POETRY READERPOETRY READERPOETRY READER

The popular perception of poets is of a trade where its practitioners live short, intense lives that don’t often end well. Or as Wordsworth put it in ‘Resolution and Independence’:

We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;

But thereof come inthe end despondency

and madness.

While one hates to contradict Wordsworth, there is a growing body of evidence that writing and reading poetry can play a part in maintaining or restoring mental equilibrium. Naturally, the Scottish Poetry Library is doing its part to secure the nation’s wellbeing.

‘Bibliotherapy’, which can be

any literary activity (writing, reading or storytelling) that helps people to assume more control of their health and wellbeing, has a long history that goes as far back as Ancient Greece. In the latter part of 2019, the Library chose to examine more closely how we could use our collections to help people.

Libraries, including our own, as well as public organisations and practitioners across Scotland, are collaborating on Creative Words for Wellbeing in Scotland, a new project using reading and writing to improve the health TK�YMJ�SFYNTS��9MJ�ąWXY�XYJU�was to get a better picture of what forms of bibliotherapy are already taking place in Scotland. The Project Co-ordinator Ruth Stevenson spent last summer evidence-gathering: collecting and collating existing evidence, useful information and a range of personal opinions

to help us to develop an action plan for the future of Creative Words for Wellbeing in Scotland. Once we’ve gathered this information, we’ll have a better picture of the current bibliotherapy landscape locally and will be in a position to think about what happens next, which might include creating a national network providing opportunities for support and collaboration cross-sectorally.

In addition to Creative Words for Wellbeing in Scotland, YMJ�ąSFQ�RTSYMX�TK������XF\�the Library partnering with the University of Edinburgh on its ‘Prescribe Culture’ project, which aims to tackle low-level mental health problems, social isolation and loneliness by being a place of referral for people to explore poetry as a way of supporting wellbeing.

During the same period, the Library hosted a ‘Prescribe Culture’ exhibition, which

invited the public to explore poems we had selected and displayed. Participants could choose to use guided J]JWHNXJX�YT�WJĆJHY�TS�YMJ�poetry; they could make their own selection of poetry or simply enjoy a cup of tea in a different space.

Starting in February, we’re following up last year’s exploration of bibliotherapy with a four-week Mindfulness and Expressive Writing Course. The poet and Mindfulness Meditation practitioner Colin McGuire will lead each session, which is two hours long.

‘Mindfulness and Expressive Writing are valuable for a poet,’ says McGuire. ‘Writing takes place in the present-moment and sometimes the written-moment can be a daunting place. I believe Mindfulness and Expressive Writing can help release writers block, support creativity as well as allow poets and writers to explore

the therapeutic qualities of private expressive writing for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.’

The course provides participants with an experiential introduction to Mindfulness Meditation and Expressive Writing. Each Mindfulness Practice is explained, practiced and WJĆJHYJI�TS�FSI�KTQQT\JI�\NYM�F�XUJHNąH�*]UWJXXN[J�Writing activity.

‘Participants will be encouraged to journal, WJĆJHY�FSI�UFWYNHNUFYJ�NS�YMJ�expressive writing exercises,’ McGuire says. ‘Participants are also encouraged to practice their meditations at home over the four week period in a way that is comfortable for them.’

The course costs £100. More information can be found on the Library’s website, where you can also reserve places on the course.

Sit Down and Shut Upby Colin McGuire

Hold your tongue. Sit at peace.Orientate yourself like a spoonstirring circles in a coffee cup.

Imagine a snail's voyageacross the continentTK�YMJ�ĆTTW�TK�^TZW�QN[NSL�WTTR�

Sit down and shut up;somewhere a leaf trembleson the edge of a runway.

Stillness is its own reward.Rare lucidity without appointment.&�ĆNLMYQJXX�GJJ�\NYM�MTSJ^�HTQQJHYJI�

Leave the knocked door.Exhale one deep current. A progress is in silence.

This area must be kept clear.Exam quiet, without test.What matters is what remains

after every thought and feelinghas been extractedfrom the rush of its making.

MINDFULNESS CAN RELEASE WRITERS BLOCK AND SUPPORT CREATIVITY

In February, we are running a four-week Mindfulness and Expressive Writing Course. The poet and Mindfulness Meditation practitioner Colin McGuire will lead each session.

.XXZJ����ï�<NSYJW�����from the Scottish Poetry Library | scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Island

Min

dfu

lne

ss by U

I Inte

rnatio

nal P

rog

rams, u

nd

er a C

reative

Co

mm

on

s licen

ce

PRESCRIPTION: POETRY

-

SIGNS &WONDERSCongratulations to Janette Ayachi whose debut collection Hand Over Mouth Music won The Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year on St Andrews Day last year at a ceremony held at the National Museum of Scotland. Ayachi launched her collection at the Scottish Poetry Library in June. At the same prize-giving ceremony the Callum MacDonald Memorial Award was presented to Tapsalteerie for their pamphlet Glisk by Sarah Stewart. The Callum MacDonald Memorial Award was jointly run for the !rst time last year by the Saltire Society and the Scottish Poetry Library.

Given that it’s 2020 now, it’s appropriate that the theme for this year’s National Poetry Day will be ‘vision’. The Forward Arts Foundation, who run National Poetry Day, hope that the theme ‘inspires a national conversation about the power of the imagination to renew ways of seeing, and maybe a range of gorgeous picture-poems too’. National Poetry Day takes place on October 3 this year. The Scottish Poetry Library is the lead agency for NPD in Scotland.

Scotland’s poetry festival StAnza has assembled another line-up that commands interest. The festival has revealed a host of prize-winning poets among next year’s line-up as it launches its core festival programme for 2020. Jen Had!eld, the youngest winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize, is among those appearing as is editor and human rights advocate Carolyn Forché. Jay Bernard, the author of the acclaimed Surge makes their StAnza debut, while one of Scotland’s best-known crime writers Val McDermid will share her favourite poems at a Desert Island Poems event.

We celebrated the appointment of Simon Armitage to poet laureate on the cover of our last issue. Since then he has announced one of his !rst major initiatives, an award which he has set up to encourage poems written about the environment. Armitage will donate his £5,000 salary as poet laureate to help fund the Laurel Prize, which will be run annually. Armitage hopes it will promote discussion about the impact on nature of issues like climate change. The winner will receive £5,000 and will be announced next May. There will also be a second prize of £2,000 and a third prize of £1,000. The prize will be run by the Poetry School, which also runs the annual"Ginkgo Prize"for ecopoetry. The prize will be judged by Armitage, fellow poet Moniza Alvi and author Robert Macfarlane.

