Scottish Poetry News: October 2022
October kicks off with National Poetry Day, and there's plenty more workshops and collections for poetry fanatics after that
This year, National Poetry Day takes place on 6 Oct with the theme of ‘the environment’ and there are plenty of events to choose from. As ever, the Forward Arts Foundation has produced an incredibly useful interactive map where you can find all sorts of events going on, from workshops and walks to performances and informal open mics.
In Dundee, on 13 Oct, poet Dan Simpson is hosting Science Poetry – workshop at the University of Dundee’s Botanic Gardens, part of a larger public engagement project, where sensory boxes were created by the School of Life Sciences staff and given to members of the public to interact with. From those interactions, Simpson has generated a poem called The Last Mill of Dundee, which he will read at this event. The sensory boxes will also be ready to see, touch, and smell at this event.
The Federation of Writers is partnering with Perth’s AK Bell Library to host two workshops on 8 Oct: Beth McDonough to lead one on writing poetry and Moira McPartlin on prose. Both will explore Scotland’s wide-ranging linguistic heritage, with the aim to create your own, personal creative language for your works.
Kevin P. Gilday's new collection, Anxiety Music, is about all sorts: a tumbling wave of words which sweeps through a marital breakdown, sexual liberation, and a life full of contemporary anxieties. Launches are taking place in both Glasgow (14 Oct, The Old Hairdressers) and Edinburgh (21 Oct, Scottish Poetry Library) this month.