The Red Road Marion McCready
for we are citizens of the sky.
The frost-thumbed grass will cry with our broken bones alone (the furniture of our souls),
border crossing In a world where virtual borders are deeply permeable and physical borders are ever more difficult to cross, language represents our attempt to communicate beyond individual experience. Through the tools of the written word and translation, we can read poems composed hundreds and thousands of years ago, and poems from every language spoken. How often do we reach out to these ‘others’ to discover what they have to offer us, to learn about our differences and – what is so often even more touching – our similarities? Inspired by Literary Europe Live (LEuL), a project we’re part of which brings together sixteen literary festivals and venues from around Europe, we have curated a programme of events reflecting the richness and diversity of the literary landscape. Our season kicks off with a residency hosting Hungarian poet Árpád Kollár and Mexican-born, Scotland-based poet Juana Adcock, and events celebrating their languages and poetry. We offer you the chance to join a Polish poetry translation workshop, while at a session featuring poets Sophie Collins, Anne Laure Coxam and Sarah Eliza Kelly, we will discuss the politics, publishing and performance of translated poetry. We will showcase poets from around the world including Bill Manhire (New Zealand), Wojciech Bonowicz (Poland), Terese Svoboda (America), George Elliott Clarke (Canada’s poet laureate), Jean Portante (Luxembourg-born, Paris-based), Yolanda Castaño (Galicia) and more. In these complex and divisive times, we at the SPL believe that poetry has a vital part to play in promoting dialogue. Join us to explore beyond the known and into the new, with poetry as our passport. Jennifer Williams Programme Manager
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Events The Scottish Poetry Library is a unique national resource and advocate for the art of poetry. We are passionately committed to bringing the pleasures and benefits of poetry to as wide an audience as possible. Physically and virtually, the Scottish Poetry Library’s doors are open.
Ticket Policies •
If you need a carer/companion to help you access this event, they will be eligible for a free ticket to the event. Please contact SPL Reception.
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We are unable to provide refunds for events if you cannot attend. If we have to cancel an event due to unforeseen emergencies such as extreme weather conditions, we will refund all ticket buyers for the full cost of their tickets.
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Concession tickets apply to children (under 15), students (with valid matriculation card), Young Scot card holders, Senior Citizens, Disability (Carers go free), Claimants (Jobseekers Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Housing Benefit), NHS employees (with proof of employment).
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SPL Friends receive the concession price for events.
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Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
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Literary Europe Live Poets in Residence Mon 26 – Fri 30 Sep
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
Organised in cooperation with Literature Across Frontiers as part of the Literary Europe Live project supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Tue 27 Sep
Translation Workshop
£5/£3
Thu 29 Sep
Reading
£5/£3
Sixteen literary festivals and venues based across Europe – including the Scottish Poetry Library – have joined together to form Literary Europe Live, a new Creative Europe supported platform that promotes fresh European voices. Building on our 2014 residency that saw Polish poet Maciej Woźniak take part in a number of events here at the SPL, we’re showcasing the work of two of the platform’s New Voices from Europe writers, Hungarian poet and children’s writer Árpád Kollár and Mexicanborn, Scottish-based poet and translator Juana Adcock, as well as the Galician critic, translator and poet Yolanda Castaño.
National Poetry Day Event: Eyewear Publishing Thu 6 Oct
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£7/£5
Since 2012, Eyewear Publishing has been discovering and publishing interesting new poets from across the UK and overseas. Join us in welcoming four of their freshest voices, including Scotland’s own Marion McCready, one of the country’s fiercest and most original voices; George Elliott Clarke, Canada’s Poet Laureate; Paul Deaton, whose poems have appeared in The Spectator and PN Review; and Terese Svoboda, American poet, novelist, librettist and translator.
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Whatever the Sea: Scottish Poetry for Growing Older Wed 12 Oct
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
Free
‘Push the boat out, compañeros, / push the boat out, whatever the sea,’ wrote Edwin Morgan on turning 80. Whatever the Sea is a new anthology of poems about ageing from Polygon/Birlinn. Join us to launch the book and discuss ageing and creativity through the beautiful, funny and hard-hitting poems which explore the challenges and delights of maturity.