Single collections

Veronica Aaronson, Nothing About the Birds is Ordinary This Morning (Indigo Publishing)

Juana Adcock, Split (Blue Diode Press)

Jane Aldous, Let Out the Djinn (Archne Press)

Jennifer Allan, Winter Light (Mòr Media)

Margaret Armour, Songs and Shadows (Heliea Publishing)

Janette Ayachi, Hand Over Mouth Music (Liverpool University Press)

Aileen Ballantyne, Taking Flight (Luath)

Tessa Berring, Bitten Hair (Blue Diode Press)

Robert Burns, Tam O’Shanter, adapted by Richmond Clements with art by Inko (Cranachan Publishing)

Jim Carruth, Bale Fire (Polygon)

Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark, Of the Wayside (Lawn Editions)

Jo Cli#ord, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven: tenth anniversary edition (Stewed Rhubarb)

G.W. Colkitto, Brantwood: that place of little green poems (Cinnamon Press)

Stewart Conn, Aspects of Edinburgh (Scotland Street Press)

Anne Connolly, Once Upon a Quark (Red Squirrel Press)

Robert Crawford, Strath: Scots versions of Song dynasty Chinese poems (Easel Press)

Molly Donachie, Icarus (SPM Publications)

Jenni Fagan, Truth (Tangerine Press)

Callie Gardner, Naturally It is Not (The 87 Press)

Linda Goulden, Speaking Parts (Half Moon Press)

Archana Goyal, Life Within: travel moments (self-published)

Rosemary Hector, A Quickening (Muddy Pearl)

Philip Hutton, These Are They, That’s Them (self-published)

Alastair Jackson and Kenneth Steven, The Spirit of the Hebrides: images and words inspired by Sorley Maclean (Saint Andrews Press)

Neil Leadbeater, River Hoard (Cyberwit)

Neil Leadbeater, Penn Fields (Littoral Press)

Neil Leadbeater and Monica Manolachi, Brasilia (PIM)

Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh, Bogha-frois san Oidhche / Rainbow in the Night (Handsel Press)

Iain M. Macleod, 10 Seconds that Changed my Life (IndieGo Publishing)

Calum L. Macleòid, Bhon Phlateau dhan a'Chladach (Bradan Press)

Beth McDonough, Lamping for Pickled Fish (4Word Press)

Donald E. Meek, Shore Lines: word-pictures from an island (Acair)

Marion F. Morrison, Adhbhar Ar Sòlais / Cause of our Joy (Bradan Press)

Elaine Morton, Hamethochts (Evertype)

Anne B. Murray, The Colour Shop (Terra Firma Press)

Jon Plunkett, A Melody of Sorts (Red Squirrel)

Tom Pow and Hugh Bryden, My Dad was a Cowboy (Cacafuego Press)

Sheenagh Pugh, Afternoons Go Nowhere (Poetry Wales Press)

Hannah Raymond-Cox, Amuse Girl (Burning Eye)

George C. Robertson, Another Anthology in Various Voices: in English and Scots (self-published)

Edward Rogers, Fallen Leaves (Tuba Press)

Tracey S. Rosenberg, Secondary (Red Squirrel)

James P. Spence, Willow Pattern Haiku (Otherwise Poetry)

Jock Stein, Jock’s Journey: memoir of a minister and makar (Handsel Press)

Anne Stewart, The Last Parent (Second Light)

Steve Urwin, Laughter to Split Glass (Red Squirrel)

Stephen Watt, Fairy Rock: a crime novel in verse (Red Squirrel Press)

Christopher Whyte, Ceum air Cheum: cruinneachadh de dhàintean nas fhaide (Acair)

Robin Lindsay Wilson, Backstage in Paradise (Cinnamon Press)

Anthologies

After Curfew: Neu! Reekie! ed. Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson (Penkiln Burn)

High Tide: the 2019 anthology of poetry and prose, Federation of Writers (Scotland) (New Voices Press)

The Laureate’s Choice Anthology: twenty poets chosen by Carol Ann Du#y (smith|doorstop)

Poems from the Age of Extinction: an anthology of poetry in endangered languages ed. Chris McCabe (Chambers)

Scotia Extremis: poems from the extremes of Scotland’s psyche ed. Brian Johnstone and Andy Jackson (Luath)

Try to Be Better ed. Sam Buchan-Watts and Lavinia Singer (Perspective)

Words Work Well for All: a collection of writing and art from the Lapidus Scotland project ed. Frances Ainslie (Playspace)

Single collections - pamphlets

Patricia Ace, In De!ance of Short Days (Fair Stranger Press)

Sheena Blackhall, Goodbye to a Soul: poems and tales in Scots and English (Malfranteaux Concepts)

Sheena Blackhall, Green Man Rising (Malfranteaux Concepts)

Sheena Blackhall, A Scottish Pilgrimage (Malfranteaux Concepts)

Sheena Blackhall, Why Give Nuts to a Man with No Teeth? (Malfranteaux Concepts)

Sheena Blackhall and Tom Hubbard, From Gweedore to Skibbereen: Irish poems, ballads and pieces (Malfranteaux Concepts)

Elspeth Brown, Starling and Crane (Indigo Pamphlets)

Tim Craven, Lake E#ect (Tapsalteerie)

Claire Crowther, Knithoard (HappenStance)

Peter Esslemont, Passing Hours (self-published)

charlotte geater / GPT-2, against my own feelings (If a Leaf Falls)

Harry Josephine Giles, moon, sun & all things (Easter Road Press)

Mai Iv$äll, Into Longing Vast Rose (If a Leaf Falls)

Martha Kapos, Smile Variations (Happenstance)

Michael Longley, A Stream’s Tattle: new poems (Mariscat Press)

Ross McCleary, Endorse Me, You Cowards! (Stewed Rhubarb)

Audun Mortensen, footballers who rhyme (If a Leaf Falls)

Derek Parkes, Cherry Blossom (Red Squirrel)

Tom Pow, Is (Roncadora)

Finola Scott, Much Left Unsaid (Red Squirrel)

Maria Sledmere, lana del ray playing at a stripclub (Mermaid Motel)

Jock Stein, An Iolaire, trans. Maoilios Caimbeul (Handsel Press)

Jock Stein, Swift (Handsel Press)

Katharine Towers, The Violin Forest (Happenstance)

Barnaby Tydeman, Vitamin Shrine (If a Leaf Falls)

Sam Weselowski, I Love My Job (If a Leaf Falls)

Jay G. Ying, Wedding Beasts (Bitter Melon)

Alan Young, notes along the way: 22 (Elizabeth Simon)

Reference

Kirstie Blair, Working Verse in Victorian Scotland: poetry, press, community (Oxford University Press)

John Burnside The Music of Time: poetry in the twentieth century (Pro!le Books)

Fifty Fifty: Carcanet’s jubilee in letters, ed. Robyn Marsack (Carcanet)

Tom Mole, What the Victorians Made of Romanticism: material artefacts, cultural practices, and reception history (Princeton University Press)

Heather H. Yeung, Spatial Engagement with Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan)

New Scottish Titles at the SPL

My Everything

My Last,

My First,FROMTHE DIRECTOR

Sheila Wake!eld is a poet, editor and publisher based in South Lanarkshire. Since founding Red Squirrel Press in April 2006, she has published over 200 titles, mainly poetry, launched Postbox Press, the literary !ction imprint of Red Squirrel Press in 2015, and Postbox, Scotland’s International Short Story Magazine in 2019.

