Poetry Doubles 2

Nine nights guaranteed to stir your soul!

The innovative Poetry Doubles series returns: ten of the country's finest poets pair with Dumfries & Galloway's rising stars for evenings of poetry, power and passion at venues across the region.



Monday 15th August
Special Launch Event
Helen Farish and Tom Pow
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Wed 17th August
Don Paterson and Mary Smith
Mill on the Fleet, Gatehouse of Fleet

Monday 22nd August
John Stammers and Derek Ross
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Monday 29th August
Choman Hardi and Irene Leake
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Wed Aug 31st
Gillian Allnutt and Jackie Galley
Bladnoch Distillery, Wigtown

Monday Sept 5th
Jackie Kay and Anne Dunford
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Monday Sept 12th
Kate Clanchy and Ron McKechnie
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Monday Sept 19th
Adrian Mitchell and Laura Helyer
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Thursday Sept 22nd
Les Murray and Alex Berry
Old Well Theatre, Moffat

All readings start at 7pm.
Tickets £5.00 from Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association on 01387 253383.
Special offer of £35.00 for the whole series.

Poetry in the Woods

Discover poems in their natural habitat...

Saturday 27th August
10am -3pm
Poetry in the Woods will feature a workshop with special guest tutor Colin Will. Colin worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and is a renowned nature poet. He'll be leading a workshop on writing about the plants of the forest.

4.30pm
Dumfries Museum
Reading by Colin Will and workshop participants.

Poetry in the Woods workshops run 10am -3pm at Mabie Forest Education Centre. Booking via Ae Forest on 01387 860247. Workshops £3, reading free.

Stargazers - Old Music & New Writing

Crichton Writers & The Galloway Consort
present
Stargazers
:: a unique presentation ::
of old music and new writing on Renaissance themes


The Galloway Consort are early music specialists with 20 years' performing experience all over Scotland and the north of England. Crichton Writers are a vibrant new writing group based at the Crichton Campus (Glasgow University) in Dumfries. Together they have devised a programme of new writing in response to renaissance themes of love, war and the natural world to be accompanied by music from the 16th and 17th centuries played on appropriate instruments. Work will be read by actors from the Swallow Theatre in a candle-lit, herb scented ambience and a summer supper will follow for those who choose to stay.

Performance dates:

Sunday 28th August 7.00 pm
The Swallow Theatre, Whithorn
Concert ticket, including supper : £ 12.50
(Concert ticket only : £ 5.00)
Tickets & information : David Sumner Tel : 01988 850368
e-mail : mail@swallowtheatre.com
This performance is part of the annual St Ninian Festival

Thursday 29th September. 7.00 pm.
Bladnoch Distillery. Bladnoch
Concert ticket £5.00
Tickets & information : Book Festival Booking Office. County Hall. Wigtown.
Tel : 01988 402036 www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk/festival
This event is part of the Wigtown Book Festival


Wednesday 12th October 7.00 pm.
Drama Studio, Rutherford McCowan Building. Crichton Campus. Dumfries
Concert ticket £5.00
Tickets & information :Vivien Jones Tel: 01461 700396
e-mail : vivien@freeola.com

Scottish Film-Poet Margaret Tait

Tuesday 6th September, 7pm
Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries
Tickets £4.40 (£3.25) from 01387 264808

Gerda Stevenson introduces a rare showing of poetry films by Scottish artist, filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait (1918-1999), with an accompanying publication of essays, artwork and poetry. This rare opportunity is part of an international touring exhibition.

'Margaret Tait was one of Britain's most unique and individual artist filmmakers. Over the course of forty-six years she produced over thirty films including one feature, Blue Black Permanent (1992) and published five books of poetry and short stories, while living between the Island of Orkney and Edinburgh. Margaret described her life's work as consisting of making film-poems. Her clarity of vision and purpose with an attention to simple commonplace subjects combined with a rare sense of inner rhythm and pattern give her films a transcendental quality, while still remaining firmly rooted within the everyday.' — Lux

Linda Cracknell - Short Story Workshop

Monday Sept 5th
1-3pm
Short Story Workshop
with Linda Cracknell,
Brownsbank Writer in Residence
Drama Studio, Rutherford McCowan Building, Crichton Campus, Dumfries
Tickets £5 from Vivien Jones
01461 700396
Crichton Writers Event

Windmill Windfall Writing Workshops

Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura

5th September 4-6pm with Angus MacMillan
12th September 4-6pm with Laura Helyer


All levels welcome. The workshops will take the museum collections as their theme and muse, and participants will be encouraged to submit their pieces for display in a small exhibition. Places are limited to ten people per session.

Please book early to avoid disappointment on 01387 253374.

Des Dillon at the Edinburgh Fringe

Following on the success of 'Six Black Candles', Garlieston writer Des Dillon's new play 'Singin' I'm No a Billy, He's a Tim' is now in full swing at the prestigious Gilded Balloon at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, starring Simon Weir, Gordon Brown and Andy Townsley.

Tickets are available online at the Gilded Balloon, or by phone from 0131 668 1633.

The show runs until 20th August, tickets £9 (8).