Six Poets at the Fruitmarket Gallery 2014

Friday 15 August, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market St, Edinburgh: you can hear six poets for the price of only £5, and it's a great line-up:

Simon Barraclough
Isobel Dixon
A.B. Jackson
Rob A. Mackenzie
Andrew Philip
Chrissy Williams

You can read a poem by each of the poets on Isobel Dixon's blog, Toktokkie.

For me, this is always one of the highlights during the Edinburgh Festival time and would be even if I wasn't reading in it. The Gallery is a great venue and the readers are always excellent. I'll be reading some new material and I'm sure that's true of everyone. We'll kick off fairly sharp at 8pm and all poets will read short sets in each half. Please come along if you can. It's unlikely you'll regret it.

The Edwin Morgan Celebration, Monday 30th August

I had feared that I might be disappointed by the Edwin Morgan Celebration at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Monday. Perhaps the readers wouldn’t do the poems justice or perhaps the talk in between poems would be awkward or perhaps it might otherwise prove itself faintly depressing. But I needn’t have worried. It was a memorable and genuinely affecting occasion. Poems were chosen from all periods, old and new, and everyone did a great job of reading them. Some readings (Douglas Dunn’s on ‘The First Men on Mercury’, Andrew Greig’s on ’Jack London in Heaven’, Don Paterson’s on ‘From the Video Box, No. 25’) went beyond the highest expectations. Robert Crawford’s enunciation in ‘The Loch Ness Monster’s Song’ was quite brilliant.

Someone (annoyingly, I can’t remember who. David Kinloch, maybe?) remarked that most of the poems read had their centre in the expression of love, and that their vast range, their blend of experimentation and tradition, their playfulness, depth and everything else that makes up Edwin Morgan’s body of work, find a unifying principle in love – both the dark struggles and the hard-won joys. Well, I’m paraphrasing wildly, but it was something like that.

There were also two video-clips: one a BBC recording of ‘One Cigarette’, and another from the Arts Council archive, a home-made recording of ‘For the Opening of the Scottish Parliament, 9 October 2004’. In the latter, he clearly wasn’t well, but I could still detect the vitality and passion that infused everything he wrote. He was the first poet I ever saw doing a reading, way back in the eighties, part of a ‘breakfast and books’ series Waterstones bookshop did on Saturday(?) mornings. I didn’t know his work at all at the time, but I was amazed at the way he read. There was a very small audience, but my memory is of him almost bouncing around during the reading. His style is very different from Heaney’s but there was similar warmth of personality and direct engagement about him. When I read his poems from a book, in all their vast range of styles, forms and voices, I can still hear his very distinctive voice reading them in my head. People who write the same kind of poem over and over and call it ‘voice’ – read Edwin Morgan’s Collected Poems and you’ll really hear a voice.

The main tent was packed full. I don’t know how many it holds but, certainly, there were many hundreds of people. Everyone came out enthused, smiling, maybe also with a few tears but not altogether sad tears. They loved the show and there was plenty to love about it. I can’t imagine that many poets will die and find themselves loved so much by so many people they didn’t know personally – the audience that night just being a small cross-section of a much wider appreciation. It did make me wish that such numbers (or even a quarter of such numbers. An eighth!) would turn up for readings by other lesser known but still highly talented Scottish poets. I know Edwin Morgan was special, but people who loved that evening would find plenty to love about other evenings with other good poets too. And I bet Edwin Morgan would agree.

Nick Barley, new director of the Festival, gave the closing speech. His final act was to dedicate the 2010 Festival to Edwin Morgan. This event was certainly a great way to end it.

The Buyer

After my reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Friday 21st August, I did manage to sell a few copies of The Opposite of Cabbage from the signing desk. A day or two later, I checked how many copies were on the shelves. There were eight.

A week afterwards, on the final day of the festival, I checked again. There were seven. Of course, it would have been nice to have sold the lot, but the shelves packed with Seamus Heaney and Carol Ann Duffy etc represent stiff competition. To whoever bought that single copy, even if you never read this, thank you!

My Edinburgh Festival 2010

I’ve not been exactly highly productive on this blog over the last couple of weeks, but I’ve been busy locally. The Edinburgh Festival has been in full swing. I read at the Book Festival with Ron Butlin, Brian Johnstone and Jane McKie, which was a most enjoyable event. The rain came down in torrents during my reading and drummed loudly on the marquee ceiling, but the microphone and sound system was more than equal to it. It added atmosphere. A little thunder and lightning would have helped even more, but we had to be content with a firework that someone let off during Jane’s reading. I was given a pass to the author’s yurt, which contains rivers of free wine and whisky, and haven’t been back since. Must do better next time...