My First

I was obsessed with reading and writing from an early age. Before I started school, I would go to a weekly group with my grandmother on a Monday afternoon. I realised when I was older that it had been a forerunner of what we now describe as a creative writing group. I was lucky in that when I went to what was then junior school and later, grammar school, poetry was taught and even though it had to be recited, after being learnt by heart, as I read and re-read, it calmed me and !red my imagination. My earliest memories of poetry at junior school include Shakespeare’s ‘When Icicles Hang by the Wall’ and Belloc’s ‘Matilda’.

My Last

I get very little time to write and it gnaws away at me. Every year at this point, I say that I’m going to try to !nd more time to write but this time, I’m really going to try to do so. Most of my reading is submissions but I do my best to keep up to date with new poetry collections and Gerry Cambridge’s The Light Acknowledgers (HappenStance) is exactly what you’d expect from a poet, editor and essayist of the highest standard. It’s in six sections and I’m particularly enjoying the island poems of the ‘On Papa Westray’ section, the relationship poems of the ‘Departures’ section as well as the Scots poem, ‘The Visitor’.

AFTER BEING LEARNT BY HEART, AS I READ AND RE-READ, POETRY CALMED ME AND FIRED MY IMAGINATION AT SCHOOLMy Everything

The Scottish Poetry Library is a unique resource and space, a vital platform for poetry of every genre. We are extremely lucky to have it and it is essential that it is allowed to continue to develop. Tessa Ransford told me at StAnza one year that I was like her in that I get things done, I don’t always succeed but when I fail, I remember her words and try harder. I’m very grateful for all the help and support o#ered by the Scottish Poetry Library for events and projects and I’m going to spend more time there next year researching and writing. Please become a Friend of the SPL.

If, like Sheila Wake!eld, poetry is your !rst, last and everything, you should become a Friend of the SPL. To join and enjoy bene!ts including the Poetry Reader delivered to your door, call us on 0131 557 2876, email friends@spl.org.uk or visit scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/about/become-our-friend.

The passing of Alasdair Gray at the turn of the year saw Gray praised for his role in the renaissance of Scottish literature and art in the 1980s and the contribution of writers to contemporary Scottish politics. As a child, Gray was an avid user of his local public library in 7NIIWNJ��[NXNYNSL�KTZW�TW�ą[J�YNRJX�F�\JJP��-J�HNYJI�8HTYYèX�Scottish Border Ballads and Tillyard’s The English Epic as volumes of poetry YMFY�MJ�UFWYNHZQFWQ^�FIRNWJI�FSI�\FX�QFYJW�YT�GJ�NSĆZJSHJI�NS�MNX�poetry by the writing of Coleridge, Blake and Pound.

,WF^�WJĆJHYJI��ç1NPJ�RFS^�8HTYX�HMNQIWJSèX�UWNRFW^�FSI�XJHTSIFW^�XHMTTQNSL��RNSJ�MFI�said nothing about Scottish culture…. In Scotland, English literature was taught as if no Scot had contributed to it.’ Thankfully, Scottish arts and culture, and increasingly Scots and Scottish Gaelic languages, are better appreciated in our schools. Since its inception, the Scottish Poetry Library has sought to provide learning resources to teachers and pupils; indeed, our company’s founding object is to ‘advance the education of the public’.

Towards this end we launched a Teaching Fellowship programme in the autumn of 2019, which received many applications. Teachers representing schools and colleges in Kilmarnock, Stirling, Glasgow, Dunfermline and Edinburgh formed our inaugural intake. This included a Gaelic language secondary schoolteacher. The fellowship opportunity includes participating for free in themed workshops run by the Library and a week’s residency at Moniak Mhor. Each of the fellows will contribute three units of work on poetry to the SPL’s online resources and three professional development sessions within their school and wider regions. The themed workshops are also available more widely to teachers outside the fellowship programme. These workshops address tackling racism, celebrating the Scots language, health and wellbeing, Edwin Morgan’s centenary and creative writing. See over the page for more details.

Returning to Gray, he wrote in his memoir, Of Me and Others, that he regarded a well-stocked public library as ‘the pinnacle of democratic socialism. That a good dull place like Riddrie had one was proof that the world was essentially well organized.’ I believe that this analogy is also true with regard to Scotland’s possession of a national poetry library.

Asif KhanDirector

3Alasdair Gray reading from his work

City o

f Ed

inb

urg

h C

ou

ncil – Lib

raries w

ww

.capitalco

llectio

ns.o

rg.u

k

As far back as 1942, poets have been accused of inhabiting ivory towers. In that year, critic Randall Jarry wrote an essay, ‘The End of the Line’, that accused poets of abandoning a common readership for an ‘ivory tower’ of elitist composition; they were writing for each other, not readers. This jibe has proved remarkably resilient over the years. During 2019 and into 2020, however, the Scottish Poetry Library has been using and will continue to use poetry to diminish the harm caused by discrimination and to promote self-care.

Our Engagement and Learning Coordinator Hannah Lavery is key to the delivery of Library projects supporting poets while helping communities traditionally marginalised to access the Library’s resources and to see poetry as a tool to enrich their lives. One area she has been active in is the Library’s Career Long Professional Development (CLPD) for teachers. .S�FXXTHNFYNTS�\NYM�2TSNFHP�2MTW��YMJ�1NGWFW^�MFX�WJHWZNYJI�ą[J�YJFHMJWX�å�STY�FQQ�YJFHMJWX�TK�*SLQNXM�å�GFXJI�FWTZSI�8HTYQFSI�YT�GJ�TZW�ąWXY�9JFHMNSL�+JQQT\X �YMJ^�\NQQ�UWTRTYJ�poetry as a tool to support literacy, creativity and wellbeing. These Teaching Fellows, or ‘SPL Ambassadors’ as they’re also known, are reviewing our learning resources and helping us shape our offer to teachers.

They will be trained and encouraged during a free residential place at a short Moniack Mhor course for teachers and across a series of Library workshops which will develop fresh ways to teach poetry; they will encourage not only pupils but also colleagues to get over a ‘fear’ of poetry often cited as hindering classroom engagement as well as reading poetry for enjoyment. We plan to offer new Fellowships every year going forward.

These Teaching Fellows will also be present during the series of CLPD days we’ve IJ[JQTUJI�KTW�YMJ�ąWXY�MFQK�TK�YMNX�^JFW� XJJ�XNIJGFW���9MJ�1NGWFW^�MJQI�NYX�ąWXY�\TWPXMTU��‘Poetry as a tool to support and promote anti-racism in the classroom’ on St Andrews Day, where writers Nadine Aisha Jassat and Dean Atta (pictured above) held workshops that gave teachers the tools to use poems to grow empathy and awareness in their pupils with regards to race.

