Write a poem this Christmas

Take a break from the Christmas cheer to write a poem for the Wigtown Poetry Competition 2011.
Brian Johnstone will judge and award the 1st Prize of £2500, the runner-up prize of £500 and eight additional prizes of £25 each. There is also a special prize for a Gaelic poem of £300, to be judged Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul - Angus Peter Campbell, and a Scots Poem prize of £300, to be judged by Rab Wilson.
The closing date is 5pm Tuesday 3rd May 2011 and the winning poets will be invited to appear at the Wigtown Book Festival in 2011.
Competition rules and entry form are available to download http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/poetrycomp/index.asp
For further information contact: Carolyn Yates, Literature Development Officer on 01387 253383 or carolyn@dgarts.co.uk

If you happen to be in Glasgow tonight...

...then Carcanet Press and Luath Press would like to invite you to the Glasgow launch of Kei Miller’s A Light Song of Light (Carcanet) and Liz Niven’s The Shard Box (Luath Press). We hope you can join us on Monday 13^th December from 6.30pm at The Scottish Writers’ Centre, The Centre For Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD. Jamaican born Kei Miller has published two Carcanet poetry collections and edited Carcanet’s New Caribbean Poetry Anthology. His latest collection A Light Song of Light was recently shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010. Glasgow-born Liz Niven has completed several poetry collaborations with artists and photographers. Her new collection The Shard Box was published by Luath Press in 2010. Further details can be found on the attachment. Please RSVP to events@luath.co.uk if you would like to attend the Kei Miller and Liz Niven launch.

'One Letter Is Enough', a poem by Nobel peace prizewinner Liu Xiaobo

Today we celebrate the life and works of the Nobel Peace Prizewinner Liu Xiaobo, who is spending today locked up by the Chinese authorities for subversion. An empty chair represents him in Oslo at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Do print off this poem and pin it up in a public place or e-mail it to a friend. Go to Scottish PEN for more.
http://www.scottishpen.org/news
This would be a good day to join PEN, a dynamic worldwide association of writers pledged to protect freedom of expression and promote literature across frontiers throughout the world. If you contact us, we can pass on your details to Liz Niven, who has recently set up a South of Scotland branch of Scottish PEN.

One Letter Is Enough

for Xia

one letter is enough
for me to transcend and face
you to speak
as the wind blows past
the night
uses its own blood
to write a secret verse
that reminds me each
word is the last word
the ice in your body
melts into a myth of fire
in the eyes of the executioner
fury turns to stone
two sets of iron rails
unexpectedly overlap
moths flap toward lamp
light, an eternal sign
that traces your shadow

8. 1. 2000

Taxi! Drop into Midsteeple on Saturday to enjoy tales from the back of a taxi

A real winter warmer – come along and spend an hour in the company of Douglas Findlay in the Midsteeple, High Street, Dumfries. 
He's on at 12 noon, Saturday 4th December, and admission is free.

Douglas Findlay's highly entertaining anecdotes of his time as a cabbie in postwar Edinburgh will keep you chortling. Never one to turn down a fare, he will regale you with tales of the extraordinary range of characters he's had ‘in the back’ and how he ended up in the most bizarre situations.

There will also be mince pies and drinks and an opportunity to buy his memoir Taxi! – an ideal Christmas present.