Dunragit Poet Sam Gilliland wins MacDiarmid Tassie

Writer in the Storm is delighted to congratulate Sam Gilliland on his success in winning the much-coveted MacDiarmid Tassie for his poem Withoutin Weir, which won the Scots Language Society's highly prestigious Sangshaw Literary event.

Dr George Philp, the originator of the award, hailed Sam as a highly practiced exponent of the MacDiarmid school and an outstanding example of the Scottish literary movement.

Sam Gilliland lives in Dunragit, Stranraer, and has a collection of Scots poetry 'A Rickle O Banes', published by Penny Wheep Press due to appear in December. Look out for it!

Irresistible Poetry Doubles next Monday

Monday 23 November Poetry Doubles (the last one this year)
with Tom Pow and Liz Niven

A taster to help you step outside in the murk of November and make your way to the Duncan Room, Easterbrook Hall at 7pm.

Here's Liz Niven - from Picasso's Timeshare (Burning Whins)

Picasso said,
of his own poetry,
Painted in words, with lines taut as harpstrings.

Mair lik a bugle, it seems, ma shout
no findin the harpstring's voice.

Mair, a jiggin fiddle cries
Aye an hoochaye ower

islands, bens, lochs, or



the soun o silence,
oan an empty raised beach.


And this is Tom Pow - from Ex-Laundry Girl, 1943 (Dear Alice)

If ever I'd the chance to choose my place
I worked the drying green. I eased off

my boots, let my feet grow sweetly cold
on the grass. We laid out the sheets

till they sat on the air like ruffled snow.
I smelled the sharp spoor of joy


a child leaves across a vacant field -
and wept a little for my loss.


There. We're in for a treat! Hope to see you next Monday. Tickets £7/£5 from DGAA 01387 253383, from the Midsteeple, or on the door.

Very special end of season Poetry Doubles!

Poetry Doubles, Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association’s popular poetry season, will conclude on Monday 23 November at the Duncan Room, Easterbrook Hall, Crichton Campus, when it welcomes two of our most highly regarded Scottish poets for an unmissable literary event, Tom Pow and Liz Niven.

Tom Pow has had a fantastic year, winning the Poetry category in the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards 2009, in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council, for Dear Alice, and recieving a Creative Scotland Award for his Dying Villages project. His new collection of selected poems, In The Becoming, was launched in June.

Liz Niven is also an award-winning poet with an impressive track record. She'll be reading from Stravaigin and Burning Whins, and, like Tom, she is a gifted teacher who has long been respected for her contribution to the region's healthy writing culture.

This really will be a not-to-be-missed event - and do please take note, it's being held at The Duncan Room, Easterbrook Hall, Crichton Campus, on Monday 23 November at 7pm. Tickets from DGAA on 01387 253383 or from The Midsteeple.

Look out for the next blog which will contain tantalisingly wonderful lines from Liz and Tom's poetry, aimed at helping you to decide to turn out on a dark night!

Vivien Jones reads in Newcastle

Local writer Vivien Jones took part last week in a reading at the UK launch of world poetry anthology Not A Muse.
The launch took place at Gallery North in Newcastle–upon-Tyne, and involved three contributors to the anthology: Vivien Jones, Adele Geraghty from USA and Joan Hewitt from Northumbria.

"Creator, lover, freedom fighter, explorer, home maker, myth maker... As this stimulating selection of poems proves, there is no such thing as an average woman - a notion upon which we might all care to muse."
Stephen McCarty, Literary Editor, South China Morning Post

Well done Vivien!

Rab reads tonight at Trongate 103

Rab Wilson, our very own Robert Burns Writer in Residence, is reading tonight at the brand new Trongate 103 in Glasgow. He's there for the Launch Night for Reading The Waves magazine, who have (quite rightly) billed him as 'Political, poignant, and humorous'. Trongate 103 is in for a good night!

Poetry Doubles welcomes David Constantine and Laura Helyer

Next Monday 26 October brings the chance to enjoy some great poetry down at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre in Dumfries. Freelance writer, poet and translator David Constantine has published several volumes of poetry, most recently Nine Fathom Deep. He has a great ear for the sounds of words, and his poetry is inventive and rich in imagery.