Asif Khan, the Director of the SPL, says, ‘Increasingly, poetry is used for purposes in FIINYNTS�YT�WJFINSL�KTW�UQJFXZWJ��4ZW�ąWXY�GFYHM�TK�9JFHMNSL�+JQQT\X�\NQQ�JSLFLJ�\NYM�poetry to promote diversity – of race, of language – and to encourage their colleagues to be open to what a well-chosen poem can do in terms of bringing lessons alive and for ąWNSL�ZU�YMJ�NRFLNSFYNTSX�TK�YJFHMJWX�FSI�UZUNQX�FQNPJ�è

Another project Hannah Lavery has led on for the Library is our support for and partnership with the Scottish BAME Writers Network, whose monthly meetings take place in the Library. In November, the Scottish BAME Writers Network won a Creative Edinburgh Award in the Social category, which recognises projects that engage communities, XZUUTWY�TYMJWX�TW�GJSJąY�F�HWJFYN[J�ąJQI��ç.K�NYèX�NRUFHYJI�*INSGZWLMèX�HWJFYN[J�HTRRZSNY^��it’s worth celebrating.’ Poets Alycia Pirmohamed and Jay G. Ying were nominated for their work on establishing the Scottish BAME Writers Network. The Scottish BAME Network was established to provide ‘advocacy, peer and community support, professional development, and networking and literary opportunities for BAME / POC writers with a connection to Scotland.’

Run by writers of colour, the Network was co-founded by Pirmohamed and Ying in 2018. In 2019, the Library partnered to offer free monthly workshops to BAME writers across Scotland. The Network went on to receive funding from the Royal Society of Literature to host a series of Visiting Writer Workshops with Raman Mundair, Nadine Aisha Jassat, Leila Aboulela and Theresa Munoz. In addition to the writers group, the Network supports an online discourse community, publication opportunities, and networking events.

Director Khan says, ‘Hopefully this is the start of recognition for the great talent represented by the Scottish BAME Network. The award strengthens the work we do to deliver to our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion programme. The Scottish Poetry Library is an open, accessible venue, with more to come in the future.’

Lavery also played a role in the recent publication of When Women Speak I Hear…, an anthology of poems and prints from nine women, the result of the Building Equality Book Project, a collaboration between Edinburgh Women’s Aid, Shakti Women’s Aid and the Scottish Poetry Library. Linda Rodgers, CEO of Edinburgh Women’s Aid, said, ‘I can’t think TK�F�RTWJ�ąYYNSL�\F^�KTW�YMTXJ�\MT�YTTP�UFWY�NS�'ZNQINSL�*VZFQNY^�YT�NQQZXYWFYJ�YMJNW�OTZWSJ^�than through their own words and images, brought together in this beautiful book.’

The Library facilitated poetry-writing workshops led by poets Jenny Lindsay and Nadine Aisha Jassat, while Leena Nammari facilitated workshops in art and printmaking to NQQZXYWFYJ�YMJ�GTTP��9MJ�UFWYNHNUFSYX�IJ[JQTUJI�NS�HTSąIJSHJ��YFUUNSL�MNIIJS�UTYJSYNFQ�and learning new skills along the way such as writing, storytelling, printmaking and presentation skills. Additionally, they learnt how to develop and market their work. In November, we were delighted to learn that the book had been shortlisted for the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. When Women Speak I Hear… costs £7 and can be ordered from the Library’s website or bought in person from the SPL Shop.

Ivory tower? With its work on fostering resilience and combatting prejudice, the Library is demonstrating that poetry is far from just talking to itself.

With Jane Ryder stepping down as chair towards the end of last year, the Scottish Poetry Library began the search for a replacement. We didn’t have far to look: we are pleased that Board member Gordon Munro (pictured), who is a councillor for the Leith Ward in Edinburgh, was able to take up the role of chair, albeit with a INKKJWJSHJ��+TW�YMJ�ąWXY�time, the position will be a Co-Chair: currently, we are looking for someone to share the role with Munro.

‘Born in Leith and immigrated to Edinburgh’, Munro has a long history with the Library – and with poetry. As a child, he read Stevenson’s A Child Garden of Verse and Dr Seuss, moving onto Burns later in life. Regular readers of the Poetry Reader will recall that some years ago, Munro was the subject of a ‘My First, My Last, My Everything’ feature (see page three) where he namechecked a diverse range of poets he was reading including Mayakovsky, Hollie McNish, Walt Whitman and Luke Wright.

Apart from involvement in the recruitment of a new Co-Chair, Munro plans to prioritise making the Board more representative and to update the Library’s governance XT�YMFY�YMJ�TWLFSNXFYNTS�NX�ąY�YT�RFPJ�NYX�\F^�NS�YMJ���XY�century. As a member not only of the Library’s Board but also of the Board of the Edinburgh International Festival, Munro’s experience will prove invaluable.

‘My experience of local government,’ Munro says, ‘tells me that the arts have taken a disproportionate hit from cuts in local government budgets. One of the tasks of the Board will be to help the Library navigate its way through the cuts that will be coming.’

‘I think of the SPL as an embassy for poetry, which has given more than it has received. A few years back I marked my celebration of Burns by becoming a Friend of the SPL and I renew each year on the same date. There NX�FQ\F^X�XTRJYMNSL�SJ\�YT�ąSI�JFHM�YNRJ�^TZ�[NXNY�YMJ�Library. It’s a real sanctuary in the city where you can rest, hide, read, listen, chat, laugh, and discover each time you go.’

Professional Development for Teachers

18 JanuaryPoetry and Wellbeing

25 AprilEdwin Morgan Day

27 JuneCelebrating Scots in the Classroom

£25 per day

For more information and to book places on these courses visit: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/resource/professional-development-for-teachers

February 15, March 14, April 4, May 9Poetry Writing for Teachers

Entire course £100Individual days £30 each

For more information and to book places on these courses visit:https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/resource/poetry-writing-course-for-teachers

photo by Dean Atta

ENGAGEMENTLONG

A Meet the new co-Chair

INCREASINGLY, POETRY IS USED FOR PURPOSES IN ADDITION TO READING FOR PLEASURE

I THINK OF THE SPL AS AN EMBASSY FOR POETRY

5

Best Scottish Poems 2019

Cataloguing the Catalogues

This spring, Best Scottish Poems returns, rounding up the best poems published by a Scot or a poet living in Scotland last year. It’s a return to the classic form of BSP; you may recall that at the start of 2019 we asked broadcaster and author James Naughtie to edit a ‘greatest hits’ version, selecting ‘the best of the best’ of a decade and a half’s worth of Best Scottish Poems.

Returning to a more traditional variety of BSP, we’ve asked Roseanne Watt to edit a selection TK�YMJ�ąSJXY�UTJRX�YMFY�FUUJFWJI�NS�XNSLQJ�FZYMTW�HTQQJHYNTSX�FSI�UFRUMQJYX�during the course of 2019. <FYY� UNHYZWJI��NX�F�UTJY��ąQRRFPJW�FSI�RZXNHNFS�from Shetland. In 2018, her debut collection Moder Dy won the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award; Moder Dy was also nominated for the 2019 Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year Award. She lives and works in Edinburgh.