I did a reading as part of Utter! Spoken Word - a two-hour extravaganza of Salt poets. It was a terrific night, featuring Julia Bird, Simon Barraclough, Isobel Dixon, Mark Granier, Andrew Philip, Eleanor Rees, and Ryan Van Winkle, as well as myself. I got home about 2.30am that night... I’ll post something soon on the reading. I’d certainly recommend anyone to check these authors out and buy their books.

I also co-MCd two events called ‘Chaos Raging Sweet’ with Andrew Ferguson, part of the PBH Free Fringe, which featured poetry, prose and music, and sometimes blurred the boundaries between the genres. Some great performances at these events. I think, though –if I was too do something at next year’s Free Fringe – I’d prefer to do something more planned-out and sustained over a week or so, rather than just two performances.

I enjoyed the festival, as ever, but I’m glad it’s over. I have a few poems I want to write, one of which is edging its way towards completion at an alarmingly slow rate. And there is a deadline – tomorrow! But the poem won’t move forward any faster than it can...

I’m going to the celebration of Edwin Morgan tonight. He has been vastly influential on my own writing. I will try to say more soon, but the sheer range of his work, the bridge he makes between ‘mainstream’ and ‘innovative’ poetry, his ability to write both directly and with astonishing oddness on important themes, his simultaneous playfulness and seriousness, and the combination of both intellectual and emotional resonance in his work – all this, and more, makes him one of the most important poets of the 20th century, and also one of my own favourite writers.

My Edinburgh Shows, August 2010

I thought I’d post a list of my appearances during the Edinburgh Festival, in hope that there will audiences at these events! I am lucky enough to be part of some great line-ups and I hope you can make it along to those.

Saturday 21st August, 8.30–9.30pm, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Peppers Theatre, £10/£8, Poetry Showcase – I’m reading with Ron Butlin, Brian Johnstone, and Jane McKie.

Sunday 22nd August, 2.50–3.50pm, Free Fringe, Banshee Labyrinth (Niddry St, off Royal Mile), Chaos Raging Sweet - I’m co-MC (with Andrew C Ferguson), introducing terrific poets, prose writers and musicians such as:

Tribute to Venus Carmichael
Joy Hendry
A.B. Jackson
Mairi Sharratt
Tim Turnbull

Monday 23rd August, 6.30-8.30pm, Free Fringe, Banshee Labyrinth (Niddry St, off Royal Mile), Utter! Salt Two-Hour Special - I’m reading with a fantastic line-up of Salt poets:

Simon Barraclough
Julia Bird
Isobel Dixon
Mark Granier
Andrew Philip
Eleanor Rees
Ryan Van Winkle

Wednesday 25th August, 2.50-3.50pm, Free Fringe, Banshee Labyrinth (Niddry St, off Royal Mile), Chaos Raging Sweet - again, I’m co-MC (with Andrew C Ferguson), introducing a great line-up of poets, prose writers and musicians, including:

Claire Askew
Sophie Cooke
Gavin Inglis
Jane McKie
Andrew Philip
Andrew Wilson

Utter! At Edinburgh On Video

This is a video, made as a record of Utter! during the Edinburgh Festival Free Fringe, by poet, Dzifa Benson.

It features performers such as Paula Varjack and host, Richard Tyrone Jones on the Royal Mile, valiantly attempting to bring the events to people’s attention. Great stuff!

Kelman On Scottish Literary Culture

At the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Guardian have extracted a few salvos from James Kelman on Scottish literary culture.

“…it's always been an indication of that Anglocentric nature of what's at the heart of the Scottish literary establishment, that they will not see the tremendous art of a writer like Tom Leonard for example, and how they will praise the mediocre.”

I’m not quite clear who Kelman’s target is here. Who or what makes up the Scottish literary establishment? If we’re talking about those who hand out prizes, then these often go to literary novels. Talk of “praise” suggests critics and perhaps funders. Maybe he means the whole package – administrators, boffins, prize givers, funders, critics, newspapers, publishers – the lot. But perhaps it’s more a gesture of frustration that so little publicity is given to Scottish writers who are pushing literature forward compared to those who sell loads of books. If that’s the case, it’s the same all over the UK, not just in Scotland.

Salt On Display At Blackwell's Bookshop

It's not often that I see poetry collections on the most prominent display table of a bookshop but at Blackwell's Bookshop on Edinburgh's South Bridge, you'll find both my 'The Opposite of Cabbage' and Andy Philip's 'The Ambulance Box' sharing space with novels and non-fiction, just as you enter the main door.