Filmpoesie Wed 19 Oct
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Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£5/£3
In partnership with Maison de la poésie de Montréal. Funded by the British Council and Gouvernement du Quebec via Connexions Quebec-UK.
The origins of the ‘filmpoem’ stretch back to 1936 and Night Mail, Watt and Bright’s collaboration with W.H. Auden. Since then, the likes of Tony Harrison, John Cooper Clarke and Alice Oswald have made filmpoems. The Quebec-Scotland Filmpoesie Project brings together poets from Scotland – Rachel McCrum and Calum Rodger – and from Quebec – Jonathan Lamy and Geneviève Gosselin-G – to create a series of intricately linked filmpoems. The evening will include a screening of the films, live performances from the poets, a discussion around traditions of filmpoetry in contemporary Quebec and Scotland, and the translation of poetry to film in different languages.
Wiersz ma swoją wyobraźnię. Zbudował ją sobie w twojej a potem zamknął żeby się uwolnić. The poem has its own imagination, erected in yours, then shut inside to free itself. Wojciech Bonowicz and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese
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Wojciech Bonowicz and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese Thu 20 Oct
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£5/£3
Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.
Poland’s contribution to world literature is impressive (Miłosz, Szymborska, Herbert, Zagajewski, to name a few) and the country continues to produce world-class poets. The SPL is delighted to host a reading by renowned Polish poet Wojciech Bonowicz. With translator Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese, Bonowicz will read from his latest collection Echa as well as from Centres of Cataclysm, an anthology published by Bloodaxe to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Modern Poetry in Translation.
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Polish Signs – Translation Workshop Sat 22 Oct
Scottish Poetry Library
13.00 – 15.00
£7/£5
Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.
Join us as we explore another country through its poetry and experience that poetry in its original language, then build a linguistic bridge between Polish and English. Our translation workshop is designed to be enjoyed by people fluent in Polish, those yet to learn the language and everyone in between. Polish poet Wojciech Bonowicz and translator Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese invite participants to join in the creative act of translating, and rewrite some of Bonowicz’s new poems into English.
Women Translate Fri 11 Nov
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£7/£5
What does it mean to translate a poem? What is the role of women in the practice of translation? Poets Sophie Collins, Anne Laure Coxam and Sarah Eliza Kelly will discuss, in a panel chaired by Lila Matsumoto, the politics, publishing and performance of translated poetry. The evening will conclude with a performance of their works.
Scottish Women’s Poetry: A Symposium Sat 12 Nov
Scottish Poetry Library
11.00 – 19.00
Free
In partnership with the University of Edinburgh. When Liz Lochhead published her first collection in 1972, she was one of very few Scottish women poets in print. In 2014, twothirds of the poets featured in the generation-defining anthology Be the First To Like This were women. Gathering together new and established voices from academia, poetry, publishing, and other creative areas, our all-day event will discuss and debate the diverse energies, directions, and innovations in the field since the year 2000. Held in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, the symposium will explore questions of language, ecopoetics, politics, sexualities, the body, and aesthetic strategy. We will also examine ‘poetry in the field’ and women’s current engagement with the teaching, communication and fostering of creative work. Our day will conclude by listening to poets reading their own work.
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...Or located neither north nor south but deep in the cleft, the length of the tear. I tap on their chests, then tap on my chest: there, there, there.
Tomato Krystelle Bamford
Bill Manhire Thu 17 Nov
CCA Clubroom, Glasgow
19.00
£5/£3
In partnership with St Mungo’s Mirrorball. Five times the recipient of the New Zealand Book Award, Bill Manhire has been one of New Zealand’s leading poets since the 1970s, when his poems, characterised by a lightness of touch and gentle humour, caught the public’s attention. A tireless promoter of the literature of his homeland, he became the inaugural Te Mata New Zealand Poet Laureate in 1997. The SPL and St Mungo’s Mirrorball are delighted to welcome Manhire back to Scotland, a country with which he has links through his mother, an Edinburgh schoolteacher who immigrated after marrying a New Zealand sailor during World War Two. Bill will be reading with Scottish poets Liz Lochhead and Sheila Templeton. Tickets available at the CCA Clubroom on the night.