For this latest iteration, the way in which the guest editor selects her shortlist of ���UTJRX�NX�F�QNYYQJ�INKKJWJSY��.S�YMJ�UFXY�JINYTWX�MF[J�WJFI�J[JW^�GTTP��UFRUMQJY�and literary magazine in search of great Scottish UTJRX��.Y�\FX�F�RFRRTYM�

task. In recognition of that, we’ve lightened the editor’s burden. From now on, editors will read a longlist TK�WTZLMQ^�����UTJRX�chosen by Library staff and [TQZSYJJWX �YMJ^è[J�XUJSY�YMJ�UFXY�KJ\�RTSYMX�HTRGNSL�

UZGQNHFYNTSX�KTW�UTJRX�YT�UWJXJSY�YT�<FYY��<JèWJ�immensely grateful to our volunteers for the time and effort they’ve committed YT�MJQUNSL�ZX�\MNYYQJ�IT\S�YMJ�RFS^�UTJRX�YT�F�RTWJ�manageable amount.

In December, we handed <FYY�F�KTQIJW�KZQQ�TK�UTJRX�from which she has chosen YMJ����YMFY�\NQQ�HTRUWNXJ�Best Scottish Poems 2019. It’s our intention to UZGQNXM�BSP 2019 in March.

Watt says, ‘It is a huge honour to be judging this year’s Best Scottish Poems, though I am very aware that a daunting task lies ahead of me. The anthologies of UWJ[NTZX�^JFWX�FWJ�YJXYFRJSY�to the quality and vitality TK�8HTYYNXM�UTJYW^ ������MFX�

certainly continued this trend. The winter months are for burying under, HTSYJRUQFYNTS�FSI�XYF^NSL�warm; I could think of no ąSJW�\F^�YT�FHMNJ[J�YMNX�than through reading the GJXY�TK�YMJ�^JFWèX�UTJYW^�è

And there’s more. For the ąWXY�YNRJ��Best Scottish Poems will have Gaelic and Scots editors too. We’re delighted to announce our Gaelic language editor will be Niall O’Gallagher, while Derek Ross is our Scots editor. They will each choose Y\T�UTJRX�NS�FIINYNTS�YT�Watt’s shortlist, showcasing UTJRX�\WNYYJS�NS�,FJQNH�FSI�Scots.

Niall O’Gallagher received a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust / Gaelic Books Council to \TWP�TS�MNX�ąWXY�HTQQJHYNTS�TK�UTJRX��Beatha Ùr��UZGQNXMJI�by Clàr in 2013. This was followed by Suain nan Trì Latha� (Q¢W���������&�YMNWI�collection is due in 2020. In 2019 he was named Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu, the city TK�,QFXLT\èX�ąWXY�,FJQNH�laureate.

O’Gallagher says, ‘It’s a rich, vibrant time for Gaelic UTJYW^�NS�8HTYQFSI��\NYM�SJ\�writers breaking through FSI�JXYFGQNXMJI�UTJYX�doing some of their most ambitious work. Choosing between them won’t be JFX^�GZY�NYèQQ�GJ�F�UQJFXZWJ�YT�JSOT^�YMNX�^JFWèX�HWTU�TK�SJ\�,FJQNH�UTJRX�è

Derek Ross is a Gallovidian from Stranraer but has lived in Dumfries for many years. His work

MFX�FUUJFWJI�NS�RFS^�magazines and anthologies. -NX�UTJRX�NS�8HTYX�MF[J�been featured by the Scots Language Centre and the (MFSSJQ���UWTLWFR�Haud Yer Tongue. He is also a PJJS�UMTYTLWFUMJW�FSI�has collaborated with the ,FJQNH�UTJY�&SLZX�2H2NQQFS�YT�UWTIZHJ�J]MNGNYNTSX�HTRGNSNSL�UTJYW^�FSI�UMTYTLWFUM^�

Ross says, ‘A wis delichted tae be asked tae be the 8HTYX�QJNI�JINYTW�ąW�BSP 2019. It’ll no be easy, but a’m lookin forrit tae it. The Scots QJNI�NX�ST�YMJ�UWTUJWY^�T�academics, it is a leevin leid, NY�NX�TTW�QJNI��NY�IJąSJX�\MF�we are.’

We’d like to thank each of our editors and the volunteers without whom we could not bring you Best Scottish Poems��0JJU�watching the website and our social media for further news of BSP 2019.

In Jorge Luis Borges’ short story ‘The Library of Babel’, the Argentinian short story writer and poet conceives of an NSąSNYJ�QNGWFW^��1NGWFW^�-ZG�)NXHT[JW�ITJXSèY�VZNYJ�IJQN[JW�on Borges’ concept, but it does bring together online over 100 UK and Irish academic, national and special QNGWFW^�HTQQJHYNTSX��NSHQZINSL�WFWJ�FSI�ZSNVZJ�RFYJWNFQX�FX�well as open access content, by connecting and making XJFWHMFGQJ�YMJNW�TSQNSJ�HFYFQTLZJX��

Library Hub Discover is the public face of the National Biographical Knowledgebase (NBK), a new service where libraries collaboratively manage their collections to improve access to print and digital resources. We have contributed our knowledge as part of a drive towards creating a single online place where library staff and researchers can search multiple institutions. The ultimate aim is to ‘make a positive contribution to the overall quality of data that circulates around the bibliographic data êJHTX^XYJRëè��:XJWX�\NQQ�ąSI�YMJ�XNYJ�MFSI^�FX�NY�RJFSX�YMJ^�ITSèY�MF[J�to search various institutions’ sites in order to see what is available. The support of the institutions involved should lead to a more joined-up national strategy around retention of print materials and improve access to e-books, digitised books and journals.

Those taking part include Tate Britain’s Tate Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum libraries, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the Henry Moore Institute Library. Our catalogue is already open to the public and accessible online via our website, it’s true, but Library Hub Discover provides another

boon: it gives those not familiar with our work another opportunity to discover the Library and its collections. Now, as a member of the NBK, international users can discover the Scottish Poetry Library during a search for a particular volume. For example, a researcher working on the poet Thomas A. Clark would see from using Library Hub Discover that the Library actually has more items than the British Library by Clark. Being a member of the NBK gives the Library a far greater reach, not least because we also now have our own page on the Library Hub Discover website.

