Launch of 'The Treeless Region'

 - It's tonight!  I'm very excited, and do please come along at 7pm.  I know you'd come just for the poetry - but did I mention the free wine, and the homemade cake? 

'The Treeless Region' is published by Ravenglass Poetry Press, costs £4.99 and is available from www.ravenglasspoetrypress.co.ukhttp://www.ravenglasspoetrypress.co.uk/ and (imminently) on Amazon.

Susi Woodmass plays at Open Stage Wed 25th August

Come along to So You Cafe on Castle Street, Dumfries next Wednesday 25th to enjoy Stewartry singer songwriter Susi Woodmass' lovely voice! 

Susi Woodmass has a growing reputation for her innovative musical style. She uses strong rythmical guitar lines to underpin the beautiful vocal lines which come direct from the heart.

She has spent most of her life in Dumfries and Galloway, and in her other life appears as Susi Sweetpea as well as part of the Wee Folk Storytellers.

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.

New Book published by Brindley Hallam Dennis - aka Mike Smith

Just to let you all know that 'That's What Ya Get' has just been published by Unbound Press.  Anyone who was at Open Stage in Dumfries last month was blown away by the 'Assertions of Kowalski', Mike's extraordinary character who, he says, just opened his mouth and started talking.

It's very, very funny, and gets straight to the places you didn't know you had places...

Buy from Unbound Press www.unboundpress.co.uk (well, shortly, I imagine, it's still on their 'Forthcoming Titles' page, but it'll be getting there rapidly, due to demand).

Nice one BHD.

Not to be missed - Poetry Doubles starts from across the pond!

Look forward very much to seeing you at the Robert Burns Film Centre Theatre this Thursday 12th at 7pm for the start of 2010's Poetry Doubles season. 
And it's a big start, with visiting-from-USA renowned poet George Wallace, who will share the stage at RBCFT with our own talented Lynn Otty.  There follows a bit of blurb...

George Wallace is an American poet and poetry activist, who has created a grassroots network of venues for poetry stretching from downtown New York to Penrith, Kendal and now Dumfries. George is very much a performance poet, and his imaginative work is both deceptively simple and strongly rhythmic. As well as being a renowned poet, George is the editor and publisher of Poetry Bay, an on-line magazine.  'Whitman has snuck into Wallace – that same marrowy vigour, the uninhibited reach, that headlong urgency…except that, with Wallace, his narrative shirt-buttons are all undone.’
Mario Petrucci.
Lynn Otty is a Canadian who grew up on the prairies. She has lived in South West Scotland since the 1970s. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies and literary magazines. The Scottish Association of Writers highly commended her work at their annual conference this spring. She says “I am a late starter and always thought of myself as a writer-in-waiting. Never quite figured out what it was that I was waiting for so decided I’d better get writing.”

There.  It'll be great!  See you on Thursday!

You'll enjoy this - Liz Niven's Poem of the Day in the Herald

Congratulations to Liz Niven, for Hamecomin Blessins, which was Poem of the Day in The Herald on 22 July.  Beautiful poem!  http://www.lizniven.com/


Hamecomin blessins



Blessins
oan the faimilies waitin,
breid, watter and mair oan the table,
bed made, hoose trig,
bit naebodie comes hame.

Blessins
oan the folk wi nae hames tae gan tae,
cooried, at the hin en o a dreich nicht,
intae cairdboard boxes or
warmin hauns roon a brazier unner a bypass
win flappin roon faces shilpit an wan.

Blessins
oan the sodger hunkert doon
in a bluid-soakt sheuch,
or the refugee staunin
at the black-brunt shell o hoose.

Blessins oan
thaim whae come hame,
thaim whae dinnae ,
thaim wi nae hame tae gan tae.
in this Hamecomin year.


Liz Niven
(shortlisted McCash 2009)

Vivien Jones wins Poetry London Competition!

We are so proud of you Vivien!  Vivien Jones has just won the Poetry London Competition 2010, judged by Michael Longley.

Vivien's poem, 'My Mother's Literature' took 1st prize, winning £1000 and publication in Poetry London's autumn issue.  (Buy one!)

Vivien is an increasingly well known poet and writer, and has her first poetry collection out this month, published by Indigo Dreams.  'About Time, Too' will be launched at the Midsteeple, Dumfries, and at Wigtown Book Festival.  Find out more at  http://www.vivienjones.info/

I'm chasing Vivien to give me a copy of 'My Mother's Literature' so we can make it Poem of the Month in The Midsteeple - do drop in and read it.

Save the date! Les Murray to read in Dumfries 26 October!

Out of the blue came a phonecall from Les Murray's agent in Britain, offering us the opportunity of a reading here in Dumfries. 
We said Yes (quite loudly).  

This is an exceptional opportunity to hear this great internationally renowned poet.  He's huge and dusty like he's just stepped out of the outback, with a kind rumble of a voice and an exhilarating way with words.  Absolutely not to be missed.

...and the creekwater film spooling over causeways got spliced many times
  with its boulders like ice under whisky, tree pools mirrory as the eyes of horses.

He'll be here on Tuesday 26 October, venue tbc...  I'll keep you posted.