePROJECT2. Twice, in fact: 2 pm at the Lot and 7:30 pm at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar. Booking information here. It’s a varied and interesting programme. thePROJECT is an exploration
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Come to Word Power, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh this Saturday for a feast of fine verse. The reading starts at 12 noon sharp, finishes at 1pm. And it’s free! We’ll all have books for sale. Matt Merritt lives near Leicester. His first collection, Troy Town, was published in March 2008 by Arrowhead Press and
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April, may be the cruelest month, but June is shaping up to be the busiest. This Sunday coming (14th), I’ll be doing not one but two readings. First of all, you can join me and a variety of other Linlithgow-based authors in the marquee at the Rugby Club for “Take Tea With an Author”, a
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While you’re waiting for the All New Ambulance Box Tour to begin, why not have a look at Rob A Mackenzie’s De-Cabbage Yourself Tour? It kicked off this week at Very Like A Whale, where Rob answers questions about Scottish identity and his writing; cabbages (such a solid vegetable); putting his book together; being classed
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Another review! It seems to be my collection’s weekend for reviews, especially ones with a HappenStance connection: Matt Merritt has just posted a wonderfully thoughtful, warm and generous appreciation of The Ambulance Box (the first link above). I’m indebted to him. Matt and I will be reading with Rob A Mackenzie and James W Wood
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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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I’d been exercised by the second half of this all day, and then I see that not only has Rob Mackenzie blogged about it already, but Roddy Lumsden has replied in the comments section. Briefly, Roddy is baffled by the sparse number of established Scottish poets in my generation: those born in the 1970s and
Amy Jo Philip 