A great deal of work went into the process. We had to check our records were compatible, that we could extract them in a way that suited the NBK’s Site Index. It was a learning process but one we accomplished. Last autumn, we uploaded 24,200 records to the site. We plan to update our records on the site on a quarterly basis. Hearteningly, the site doesn’t charge; it is free and globally available to all with an internet connection. The only costs the Library has incurred is the time our librarians have invested in placing our records on the NBK Base. It’s a great collaborative project that shows what our digital era is capable of when institutions pull together. The era of the YWZQ^�NSąSNYJ�QNGWFW^�IWF\X�HQTXJW�

1NGWFW^�-ZG�)NXHT[JW�HFS�GJ�XJFWHMJI�FY https://www.jisc.ac.uk/library-hub-discover

THE ANTHOLOGIES OF PREVIOUS YEARS ARE TESTAMENT TO THE QUALITY OF SCOTTISH POETRY

USERS WON’T HAVE TO SEARCH VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS’ SITES IN ORDER TO SEE WHAT IS AVAILABLE

The 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award is now accepting entries from young Scottish poets or poets living in Scotland. With a prize of £20,000, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award is one of the largest in the UK. The Edwin Morgan Trust was established in �����YT�KZQąQ�YMJ�\NXMJX�TK�YMJ�8HTYYNXM�poet laureate, Edwin Morgan (1920–2010), particularly the foundation of a new award for young Scottish poets. In the short time the biennial prize has been running (in 2014, 2016 and 2018), it has already established itself as a UQFYKTWR�KTW�YMJ�INXHT[JW^�TK�ąSJ�SJ\�UTJYX �its winners and runners-up include poets who went on to be nominated for a Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award and the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for First Full Collection as well as poets who have been published by Polygon, Bloodaxe, Granta and the prestigious Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets.

To enter, poets must submit an unpublished collection of poetry; it can be submitted if it has been accepted for publication so long as the collection doesn’t appear in print by the time of the announcement of the Prize, which will take place at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. The runner-up will receive £2,500 and other shortlisted poets £1,000.

Poets should be no older than 30 years of age TS�YMJ�ąWXY�IF^�TK�/FSZFW^�NS�YMJ�^JFW�TK�YMJ�Award, i.e. 1 January 2020 for the 2020 Award. Furthermore, those taking part must either have been born in Scotland, or continuously resident in Scotland for the last three years, or

brought up in Scotland, or have a Scottish parent.

.S������3NFQQ�(FRUGJQQ�\FX�YMJ�ąWXY�\NSSJW�TK�the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. After winning the Award, his debut collection Moontide went on to win the Saltire Society’s First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

In 2016, Penny Boxall won the second Edwin Morgan Poetry Award with her collection Ship of the Line, which was published by Eyewear. Runner-up in 2014, Claire Askew saw her ąWXY�HTQQJHYNTS�This Changes Things go on to be published by Bloodaxe and also be shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre

Prize for First Full Collection. Shortlisted in 2014 and 2016, Harry Josephine Giles went on to be nominated for 2016’s Forward Prize for Best First Collection for their debut collection Tonguit (Stewed Rhubarb) and a Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year Award in 2019 for their second collection.

In 2018, Roseanne Watt won the third Edwin Morgan Poetry Award with her collection Moder Dy, which was subsequently published by Polygon. She has also performed on Radio 6 and was asked by the Library to edit its online anthology Best Scottish Poems 2019� XJJ�UFLJ�ą[J���7ZSSJW�up Daisy Lafarge has signed a two-book deal with Granta. The shortlisted Nadine Aisha Jassat was included in Jackie Kay’s International Literature Showcase Selection of Ten Compelling BAME Poets Working in the UK, while her debut poetry collection Let Me Tell You This (404 Ink) won praise.

Could you be the next winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award? Or do you perhaps know someone who could be? The EMPA is now open for submissions and wishes all entrants the best of luck.

The deadline is Monday, 2 March.

2020 is shaping up to be quite the year for Edwin Morgan, despite dying a decade earlier. The biennial competition named in his honour, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, is currently open to entries (see above), while we will celebrate his centenary in Scotland and beyond throughout 2020.

Morgan’s entry on our website’s biographical section will tell you he \FX�8HTYQFSIèX�ąWXY�TKąHNFQ�Makar in modern times, that he was ‘endlessly inventive’, ‘internationalist’ and ‘committed to his home city of Glasgow’. He was awarded an OBE in 1982 and the Queen’s Gold Medal in 2000. He was asked to write a poem to mark the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 2004, his words so inspiring – ‘Open the doors! Light of the day, shine in; light of the mind, shine out! / We have

a building which is more than a building’ – the Library has them printed on its own entrance.

His story began on 27 April 1920 in Glasgow’s West End, when Morgan was born, only child of Margaret and Stanley Morgan, a director TK�F�XRFQQ�ąWR�TK�NWTS�FSI�steel merchants. He was brought up in Pollokshields and Rutherglen, and was ąWXY�UZGQNXMJI�NS������NS�the High School of Glasgow Magazine.

&KYJW�GWNJĆ^�WJLNXYJWNSL�FX�a conscientious objector in 1940, horrifying his parents, Morgan went on to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corp, spending the war in Egypt, the Lebanon and Palestine. After leaving the army in 1946, he returned to Glasgow where he \FX�F\FWIJI�F�ąWXY�HQFXX�Honours degree in English Language and Literature before taking up the offer of a Lectureship in the Department of English at Glasgow University, where he remained for the rest of his working life.

-NX�ąWXY�HTQQJHYNTS��The Vision of Cathkin Braes,

was published by William MacLellan of Glasgow in 1952, to low sales and few reviews. The ensuing decade in which Morgan’s poems struggled to get into print marked the young poet, to the extent that upon his IJFYM�MJ�XUJHNąJI�YMFY�YMJ�prize set up in his name be for Scottish poets under the age of 30, remembering too \JQQ�MNX�T\S�INKąHZQYNJX�FY�that age.

.K�MNX�ąWXY�HTQQJHYNTS�KFNQJI�to make an impression, Morgan scored a creative success when he published his follow-up 16 years later. The Second Life brimmed with linguistic coups, humour and a sense of QNKJ�QN[JI��8TRJ�ą[J�^JFWX�earlier, in 1963, Morgan had begun a transformative relationship. As a gay man living during a period when homophobia was common and enshrined in law, Morgan had to continue to be careful. And yet poems like ‘Glasgow Green’ came to be seen by Morgan himself as ‘a gay liberation poem written before that term was invented’, as Morgan’s biographer James McGonigal puts it in his account of the poet’s life, Beyond The Last

Dragon. It took until 1999 for Morgan to feel comfortable to discuss his sexuality in public, ‘coming out’ in in an interview with poet and translator Christopher Whyte.

During his working life, Morgan taught, wrote poems, many of which \JWJ�NSĆZJSHJI�G^�MNX�twin interests in science FSI�XHNJSHJ�ąHYNTS��FSI�translated poetry from Russian, Hungarian, Latin, French, Italian and Old English. Winning the Soros Translation Award in 1985, Morgan spent the prize money on a day trip to Lapland by Corcorde. He was also an early practitioner and advocate for Concrete Poetry. He retired from the University in 1980.

Morgan began the last decade of his life with a diagnosis of prostate

cancer. Nevertheless, he kept writing, earning a T.S. Eliot Prize shortlisting in 2007 for his collection A Book of Lives (Carcanet). In the same decade, he collaborated with rock band Idlewild on a track for their 2002 album The Remote Part. He opened the Edwin Morgan Archive of printed and recorded material at the Scottish Poetry Library on his 89th birthday. His death the following year provoked much sadness in the Scottish poetry community, with many of its leading members acknowledging their debt at a special event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival held a fortnight after he died. Performers included Douglas Dunn, Janice Galloway, Hamish Whyte, Liz Lochhead and Jackie Kay.

