Shugs on the Shortlist

'Postcards From The Hedge', poems by Hugh McMillan and illustrations by Hugh Bryden, published by Roncadora Press in Dumfries, has made it to the shortlist of the Callum McDonald Poetry Pamphlet Competition.

Well done the Hughs, and best of luck for Friday!

Poetry in Spring Fling

Our byre has been open this weekend for Spring Fling's first collaboration between an artist (my friend Catriona Taylor) and a poet (me).

The idea for the installation was sparked by poems I wrote after I found a love letter tucked into the stones of the byre. Catriona and I researched the lives of the bothymen, who travelled from farm to farm as itinerant, seasonal workers. These were people who left very little trace - there is little documentary evidence of who they were - often their lives were not even recorded by the census. Catriona has made an amazing installation inside our haybarn, a flickering, candlelit space, where great translucent canvases swing in space, and the lives of the bothymen are captured in a series of simple wooden boxes, lined in shreds and layers of wallpaper, etched with their graffiti. Words from my poems and from the love letter are worked into prints and even painted faintly on the battered limewashed walls of the barn.

It's been great fun (even trying to put up a gazebo in tipping rain while clearing up the preview party and bottle feeding the abandoned lamb just as the first visitors arrived - early). And it's made us clear up the garden, which probably wouldn't have happened, so thanks Spring Fling!

We've been inundated with lovely people visiting, talking and sharing ideas - thank you all!

Open Stage This Wednesday - yes this one, the 20th!

Open Stage, Dumfries' favourite open mic opportunity for poets and singer songwriters, is happening this Wednesday, 20 May, rather than the last Wednesday of the month. (This is because so much is happening at the end of May, Davie's run out of evenings!)

Don't miss a chance to hear Ron McKechnie perform his poetry, and Harry Thomson make music - doors open at 7pm as usual to book your slot, and performances start at 7.30pm. £3 on the door at the Birkhill Hotel, Dumfries.

'The Spider's Spin On It' - new book from Hugh McMillan

Prize-winning poet Hugh McMillan read from his new poetry collection ‘The Spider’s Spin On It’ at Thomas Tosh in Thornhill last Saturday. The book, his second collaboration with Dumfries artist Hugh Bryden, is published by Bryden’s own Roncadora Press and is, typically, hand stitched and beautifully illustrated.

All the poems are inspired by McMillan’s enthusiasm for Scottish History – he is a history teacher at Dumfries Academy- and are his own unique slant on some of the famous events, people and places in Scotland’s past. He tells of Robert the Bruce’s famous encounter with the spider, for instance, but from the spider’s point of view. Copies of 'The Spider's Spin On It' are available for sale in Thomas Tosh www.thomastosh.com.

Oor Rab at Creative Burns - one week left!

If you haven't yet been to the Creative Burns exhibition in Kilmarnock, you've got just one more week left to see it.

And our own Rab Wilson, who has just completed his time as Robert Burns Writing Fellow for Dumfries & Galloway, has on display there a commisioned series of 12 poems for Creative Burns.

Described by one critic as 'a more toothsome appraisal of [Burns'] cultural, social and creative importance' Creative Burns features key manuscripts, letters in Burns' handwriting to colleagues and friends and a copy of the Kilmarnock Edition. The visual arts side of the exhibition includes Calum Colvin's new portrait of Robert Burns.

Creative Burns is in The Dick Institute, Elmbank Avenue, Kilmarnock, tel 01563 554902 or visit www.visiteastayrshire.com.