THE STORM WATCHERS
Available on the St Magnus Festival website: Gerda Stevenson’s film of #Orkney writer George Mackay Brown’s play, created in lockdown in 2021 by members of the cast on their mobile phones, with additional footage by Fionn McArthur.
A powerful & poetic piece, the drama presents the lives, anxieties, regrets, fears & memories of women as they they deal with the waiting & the aftermath of a storm with all their men at sea.
https://www.stmagnusfestival.com/festival-news/storm-watchers
Mirror, mirror on the wall
show me in succession all
my faces, that I may view
and choose which I would like as true…
—“Through the Looking Glass”, by Veronica Forrest-Thomson (1947–1975) – born #OTD, 28 November
#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thCentury #WomenWriters #postmodern
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/143680/through-the-looking-glass
“The magic for me growing up was that, behind closed doors, there were these interesting, eccentric characters. They were doing strange and fascinating things – in Airdrie. Think about that: how hard it must have been to be Iggy Pop here. Harder than being Iggy Pop wherever the real one was hanging out.”
THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE author David Keenan on growing up in Airdrie, & why small towns should be loved & cherished more
Starting on BBC Radio 4 tonight – a new adaptation of Dorothy Emily Stevenson’s 1934 novel MISS BUNCLE’S BOOK
As the ripples from the Great Depression reach a cosy English village, Barbara Buncle finds an inventive way to supplement her meagre income. Life in Silverstream will never be the same once Barbara Buncle’s thinly fictionalised novel lays bare the life, loves & eccentricities of her neighbours…
So on the bus through late November running,
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together…
—Iain Crichton Smith, “Two Girls Singing”
Published in DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS, ed. by John Greening (Carcanet 2021)
#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thCentury
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781800170940
“Scottishness is not some pedigree lineage. This is a mongrel tradition!”
William McIlvanney (1936–2015) – author & poet (& provider, at a rally in Edinburgh in 1992, of our profile header, as quoted in Neal Ascherson’s STONE VOICES) – was born #OTD, 25 November
A 🎂 🧵
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#Scottish #literature #20thCentury #CrimeFiction #TartanNoir
WRITERS!
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on poetry. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue
#Scottish #literature #poetry #writers #poets #writingcommunity
Details 👇
https://asls.org.uk/new-writing-scotland-co-editor-2023/
Oot behind a lorry,
Peyin nae heed,
Ablow a doubledecker,
A poor wean deid…
—James Copeland (1918–2002), “Black Friday”
Actor & writer James Gordon Copeland’s much-anthologised “Black Friday” packs tragedy, compassion, & a sense of close community into nine short verses
Wha’s Doctor Wha? Wha better kens nor he
that jouks the yetts and rides the birlin wheels
o time and space, shape-shiftin as he reels
through endless versions o reality? …
First published in Where Rockets Burn Through (ed. Russell Jones, 2012). In 2018, to maintain synchronicity with the time vortex, James Robertson reversed the polarity of the pronoun flow in the poem’s final line
#Scottish #literature #poetry #ScienceFiction #SFpoetry #DoctorWhoDay #DoctorWho
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https://scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/dr-wha/
The City is of Night; perchance of Death…
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism
#Scottish #literature #poetry #Victorian #19thCentury
https://psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-dreadful-night/
Making a Collective Poem
Severe weather unfortunately prevented Kathleen Jamie from attending our Schools Conference in October – but to make up for it she & the good folks at the Scottish Poetry Library have created this video about how to make a collective poem in the classroom