We’ve been mighty quiet these past few weeks on account of our fearless leader Ryan being on holiday – but that’s not to say we don’t have some pretty awesome Big Ups to share with you:
- Firstly, HOORAY! We just got great news that the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland) has generously given us a grant to produce our forthcoming graphic novel collection, This Will Explain Everything! This is excellent, excellent news and we are so excited to share the book with you once it’s finished (it’s going to be AWESOME). Thanks thanks thanks thanks again to the Scottish Arts Council for your kind support! We do appreciate it.
- Nick Holdstock has a piece in the London Review of Books called Burning Books, and an article in the LRB book blog called Discounts for Tories. And Wahay! One more at the time of posting, in n+1 magazine: Pynchon in Poland.
- The new issue of Anon magazine holds poems by our friends Benjamin Morris, Jo Swingler, Dave Coates and Rob A Mackenzie, among others. Plus some stellar articles: Ryan Van Winkle interviews Scottish poetry star John Glenday; what it’s like to be a poetry apprentice with Chloe Morrish; blind faith and anonymity with Claire Askew. Hip-hip hooray for Anon!
- The new issue of Gutter magazine features some of our good friends and former GH readers: Rob A Mackenzie, Tracey Emerson, Aiko Harman, Brian Johnstone and Ewan Morrison, so grab yourself a copy asap – it hits the streets on August 10th.
- The lovely Jane Flett has a great article about Poetry Readings at Kelburn Garden Party in the Scottish Book Trust blog. Don’t miss her reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as part of the Story Shop, August 14th.
- Check out this radio interview with our pal Billy Liar on The Mindset Show 95bFM, Auckland, New Zealand. He talks about the Golden Hour and Forest early on in the second part of the show: Part 1 / Part 2
- Hear Scottish Poetry Library poet of month for July, Kei Miller, read from his new book A Light Song of Light at last month’s West Port Book Festival on the Scottish Poetry Library podcast.
- Plus a call for submissions: Pushing Out the Boat, North-East Scotland’s magazine of new writing, is now inviting submissions of poetry, prose and artwork for Issue 10, to be published in 2011. See www.pushingouttheboat.co.uk for detail.
- And a competition!: The Genomics Forum and the Scottish Poetry Library have announced a poetry competition, open to all, deadline 10 October 2010, on the theme of ‘improving the human‘. Details here. A selection of the winning and shortlisted poems will be published in a special publication of the Forum in 2010. The Scottish Poetry Library will host an evening of poetry readings based on the winning entries. First prize is £500, second prize is £200, and third prize is £100. Get on it, folks!
Now, some rollicking events in store for festival August!:
- 7th-17th August. 9.30-10.30pm. FREE. Banshee Labyrinth. Check out Helen Mort‘s solo show A Pint for the Ghost on as part of the Free Fringe. Details on Facebook here or at her website.
- 11th-25th August. FREE. Word Power Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Word Power Book Fringe 2010. Our friends at Word Power have a great programme of events this August kicking off with the poet Tom Leonard giving what is sure to be a rollicking read on August 11th. Also, there’s friend Nick Holdstock reading along-side the esteemed Edinburgh Maker, Ron Butlin, on the 12th. Plus plenty more to dip into – like Louise Welsh on the 14th and Kei Miller on the 22nd.
- 14th August. The Forest Café, 3 Bristo Place. Massive Forest 10th Birthday Party.
- 15th-30th August. 9pm-11pm, bar open til 1am. FREE (except closing party). Highland Park Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square. Unbound at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Don’t miss Unbound on the following nights – they’re sure to rock your socks right off: A Night in the Gutter: McSex (15 Aug), DiScomBoBuLaTe (16 Aug), Year of Open Doors: New Writing(22 Aug), and of course the GOLDEN HOUR (25 Aug).
- 15th August. 8-9pm. £7/5. RBS Corner Theatre, Charlotte Square. The Word Express – From Istanbul via Athens to Edinburgh. Ryan Van Winkle at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
- 16th August, Monday. 9-11pm. FREE. Charlotte Square, The Spiegeltent. DisComBoBuLatE – where literature and comedy collide. Your louche host Ian Macpherson likes to put it about at the Edinburgh Book Festival. At 9 PM he’s hosting DisComBoBuLatE. Early next morning sees the launch of his transsexual children’s novel Gran the Man. At DisCoMBoBULate his ears will be caressed by the silken tones of poets Magi Gibson and Billy Letford, novelist Alan Bissett, and artists of the comic word Arnold Brown, Simon Munnery and Jeremy Hardy. In the morning he’ll be torn to pieces by a tentful of screaming infants.- 17th August. 8pm. FREE. The Forest Café, 3 Bristo Place. Faceplant: a showcase of the brilliantly unpopular. Zorras bring you a fringe-of-the-margin-of-the-edge-of-the-fringe production. Faceplant will feature local and international performers: Manchester poetical musician, Alabaster De Plume; Edinburgh performance poet, Anita Govan; Glasgow wordster, Jim Ferguson; Bermuda writer/performer, Andra Simons; and Zorras themselves, performing their “poetry-music-video-weirdness fusion”. The evening will be hosted by Dublin-based A. Valliard.
- 17th August. The Electric Circus, 36-39 Market Street, Edinburgh. Edge Festival, Withered Hand and Last Battle playing live at Electic Circus. Buy tickets here.
- 23rd August. 6.30-8.30pm. FREE. Banshee Labyrinth, 29-35 Niddry Street. Utter! SALT - Rob A. Mackenzie hosts SALT publishing’s finest poets – Simon Barraclough, Julia Bird, Jasmine Donahaye, Andrew Philip, Isobel Dixon. By Utter Spoken Word.
- 29th August. 6pm-12am. £4. The Flying Duck, Glasgow. Forge of the Wordsmiths.
Pinky-promise we will be more frequent. Hope you guys have a blast during the festival!