Scottish Poetry News - April 2018

A look at April's poetry highlights, including Hollie McNish, John Burnside and events at Crossways: Irish Pages Festival

Feature by Beth Cochrane | 04 Apr 2018

April’s poetry calendar features a brand new literary festival, Crossways: Irish Pages Festival. Crossways is set to become an annual Irish Scottish Cultural and Literary Festival, this year bringing poets such as Kathleen Jamie, Jen Hadfield, and Bernard MacLaverty together with other literary figure, such as Lesley Riddoch and David Park. A celebration and exciting development of literary links across the North Channel, Crossways aims to unite Irish writers, musicians, filmmakers and other cultural figures (from both the North and South) with their Scottish counterparts. Running from 8-14 April, venues span Glasgow’s Merchant City, encompassing City Halls, Babbity Bowster, the Tron Theatre and Blackfriars. Full programme set to be announced on Irish Pages in the lead up to the festival.

On the east coast, poetry fans have the next strand of Summerhall’s Nothing Ever Happens Here programme to look forward to, with Hollie McNish returning to Edinburgh on Friday 20 April. The Ted Hughes Award winner will be reading her work and chatting all things poetry (will the infamous ‘The Cult of the Noble Amateur’ essay get a mention?).

Poetry giant John Burnside will be reading at the Scottish Poetry Library on 26 April, at his event Crazy Kings and Rising Waters: An Evening with John Burnside. He’ll be reading his lecture ‘Where the executive never want to tamper?’, a lecture exploring Burnside’s poetological ideas and disagreements to W.H. Auden’s famous line ‘Poetry makes nothing happen’. Expect discussion to formulate around Burnside’s opinion that poetry is an integral part of what it is to be human, a tool we use for understanding the everyday and a filter utilised to understand the political. Post lecture, Burnside will be reading some of his poetry and opening up to the audience in a short Q&A.   

More poetry events to look out for: Lighthouse Books are presenting the new poets of Ignition Press in their cosy shop venue. Poets Lily Blacksell, Mary Jean Chan and Patrick James Errington will be reading from their debut pamphlets, before a Q&A led by Managing Editor, Les Robinson. These poets have already been shortlisted for, or won, international poetry prizes. Errington has even been praised by John Burnside, with the T.S. Eliot Prize winner commenting that "not only is Errington a real find, but the scope of his imagination, combined with psychological integrity and linguistic rigour, mark him out as a poet I’ll return to again and again."

Finally on the events front: don’t miss Interrobang’s Ricky Monahan Brown presenting Field Work at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, 20 April. The newly one-man-ran spoken word night will be presenting poets Stuart A. Paterson, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir and Katharine Macfarlane, who will be responding to 1950s field recordings of Scots and Gaelic song. Expect all three of Scotland’s indigenous languages in song, poetry and storytelling.

Although technically available from 28 March, Marjorie Lotfi Gill’s new pamphlet, Refuge, is close enough to the start of April for a mention. Lotfi Gill is a poet of rising acclaim; she is currently the Makar for the Federation of Writers Scotland, and was Poet in Residence at Jupiter Artland 2014-2016. Wishbone, taking pride of place in her new pamphlet, has been shortlisted for the Forward Best Single Poem award. Refuge, which explores journeys and questions of belonging, is available for pre-order now.