Words Per Minute

"We wanted to create the sort of event that we’d enjoy to perform at and watch. Kirstin and I both regularly perform our work around Scotland, at brilliant events like DisComBobuLaTe at The Arches in Glasgow, A Night In the Gutter at The National Library of Scotland and The Golden Hour at the Forest Café in Edinburgh. As we’ve continued to perform we’ve realised that we love doing so much more than just reading out a few lines of prose to a live audience. We like making literature into a spectacle, by crossing genres and experimenting with new media."

Speaking just after the first Words Per Minute in May, co-founder Anneliese Mackintosh explains the reason that she joined forces with author and critic Kirstin Innes to promote Glasgow's newest event for words-in-progress. Boasting a more eclectic line up than many other events – the debut included extracts from Martin O'Connor's latest play in progress, as well as music from Miaoux Miaoux – WPM promises to act as a scratch night for all manner of live performance.

"In the past I’ve performed poetry accompanied by live music, I’ve made animations to go with short stories, and I’ve read novel extracts set to quirky audio tracks. I’ve brought my work to life using a mixture of PowerPoint, posters and pipecleaners!" she continues. "I think Kirstin and I set up Words Per Minute because of experiences like these; we both felt there was a niche to be filled in Glasgow in terms of providing a night that combined a splash of all our favourite stuff – spoken word, film, music, art and performance."

"We’re trying to programme deliberately for a diverse lineup," adds Innes. "We’ve had a lot of applications to perform through our website from poets, for example, and although we don’t want to discourage people from coming forward, we’re trying not to put on too many people working in the same kind of medium on the same lineup."

The emphasis might be on work that has a connection to the word: "the only caveats are that the work has to be under ten minutes, and has to have some sort of connection to text, writing, or wordplay somewhere there," Innes concludes."There are no particular boundaries in terms of genre," Macintosh claims. "It’s not always easy to fit artists’ work into one genre anyway. We’ve met brilliant novelists who act their work out stunningly whilst they read it, or musicians who perform their work with such passion it’s a work of theatre in itself. As long as there’s an emphasis on using words in intelligent, interesting ways, we’re happy for language to be expressed in multiple genres, styles, formats."

For the second WPM, Skinny Radio Show favourite Adam Stafford and Ian Campbell will be representing music, while The Shutdown is an award winning documentary, following on from the video footage in the previous outing, which featured poet Lisa Foad. After the success in May, which packed out a lazy Sunday afternoon in The Merchant City, both Innes and Mackenzie are excited about this return to action.

"Adam Stafford creates entire choirs and orchestras, just using his voice and a loop pedal, and then does a wild man bluesy yelp of lyric over the top – it’s amazing to watch," enthuses Innes. "Sophie Cooke, who’s a novelist and short story writer, is also a very lithe, sensual performer of her own writing. Rodge Glass, is another novelist, but he’s going to be presenting a graphic novel he’s been working on; Iain Campbell creates soundscapes in a way that’s almost theatre in itself."

WPM strives to represent the diverse artistic communities of Glasgow: this makes it stand out amongst the plethora of informal events that populate the listings. Driven by the creativity of its founders, it embodies the city's restlessness and creative ferment, while inviting various audiences to enjoy something new, outside of their usual beats, as Innes explains.

"Events are planned to appeal to one particular audience. A live music audience is understood to be something very different from a visual art audience, which is kept separate from a live literature or theatre audience, and even there you’ll get further degrees of subcategorisation: are they a straight theatre audience, a dance audience, a contemporary performance audience? We’re trying to erode that sort of thing: we believe that the sort of people who are interested in going out to any sort of cultural event are actually far more open to new experiences than they’re given credit for."

While the first event managed to capture a large crowd, Macintosh is not content to rest on their laurels. "We’ve had some pretty high profile creative types approach us to perform at the night already, and that’s great, but what’s really important to us is that we put on a brilliant, varied, exciting show. As Glasgow continues to find new ways to express itself, we’ll be right there, with it and part of it."