As the home of the Morgan Archive, the Scottish Poetry Library will be marking the poet’s centenary in a RFSSJW�GJąYYNSL�YMJ�ąWXY�modern makar. Keep in touch with our website for an announcement later in the year.

© w

ww

.ed

win

mo

rgan

.com

GETTING TO KNOW…EDWIN MORGAN

EDWIN MORGAN POETRY AWARD 2020

MORGAN WAS ENDLESSLY INVENTIVE, INTERNATIONALIST AND COMMITTED TO HIS HOME CITY OF GLASGOW

THE PRIZE HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS A PLATFORM FOR THE DISCOVERY OF NEW POETS

Last year, the Scottish Poetry Library was honoured to be asked by developer and investor Parabola to MJQU�YMJR�ąSI�F�UTJY�for a project soon to come to fruition in Edinburgh. Parabola, who owns 43 acres of undeveloped land to the south of the capital’s Edinburgh Park, was working with the Turner Prize-nominated David Mach who they commissioned to design a unique multipurpose building made from shipping containers. Named Mach 1, it will GJ�)F[NI�2FHMèX�ąWXY�building, an eye-catching JINąHJ�HTSXYWZHYJI�KWTR�30 shipping containers.

Under the direction of Arts Curator Matthew Jarratt, Parabola has been developing an arts programme. As part of that, Parabola wanted

to offer opportunities for a young writer and a photographer, both of whom will respond to the construction activity on site, and exhibit in the marketing suite. Their work will offer opportunities for outreach with local schools. We were delighted when Parabola, looking for a poet, turned to the Library. Over 50 poets entered the competition. Once the judges had deliberated, a winner emerged: Rachel Plummer.

The judges commented, ‘While so many entries stood out, Rachel Plummer’s re-imaginings of feats of architecture as living, breathing beings truly sang off the page. Plummer’s keen interest in exploring the geometry and metallurgy of the Mach 1 landmark installation particularly impressed us and we

look forward to working together in the near future.’

Plummer will write a long poem, which will be performed at Mach 1 in early summer 2020. Plummer, who is based in Edinburgh, is a recipient of the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writer Award for Poetry in 2016, and was a Troubadour prize-winner in 2014; earlier this year she published Wain: LGBT Re-imaginings of Scottish Folklore on The Emma Press. She says, ‘I am

thrilled to have won the Mach 1 commission. This is a landmark project and I can’t wait to work with Parabola to explore David Mach’s unique building design through poetry.’

Commenting on the decision by the panel of judges, Matthew Jarratt said, ‘Over the next 10 years Edinburgh Park plans to deliver some major public sculpture together with opportunities for emerging writers, photographers and visual artists based in the local area. A key part of our Arts Strategy is to build creative links with Edinburgh’s cultural venues so it has been great to work with the Scottish Poetry Library to attract over 50 applications from poets KTW�TZW�ąWXY�HTRRNXXNTS�YT�write a poem for Mach 1.’

Maria Carnegie, Head Librarian of the Scottish Poetry Library and one of the judgers, added: ‘The Library is delighted to partner with Parabola on providing this very special commission. It’s exciting to be involved in this opportunity for an early career poet, and NY�\FX�FKąWRNSL�YT�XJJ�the quality and range of submissions. The Parabola commission for the Mach 1 building recognises the role poetry has in bringing architecture and our surrounding built and natural environment to life.’

We would like to thank all of the poets who submitted their work to the competition and to congratulate Rachel Plummer on being selected for this commission.

F R O M M A K A R T O M A C H 1

Found in TranslationOur Found in Translation feature brings you poems in their original language and in English with the translator’s thoughts.

Deborah Moffatt was born and raised in Norwich, Vermont, in the USA. She spent several years in Latin America, living in Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico, where she worked as a journalist, ultimately becoming the Finance Editor at The News in Mexico City. In 1982 Deborah travelled to Scotland, and settled there, having married a Scot. She now lives in Kingsbarns, a small village near St. Andrews. Her second collection of poetry in English Eating Thistles was published by Smokestack Books in 2019. She is reading at Stanza 2020, together with Sandy NicDhomhnaill Jones, Niall O’Gallagher, and Eòghan Stiùbhart. Recently she has been translating O'Gallagher's Gaelic poetry into English. 'Thig a chluich, a chlàrsair dhoill' is taken from Suain nan Trì Latha (Clàr).

'HERUDK�0RIIDW�VD\V��µ7UDQVODWLQJ�1LDOO�2¶*DOODJKHU¶V�SRHWU\�LV�FKDOOHQJLQJ��+H�ZULWHV�WKRURXJKO\�PRGHUQ�SRHWU\��XVLQJ�YHU\�ROG�EDUGLF�IRUPV�ZLWK�VSHFL¿F�UXOHV�RI�metre and rhyme which are not easily copied in English. In my translations of his poems, I write in free verse, changing the format and the rhymes to suit the change of ODQJXDJH��0\�LQWHQWLRQ�LV�WR�PDLQWDLQ�PHDQLQJ��LQ�WKH�¿UVW�LQVWDQFH��EXW�,�DOVR�KRSH�WR�SUHVHUYH�WKH�HPRWLRQDO�DQG�DHVWKHWLF�LPSDFW�RI�WKH�SRHPV��,Q�µ7KLJ�D¶�FKOXLFK��D¶�chlàrsaid dhoill,’ O’Gallagher writes, as he often does, of love for a young child, a timeless topic which infuses the older bardic format with new life. Fittingly, O’Gallagher references two enduring traditions from Ireland: the music and poems of the blind harper O’Carolan (1670 – 1738), and a tale concerning the mythical Aonghas Óg, of the Tuatha Dé Danann, whose singing, it was said, would put anyone who heard it to sleep for three days and three nights. Both Aonghas Óg and O’Carolan feature in modern Irish folklore and music, and, in Scotland, a remainder of the myth of Aonghas Óg is found in the lullaby ‘Dream Angus’.’

Thig a chluich, a chlàrsair dhoill

Thig a chluich, a chlàrsair dhoill, fonn na h-oidhche dom mhac òg;cuireadh e a chadal leis an làimh dheis air an teud òir.

Ò, nam faiceadh tu a shùil, donn a chùil is grian a chlàir,b’ aoibhinn dhut, a fhir nach feuch gur binn a bheul ’s e ri gàir’!

Ach, cha mhairg an duine dall oir is annsa leis an ceòlagus ’s e ur n-oirfeid aoibh fhèin a chasg caoineadh a bheòil;

b’ ann a thog am mac a ghuth, a chuir, leis a’ cheòl as àill’,gach neach a chluinneadh a dhuan ann an suain nan trì latha.

