I’ll be participating in the 3rd International Congress of Language and Literature at the Linares Institute of Technology, Mexico, from Monday 26 -Friday 30 October. It’s a wonderful series of events aimed at connecting people to books and literature and I’m absolutely honoured to be taking part. If you’re in Nuevo León in the next few days, I hope to see you there!
The Good Dark has been shortlisted for the Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year, alongside Killochries by Jim Carruth, Cream of the Well by Valerie Gillies and Not All Honey by Roddy Lumsden.
The Good Dark is available to order from Penned in the Margins.
Scotland’s most prestigious annual book awards, the Saltire Literary Awards celebrate and support literary and academic excellence across six distinct categories: First Book of the Year, History Book of the Year, Research Book of the Year and Poetry Book of the Year. 2015 sees the expansion of the Literary Book of the Year Award into two categories for Fiction and Non-Fiction books. The winner of each category will receive £2,000 and become the shortlist for the Saltire Society Book of the Year Award, with a prize of £6,000.
Friends in Mexico City! On Wednesday 4 November I will be at the American Legion Alan Seeger Post II, to read from The Good Dark. The show is absolutely FREE, so if you’re nearby, it’d be great to see you.
Ryan Van Winkle reads from his latest collection ‘The Good Dark’ (Penned in the Margins, 2015). Presented by Jack Little. Not to be missed!
Free to attend with cash bar.
RYAN VAN WINKLE is a poet, live artist, podcaster and critic living in Edinburgh. His poems have appeared in New Writing Scotland, The Prairie Schooner and The American Poetry Review. His debut collection was published by Salt in 2010. His second collection, The Good Dark, was published in May 2015 by Penned in the Margins. As a member of Highlight Arts he has organized festivals and translation workshops in Syria, Pakistan and Iraq. He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson fellowship in 2012, was listed as one of Canongate’s ‘Future Forty’ in 2013 and was awarded a residency at The Studios of Key West in 2015. Find his website at www.ryanvanwinkle.com
Really pleased to announce that “The Grave-tender”, “Rose’s Funeral” and “Moths” have been published in the Squircle Line Press anthology Ars Moriendi: Writings on the Art of Dying. From the Squircle Line site:
“Death is a difficult thing. It speaks of morbid tragedy. Yet in understanding death as a phenomenon – a universal eventuality for all of us – we are moved to contemplate its presence. Its passing. Its importance. The very act of thinking about death becomes important, in and of itself. Beyond denial and taboo, there is a vast good that arrives with such coming to terms. There is great comfort in reflection, honesty, succour, and acceptance. This collection is an odic nod to the original Ars Moriendi, commemorating the 600th year of the Latin work, the first of its kind in western literature to provide guidance towards dying well. Written in the late Middle Ages, after the scourge of the Black Death, Ars Moriendi was also among the first books printed with movable type. In this limited edition anthology, writers from around the world contribute their ruminations on the matter of the good death. And indeed, aspiring towards the good life a priori – to attend to living well before leaving well.”
So totally delighted to have fifteen of my poems posted in translation on Lyrikline: Untitled (Howe), The Ocean I Call Mine, Window, Not Sky, Unfinished Rooms, The Apartment, The Flood, I Do Not Want Rain for Rain, Babel, A Raincoat, A Spell of Rain Ago, Oregon Trail, My 100-Year-Old Ghost, Summer Nights, Walking, Untitled (Lincoln), Waiting for the Ocean, and The Duke in Pines appear in their original English plus translations into Arabic, Turkish, Bulgarian, German and Bosnian.
Thanks so much to the translators for all their hard work, and thanks to VERSschmuggel, Highlight Arts & Literature Across Frontiers who facilitated many of these versions.
Huge thanks to the wonderful folks at The Reader Berlin for having me over and recording this video of my poem ‘I Do Not Want Rain for Rain‘. Apologies for the dog.
The poem is from my second book, The Good Dark, published by Penned in the Margins.
Delighted to be heading to the sunny climes of Kristiansand, Norway for Sand Festival, where the words and music of Viewmaster will be setting up shop from 6-10 October. Hope to see you there!
VIEWMASTER is a personal and poetic slideshow created specifically for your eyes and ears only. In less than 15 minutes Ryan Van Winkle (poet) and Dan Gorman (sound artist) guide you through a playful and surreal journey to a land far far away.
VIEWMASTER is more than just a performance. It is a riveting experience that starts in a child-like cave, before it sweeps you away to another world. An imaginative leap to a foreign land and a step back to childhood wonder – all the time being accompanied by live music and poetry. A 15-minute private, supernatural and engulfing experience.
In which I discuss making theatre, artistic influences and the community in
Scotland with the folks at Penned in the Margins.
Even more good Ragland related news: we have collaborated on a track entitled ‘Lighthouse’, and you can listen to it below.
Delighted to announce a new collaborative poem, ‘Too Many Raindrops‘ with Ragland, as part of the Queensland Poetry Festival.
The theme for the 2015 Queensland Poetry Festival is ‘Language is a virus from outer space’. I have been curating a project for the festival that responds to this theme and the future of poetry. PEN will be available in a limited edition of 100 usbs at the festival bookshop. With language as virus, the nature and format of <O>PEN means that the files are susceptible to sharing and editing. All works are licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 4.0, so responses and remixes are very welcome.
