Blog

Very pleased to announce that a collaborative piece with Ragland will be included in the Another Athens exhibition and one-day symposium at the Forest Centre+ in Edinburgh. This interdisciplinary symposium invites speakers to investigate the city, its space(s) and how its people interact with it on a daily basis: the city as a score, the imaginary city, strategies of drift and assemblage. Speakers include – Peter Burnett / Mirja Koponen / Neil Gray / Jane Hyslop / nick-e melville / Gerry Smith / Michael Gallagher, among others – from within and without the arts and literature, will reflect the rich polyphony of views which span experience and interpretation of the city.

The symposium will run from 10am-5pm on Thursday 4 December, and is totally free.

The exhibition will run from Wednesday 26 November – Saturday 20 December (Wed-Fri 4pm-7pm; Sat 11am-2pm), and is also free. Hope to see you there.

Very pleased to announce I’ll be doing some online teaching through the Poetry School, taking a course titled ‘Write What You Don’t Know: Research, Writing and the Apparently Confessional‘. The course is five fortnightly online chat sessions every Friday at 7pm, if that sounds like your kind of thing please do sign up! Here’s the blurb:

It is a common misconception that poets write autobiographical works which centre solely on their own experiences. In this course we aim to challenge that notion and will work on writing poetry through research, quotation and character. The course will involve a wide-range of assignments asking students to research science, history, political events, and even to imagine a distant future. We will attempt to write about countries we’ve never been to, wars we’ve never experienced, theories we don’t understand, disasters we had no part in and photos in which our faces don’t appear. The course will use journalism, photographs, streaming audio and video to offer a broad range of inspiration and source material.

CAMPUS group: http://campus.poetryschool.com/groups/write-what-you-dont-know-research-writing-and-the-apparently-confessional/

Please note: All our online courses take place on CAMPUS, a unique social network and learning platform created by The Poetry School. These courses are open to all students but a basic level of digital literacy is essential. The Poetry School can help you with technical issues, but you also need to be a confident user of digital platforms to take part in these classes. To find out whether an online course is right for you, please email online@poetryschool.com

Register for your free CAMPUS account here: http://campus.poetryschool.com/

The good people at STV interviewed me about the Culture Laser, about living in Edinburgh and our friends at the Forest Cafe. It also mentions the Live edition of the Culture Laser happening this Friday 24 October at the Dundee Literary Festival, at which it would be a delight to see you.

Very excited to be collaborating with the poet and novelist Ghazal Mosadeq at 7pm, Saturday October 25 in the Rich Mix Centre, part of the We Are Enemies project’s Camaradefest II. The show starts at noon, and runs throughout the day til the last group at 9pm. You can download some of her work at that link! Or come see us and a full 98 other performers at one of the most exciting poetry events going.

PLUS: I’ll also be reading at zimZalla on Monday 27, also part of We Are Enemies’ ever-growing umbrella of excellent work. Hope to see you there!

Very excited to be reading at zimZalla during the London trip. If you’re around the Hardy Tree Gallery near Kings Cross at 7.30pm on Monday 27 October, you’ll know what to do. It’s in association with our friend SJ Fowler’s Enemies project.

October Monday 27th. 7.30pm: ZimZalla in performance, readings from the TRYIE Collective (Zuzana Husarova, Olga Pekova +), Tom Jenks, Pascal O’Loughlin, Kim Campanello, Ryan Van Winkle, Christodoulos Makris & more.

Dan, a squeezebox, a child’s toy and myself will be heading to Sheffield this weekend (Sat-Sun 11-12 October) with Viewmaster for WROUGHT, an awesome 1-to-1 performance art festival. We’re running from 5-8pm Saturday evening and 2-5 Sunday afternoon, if you find yourself in Sheffield this weekend, do join us for some poems some music and a trip to your childhood.

WROUGHT: A One-to-One Performance Festival is a brand new performance festival exclusively focused on One-to-One performance in Sheffield. It takes place over a weekend between the 11-12 October in and around the Hide (Scotland Street, S3 7AA,https://goo.gl/maps/P0Lpc).