Of course, Blackwell's might begin to think there's real mileage in displaying poetry if these piles of books start disappearing. So, if you're in Edinburgh and want a book to read, Blackwell's is the place to buy it, and those '£2 Off' stickers mean what they say - for a limted time.

I've always had a theory that, if poetry books had a higher profile in bookshops, people would pick them up and buy them, not in numbers similar to Dan Brown or Katie Price, but in similar numbers to an average literary novel. I'm now hoping that really is the case!

Live At The Edinburgh Fringe

To catch up: my Blackwell’s at the Fringe reading went well, and I enjoyed all the others on the night too. The crowd was a good size and very positive. Blackwell’s is an excellent bookshop, one of my favourites in Edinburgh, and I was amazed and delighted to see they had copies of my book and Andrew Philip’s (Andy is reading there this Thursday 20th) not only in the shop but also on the window display. Salt in shop windows! Three cheers for Blackwell’s! My set list was:

1. Light Storms from a Dark Country
2. Girl Playing Sudoku on the 7.15
3. Berlusconi and the National Grid
4. While the Moonies are Taking Over Uruguay
5. Scottish Sonnet Ending in American
6. Scotlands
7. Everyone Will Go Crazy

On Friday I was MC at Utter!, introducing Rapunzel Wizard (who lived up to his name), Stephen Barnaby and Graeme Hawley. It’s well worth checking out Utter! by the way. It’s free (although donations are more than welcome), and there’s a different programme every evening. On Friday, I read:

1. Our Inventions
2. Scotland
3. Breaking the Hoodoo
4. Whisky
5. Visiting Hour

Yesterday evening, I was back at Utter! to hear John Hegley, Tim Wells and Tim Turnbull – excellent performances by the Donut Press crew. Afterwards, I ended up in the Oxford Bar where Tim Wells celebrated his birthday in the traditional way.

Tomorrow (Monday), I’ll be doing a short poetry set sometime between 7.50-8.40pm for Underword at Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street. Then I have a break for a week and am back at Utter (5.30-6.20pm) on Wednesday 26th and Saturday 29th.

Report from Utter!

Excellent opening night for Utter! at the Festival Fringe last Saturday. I really enjoyed the readings by Richard Tyrone-Jones, Tim Key, Jenny Lindsay and Jude Simpson and my own reading went well. Good audience too. A Radio 4 programme, You and Yours, was recording bits of it and asking members of the audience for their reaction. It should be broadcast on Friday between midday and one o’clock.

My set-list?

1. Concentration
2. Inbox
3. Hangover
4. Shopping List
5. Advice from the Lion-Tamer to the Poetry Critic
6. Homecoming

I’m going to catch today’s performance, at the usual time – 5.30pm at Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street. Free!

On Saturday, I stayed on for this strange improvised ‘dating counsellor’ act. This guy got audience members to enact various dating scenarios and to consider strategies. One of those acts you’d only find at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was good fun. I also stayed on for Underword, another Spoken Word event (7.50-8.40pm each night at Fingers Piano Bar). Again, some good, enjoyable stuff there and I may also stay on tonight. I’m on at Utter! again this Friday 14th, doing my MC thing, introducing English poets who liked Scotland so much they moved here.

Utter! And Blackwell's At The Fringe

I hope plenty of people manage to catch some of the Utter! (full programme at the link) shows in Edinburgh throughout the festival, from 8-29 August at Fingers Piano Bar , Frederick Street, from 5.30-6.30pm. I’ll be part of it on Sat 8th, Fri 14th (as MC), Wed 26th, and Sat 29th. I’m looking forward to the Donut night on the 15th with John Hegley, Tim Turnbull and Tim Wells. Poets as varied as Jude Simpson, Claire Askew, Anita Govan, Hazel Frew and Christie Williamson are reading on various dates, and also lots of people whose work I don’t yet know. The whole thing is organised by Richard Tyrone Jones (check out his 'Celery Seller'). Because it’s part of the Free Fringe, it won’t cost you a penny.

I’m also appearing in Blackwell’s Bookshop on the South Bridge on Thursday 13th August from 6-7.15pm as part of the Blackwell’s Writers at the Fringe events (scroll down at the link). The full line-up that evening (all sounds great to me) is:

Caro Ramsay
Gillian Philip
Rob A. MacKenzie
Donald Smith
Robin Laing
Arnold Maran

On 20th August, Andrew Philip will be reading with five other writers, and there are also interesting line-ups on the 6th and 27th. Again, it’s free.