The Long Dream

Come, blind O’Carolan, play a bed-time melodyfor my young son; with your skilful handon strings of gold, send him to sleep.

Oh, if you could but see his eyes, his dark hairand sunny countenance, the sweetnessof his mouth as he laughs!

But there is no need to pity the blind harper:The child loves your music, and it is your joyful tune which banishes all sadness from his face,

as to the strains of your sweet music he raises his young voice, giving to all who hear his little songthe long dream of three nights sleep.

7

PLUMMER’S RE-IMAGININGS OF ARCHITECTURE AS LIVING, BREATHING BEINGS SANG OFF THE PAGE

Throughout 2020, the Scottish Poetry Library will continue to stage events that support the poetry community and bring pleasure to poetry lovers. We’ll reveal the full line-up for spring later in the year (keep watching our website for details). In the meantime, we can reveal a few juicy titbits to arouse your curiosity.

We shall be participating in the Fire Starter Festival, with which the Scottish Government celebrates creativity and innovation in public services. Held

between 27 January and 14 February, the Fire Starter Festival encourages the empowerment of individuals and communities to become involved in designing public services. The idea behind the events held across Scotland by various institutions as well as grassroots organisations is to deepen the ‘knowledge and skills that underpin transformation’.

To that end, the Library will host a series of Nothing but the Poem reading groups for public service workers. We shall also host an event called – with reference to John F. Kennedy – When Power Corrupts, a panel discussion featuring poets John Burnside, Harry Josephine Giles and Samantha Walton, chaired by Henry Bell. The panel will

consider questions on the relationship between poetry and power. The event takes place on Wednesday, 12 February.

The Library will host readings by a series of some of the best contemporary poets. In partnership with the Poetry Association of Scotland, we shall be welcoming Imtiaz Dharker on Wednesday, 25 March, Aonghas MacNeacail on Wednesday, 29 April, and Vahni Capildeo on Wednesday, 27 May. Denise Riley headlines an event at the Library we’re partnering on with the Poetry Book Society on Friday, 3 April.

We’re also holding several events that dig deep into the imagination of their performers and audience. On Saturday, 25 April, poet Andrés N. Ordorica leads a

workshop that asks ‘what kind of a Scotland do we want to live in’ through readings and creative writing. On Friday, 22 May, the Poetry AF gang return with Ferrero & Loathing, a twist on the whodunnit featuring poetry and chocolate. And we’ll be hosting artist Guy Begbie as he leads a Book Making workshop on Saturday, 13 June.

Our events programme takes a funny turn starting in February when we host YMJ�ąWXY�RTSYMQ^�HTRJI^�night hosted by the award-winning Men With Coconuts. Slamprov mixes performance poetry and improvised comedy. Poems and stories will be used as inspiration for completely improvised scenes, sketches and songs. Part-slam, part-

comedy show, every night will be different and unique. Slamprov takes place on Wednesday 5 February and 11 March.

Perhaps, however, you have in mind a performance of your own and have the Fringe in August pegged as the moment to stage your show. If you require an affordable venue in town particularly well suited to poetry and spoken word events, might I suggest the Scottish Poetry Library itself? As of January, we re-opened the page on our website where artists can apply to book a slot on our mezzanine-level XYFLJ��>TZ�HFS�ąSI�RTWJ�details here: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/festival-programme.

THE LAST POSTAt lunchtime every Wednesday, the Scottish Poetry Library hosts a poetry-focused Open Book shared reading group. While other Open Book reading groups across Scotland look at a variety of materials (!ction, non-!ction and poetry), this weekly drop-in session focuses solely on poetry, often working through a single author collection or anthology alongside individual poems.

We spend the hour reading poems aloud, going over them a few times and then talking about them at length. (No previous knowledge of poetry or the poems being discussed is required.) The close reading and discussion that follows helps us to learn as much as we can about the poem. While we try and focus on what we see on the page, we also encourage re%ection and contemplation, often asking what else the poem brings to mind. Sometimes a poem about sailing becomes an allegory for life, for example, where participants share their own experiences. Because so much of poetry is open to the

interpretation of the reader, we can disagree about what we see in a poem or how we interpret it. It’s these di#erences in insight that help to make the discussions so vibrant.

And if you need even more poetry, the Library hosts another Open Book session on the !rst Saturday of the month, from 11am to 12.30pm. This group focuses on the work of a speci!c poet and takes a deep dive into their work. These events are linked to the Library’s event programme, so you’ll often !nd you’re prepared for an upcoming book launch or a reading by the same poet. It’s not all serious: we always close the door to the room we meet in because the group gets a little rowdy at times!

Whether it’s the weekly Wednesday group or the monthly Saturday group, our Open Book sessions are open to everyone, writers and non-writers alike, providing an open, supportive, and welcoming place to explore poetry. We hope you’ll join us!

Miriam Huxley

about usThe Scottish Poetry Library is a unique national resource and advocate for the enriching art of poetry, particularly Scottish poetry.

Our building in the heart of Edinburgh’s literary quarter o#ers free reference and lending facilities. Visit us and explore:

t��PWFS��� ����JUFNT�PG�QPFUSZ �including our Edwin Morgan Archive t��BO�VOSJWBMMFE�DPMMFDUJPO�PG�

contemporary Scottish poetry t�B�XJEF�SBOHF�PG�PUIFS�QPFUSZ� t�$%T�BOE�UBQFT�t�QPFUSZ�NBHB[JOFT�t�QPFUSZ�CPPLTIPQ� t�SFTPVSDFT�GPS�UFBDIFST�t�QPFUSZ�SFBEJOH�HSPVQT�t�SFBEJOHT�BOE�FWFOUT�

Many of our services are also available by post or online at www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk:

t�POMJOF�CPPLTIPQ� t��POMJOF�DBUBMPHVF�TFBSDI�BOE�

reservation t�FEVDBUJPO�SFTPVSDFT� t��AMPTU�GPS�XPSET��QPFN�öOEJOH�service t��4DPUMBOE�XJEF�QPFUSZ�FWFOUT�

listings t��'SJFOET�TVCTDSJQUJPOT �XJUI�

bene!ts including free postal borrowing

Opening hours:Tuesday to Friday 10-5 Saturday 10-4

5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DT T: 0131 557 2876 E: reception@spl.org.uk Director: Asif Khan

Co-Chair of Board: Gordon Munro

Poetry Reader is the newsletter of the Scottish Poetry Library and is sent free to all Friends of

the SPL. Our Friends have always been the mainstay of the SPL, from its creation to its future. Friends’ membership supports the SPL and brings great bene!ts including free postal borrowing, discounts on events and books, and a subscription to the Poetry Reader. To become a Friend of the SPL email Friends@spl.org.uk or visit www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk to !nd out more.

ISSN 1755-3377 Poetry Reader is published by the Scottish Poetry Library. All articles are edited and written, unless stated otherwise, by Colin Waters. © Scottish Poetry Library and individual contributors 2020. Printed on recycled paper.

The SPL is grateful to funders for their support of this publication.

Spring into Events