Laura Helyer was commended in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 2006, and won the Kirkpatrick Dobie Prize in 2007. She is currently working towards a first collection. Her poetry is observant and crafted, often exploring the relationship between art and the environment.

Tickets for this Poetry Doubles evening, which starts at 7pm, are available from The Midsteeple, High Street, Dumfries, or on the door.

If you're curious about poetry in translation, come along on Tuesday 27 October to a workshop led by David Constantine. You don't have to be fluent in a second (or third!) language - English will do! This is about how poetry can be created and re-created in your own voice, working from another translation. For those who enjoy words this will be a fascinating and absorbing workshop.
The workshop starts at 10am in Theatre Studio Room 131 at the Rutherford McCowan Building on the Crichton Campus, Dumfries. Tickets are £5, available from the Midsteeple, or ring Davie on 01387 253383.

Mary Smith reads from No More Mulberries Wednesday 21 October

Come along to Midsteeple, Dumfries at 7pm on Wednesday 21 October, when local writer Mary Smith will read and talk about her new novel, 'No More Mulberries'. Set in Afghanistan, 'No More Mulberries' is a story of commitment and divided loyalties, set against a country struggling through transition. Mary, who has first hand experience of living in Afghanistan, will read from her novel, and chat with the audience.
Tickets are £2, from Midsteeple or on the door, and include a complimentary glass of wine.

Poetry Doubles welcomes Imtiaz Dharker and Hugh McMillan

Make a big star in your diary beside Monday 12 October, when the Poetry Doubles stage will be shared by Imtiaz Dharker and Hugh McMillan.

Imtiaz Dharker describes herself as a Scottish Muslim Calvinist, brought up in a Lahori household in Glasgow, working in Bombay. She is a poet, artist and documentary film-maker and all her books, Purdah, Postcards from god, I speak for the devil and The terrorist at my table, include her own drawings. She now lives between India, London and Wales.
Her work is inspired by themes of displacement and freedom, and her poetry is richly vivid, with striking imagery.

Hugh McMillan lives in Penpont and teaches at Dumfries Academy. He has published both collections and prize-winning pamphlets. Hugh is an excellent performer of his own work, which is spare and often darkly humorous.

Tickets are available from DGAA on 01387 253383 or from the Midsteeple, or on the door at RBCFT on Monday evening. The performance starts at 7pm.

Andrew Forster makes it onto the syllabus

Andrew Forster, ex-Literature Development Officer for DGAA, whose book 'Fear of Thunder' made the Forward Shortlist for First Collection this year, has exam boards bidding to use his work in the school curriculum.

Andy's poems 'Brothers' and 'Horse Whisperer' are to be included in an anthology for schools. (We hope they all have to buy one Andy). And his already widely admired poem, 'Mother, Diving' has appeared on a sample exam paper. I'll treat you to a short extract:

'The high diving board at the open-air pool
taunted my mother like a tongue. While young boys
leapt from the first board, clenched like stones,
she held herself in by the pool-rail.'

Andy will see his second collection, 'Territory', published in May 2010. Let's hope he can be persuaded to come back to D&G and read it to us!

National Poetry Day at the Midsteeple Thursday 8 October

National Poetry Day is happening all over Britain on Thursday 8 October. We invite you to come along to the Midsteeple in Dumfries to join in with a splendid celebration of poetry in Dumfries and Galloway.
Everything's free.
Drop into the Poetry Porch at Midsteeple where you'll find a rota of welcoming poets in residence. They'll read their favourite poems, or one of yours, or one of their own. You can choose a free Poetry Postcard from the Scottish Poetry Library. There'll be free Poetry Balloons for kids of all ages. You can nominate your favourite poem for West Sound's Favourite Poem Prize Draw. You can bring a poem of your own to read, or add it to our Wall of Words. You can get creative right there and then and add some lines to our Giant Dumfries Poem, which will be written by as many poets as add words to it!

Look forward to seeing you next Thursday!