Scottish Poetry News: December 2021

December brings a bumper Edinburgh show with Hollie McNish and Kae Tempest, an exciting new poetry podcast, and a few Christmas present ideas as well

Feature by Beth Cochrane | 02 Dec 2021
  • Withered Hand at Summerhall, Edinburgh

If you’re in the mood for a big Christmas night out, poetry style, Edinburgh’s Summerhall has got you covered. Cold Turkey’s Nut Loaf: Kae Tempest, Hollie McNish, Michael Pedersen and Withered Hand (10 Dec) will be a night of firecracking poetry and music featuring some of the UK’s best and brightest performance poets, who have a barrelful of awards between them. Tickets are £16.50, which, for three hours of pure, unadulterated poetic and musical entertainment, is a bargain.

If you’re not yet ready for the crowds, but fancy an experience that isn’t staring at a Zoom screen, then poet Annie Muir has you all set with her new podcast, Time for one Poem. In each episode, Annie invites one poet to come and talk about how they got into poetry, but also invites one Glasgow-based poetry sceptic into the space to explain why they didn’t. The trio then takes one poem and tries to come to an understanding of it. Upcoming December poets include Rowan McCabe, Afshan d’souza-lodhi, Theresa Muñoz, Gboyega Odubanjo, and the late Callie Gardner. 

Not a usual addition to this column, but a special exception for an upcoming submission deadline. VISIBLE is looking for poetry and prose for its debut publication, with a deadline of 20 Dec for its launch in Jan 2022. VISIBLE creator Lucy Arthur is looking for poetry inspired by the writer's experience of living with an invisible disability.

Technically these are two November releases, but for those of you on the hunt for poetic Christmas presents, look no further. Red Squirrel Press has just released Helen Boden’s A Landscape To Figure In, while Bloodaxe has published a translation of Joan Margarit’s Wild Creature (translated by honourary president of StAnza Festival, Anna Crowe).