Open Stage 28 July - A Busload of Border Poets!

Come along to So You Cafe on Castle Street, Dumfries next Wednesday to enjoy a special 'Over The Border' experience from a busload of Cumbrian poets, led by the twin energies of Brindley Hallam Dennis and Nick Pemberton.

Organised by Dumfries & Galloway Arts, Open Stage provides a unique opportunity for poets and singer songwriters in the region to perform in front of a friendly live audience.

Nicola Black will be your compere for the evening, and we'll be there at 7pm to welcome you and book your performance slot.  The show starts at 7.30pm and if you don't want to perform, come along then and join our friendly audience for a great night.  £3 on the door.

Creative Writing Workshop 12 August with GEORGE WALLACE

Don't miss out on the chance to do a creative writing workshop with this internationally famous poet!  George Wallace is widely published, and also edits PoetryBay, which publishes online, featuring high quality work from around the world.  George has created a unique workshop experience designed to enhance writers' ability to create space for the imagination to explore, invent, discover and roam.

A treat for summer!  The workshop will take place at The Midsteeple, Dumfries from 2.30pm to 4.30pm, and costs £10.  To book please email Carolyn@dgaa.net.

George will be reading in Poetry Doubles with talented Dumfries and Galloway poet Lynn Otty later that day, when they'll be on stage at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre at 7pm.  See www.dgaa.net for details and look out for the flyer.

Do a sun dance for Rab!

Rab Wilson says: Ahm daein twa readins at the Wickerman 'Word Tent'; Friday 5:10pm an Setterday 3:50pm

Dae a wee 'sun dance' fir me, will ye!??

Well done Vivien! Poem of the Day in The Herald on 6 July

KELVINGROVE, GLASGOW

We had to go – years of sighing
over illustrations in design books
made it imperative – we had to look.

Who dared say it first?
You were full of well-tutored
respect for established opinion
but you also knew the making craft,
the strength of joints, the angles
that support the human spine.

‘Those chairs’- I whispered,
intimidated by the museum hush -
‘they don’t look very comfortable’,
thinking of those Glasgow matrons
taking tea and gossip together
in rival tea rooms, undomesticated
in fur jackets, heels and gloves.

You smiled, relishing your own
affection for a making tradition
so like your Cotswold heroes.

Never mind the Rennie Mackintosh,
the cutlery made you weep.



Vivien Jones
Poem of the Day in The Herald
6 July 2010

Find The Fankle!

You might like to know about The Fankle - latest venture from Dumfries Writers Group.  This ingeniously folded pamphlet featuring prose, poetry and short fiction from a thoroughly talented group of writers is available now from The Midsteeple in Dumfries (and a variety of shops and cafes across the region).  Its origami-like construction and classy design are the result of Hugh Bryden's skill, and we reckon here that it's the most fun and inspiration to be had in D&G for 50p...

Don't miss out - this is the first-ever issue of what's got to be a pocket classic of a pamphlet!

For more, go to www.thefankle.net

Hugh MacDiarmid Lecture in Langholm 28 August

The Hugh MacDiarmid lecture 2010 is -

'Poets' Pub: Hugh MacDiarmid and His Contemporaries: Poets, Artists and the Challenge of Modern Scotland'

In this illustrated and wide-ranging lecture, Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach show how central MacDiarmid was to the vitality of literary and artistic life in modern Scotland, and ask how important his stimulus and the work of poets and artists is, in the 21st century.

Venue: Buccleuch Centre, Langholm. Saturday 28 August.

Lunch and lecture £18.50; Lunch 12 noon for 12.15

lecture only £4.00; Lecture 2pm.

Tickets available from Buccleuch Centre: 013873 81196.

Time for my hols! And 'The Treeless Region' is on its way.

I'm off to Ledbury Poetry Festival tomorrow - very much looking forward to it!  Going to hear Pascale Petit and Jane Weir for starters, but there's just masses. http://www.poetry-festival.com/index.html

And news at last - 'The Treeless Region' will be launched on Monday 30 August at the Midsteeple.  I will remind you!