See our line-up of ARTISTS and PROGRAMME here: http://wrought-sheffield.com/artists/

For the TICKETS, follow this link: http://wrought-sheffield.eventbrite.com

FREE tickets for Saturday Evening Event: http://bit.ly/1E8ECga

FREE tickets for Sunday Post-Festival Panel Discussion: http://bit.ly/YZiCUn

This 2-day festival features a variety of One-to-One performance pieces, a workshop led by artists, and a post-show discussion. We aim to bring artists, academics and audience together to create a vibrant platform for discussion.

Really excited to be one of the hundred poets producing and reading work at the second edition of Camaradefest, the mass-collaboration project organised by our friend SJ Fowler. It’s happening on Saturday 25 October at the Rich Mix Centre down London Town, kicking off at 12noon and running into the wee hours. Tickets are free, hope to see you there.

There is nothing quite like Camaradefest. 100 poets come together in 50 pairs to premiere brand new collaborative pieces of innovative poetry.

Beginning at 12 noon and ending late into the night, Camaradefest evidences the endlessly exciting potential of collaboration in poetry and the true depth, width and brilliance of 21st century poetics. Expect no two works the same, and following on from the great success of the first fest last year, an unforgettable way to experience contemporary poetry.

Get a taste, view the videos from the first fest here:http://blutkitt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/camaradefest-videos.html

What: Camaradefest II

When: Saturday 25 October, 12noon-late

Where: Rich Mix Arts Centre, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London.

How Much: FREE

This Thursday 2 October I’ll have the great pleasure of hosting and introducing a night of poetry, music and cinema to launch Highlight Arts, the organisation formerly known as Reel Festivals. The line-up is outstanding, including Golan Haji coming all the way from Syria, doors are at 7.30pm, tickets are free but do book in advance.

Join us for the launch of HIGHLIGHT ARTS.

FREE EVENT with international music, poetry and film, featuring:
– Shooglenifty
– Golan Haji (Syria)
– Krystelle Bamford
– Emily Ballou
– Kaela Rowan
– DJ Dolphin Boy
– Short films from Iraq, Syria and more…
– Complimentary food and drink

Thursday October 2nd 2014
Scottish Storytelling Centre, Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Start: 7.30pm

Tickets are FREE but limited to 4 per person – available via website or box office.
Tel: 0131 556 9579
http://www.tracscotland.org/scottish-storytelling-centre/centre-events/1884/highlight-arts-launch-event

Event details:

The team behind Reel Festivals (Reel Syria, Reel Iraq and Reel Afghanistan), would like to invite you to join us in ushering in a new era as ‘Reel’ becomes ‘Highlight Arts’ (www.highlightarts.org)

Featuring a hand-picked selection of international music, poetry and film from Reel’s ground-breaking projects past, present and a with a nod to what’s in store for the future.

Just announced: Syrian poet and author Golan Haji will be flying in for the event and will be involved in some poetry translations.

What: Highlight Arts Launch

Where: Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43 High Street, Edinburgh

When: Thursday 2 October, 7.30pm

How Much: FREE.

Very pleased to have my poem, ‘Into the Desert with No Name’ included in the anthology Double Bill, the sequel to Split Screen, both published by Red Squirrel Press and edited by Andy Jackson. The launch party will be held at the Scottish Poetry Library on Saturday 4 October from 1-3pm. Hope to see you there.

What: Launch of Double Bill

Where: Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh

When: Saturday 4 October, 1-3pm

How Much: FREE

Really excited to be involved with a new anthology of Scottish poems edited by Colin Waters, Be the First to Like This, launching on Thursday 25 September at the Scottish Poetry Library. Tickets are free, but booking is essential. There are a bunch of really talented poets included, some you might already know, some you’ll be delighted to meet. The launch kicks off at 6.30pm, there will be wine, chat and poems. Hope to see you there.

Be the First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry is an anthology gathering together Scotland’s new generation of poets.

Here, the classically formal mixes with the wildly experimental. Subjects are as diverse as texting, fancying film stars, dole offices, quantum physics, and Richard Branson; the common denominator is modernity, a sense these are poems that could only have been written in the early twenty-first century.

A selection of the poets featured in the anthology will read at the launch.  

What: Launch of Be the First to Like This

When: Thursday 25 September, 6.30pm

Where: Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh

How Much: FREE. Book here.