Don Paterson and Krystelle Bamford Wed 23 Nov
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£7/£5
Two-time winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, Don Paterson more than deserves his reputation as one of Britain's foremost poets. Known for his mordant wit and technical mastery, Paterson is also an expert performer of his own work. He is joined by Krystelle Bamford, a poet raised in the US who has made Edinburgh her home. With poems covering subjects as diverse as visiting an STD clinic and Dolly the sheep, she’s one to watch.
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Jean Portante and Zoë Skoulding Thu 1 Dec
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£7/£5
Supported by Bangor University Impact Acceleration Account. Borders are crossed and language barriers leapt over as we pair the multi-award-winning Luxembourg-born, Parisbased novelist and poet Jean Portante with his translator Zoë Skoulding, a poet from Wales whose own new work investigates a hidden river in Paris. As well as reading, they will discuss the themes of travel and migration that weave through the landscapes of their poems, inviting you to share the journey with them at this special event.
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Loud Poets XMAS Special Wed 7 Dec
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
£7/£5
We wish you a LOUD Christmas and a happy New Year! After wowing the Edinburgh Fringe and festivals all the way from Brighton to Prague (winners of the 2016 New Territories Award), the Loud Poets are bringing their 5 star show to the SPL to get the holidays started with a bang. They combine dynamic spoken word, a brilliant in-house band and multimedia elements to bring you a night of fist-thumping, wine-drinking, rib-tickling, heartwrenching poetry. Treat yourself and everyone you love and get your tickets before they sell out.
HappenStance Winterfest: ‘the roll, the rise, the carol, the creation’ Wed 14 Dec
Scottish Poetry Library
18.00
Free
Some confabulation, comedy, celebration and CAKE from HappenStance Press, as well as three new publications. On the menu: Unsuitable Poems from Helena Nelson; some thoughts On The Making Of A Little Magazine from Dark Horse editor Gerry Cambridge; and, for dessert, Andrew Sclater’s delicious debut, Dinner at the Blaw-Baxters.
Collective Hush Every Wed
Scottish Poetry Library
12.00– 14.00
Free
Keep meaning to put some time aside for reading and writing poetry each week? You’re probably not alone. What kind of creative dialogue might take place when we set aside time to be quiet together? What energies might be generated by a group of creative people gathering in one place to work on their own projects together? Each week there will be a specially selected grouping of items from the Library collection on display for optional inspiration. Bring your lunch if you like and join us for this silent, drop-in collective reading and writing time every Wednesday. Curated by Jennifer Williams and Julie Johnstone. Collective Hush is free but donations are welcome. No need to book but please check in at SPL Reception.
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Events in The Space The Space is our workshop room where anything can happen.
Poetry for Peanuts Scottish Poetry Library 7 Sep, 5 Oct, 2 Nov, 7 Dec
10.30 –11.30
£2 per family
Pop in for this guided family poetry hour once a month on Wednesdays. These sessions are for wee ones and their grownups. We'll supply the poetry books, tea and coffee. Share some poems with your children and meet other parents/carers who like poetry or want to give it a try.
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Perfect for ages 5 and under.
Nothing But The Poem Scottish Poetry Library Sat 17 Sep
Jackie Kay
Sat 15 Oct
Bill Manhire
Sat 19 Nov
Vahni Capildeo
11.00 – 12.30
£5/£3
Nothing But The Poem is a poetry reading group that anyone can attend – no previous experience is necessary though experts are also welcome. We will provide the poems and facilitate a reading and discussion, encouraging new interests, insights and favourites. Please note: the poets being discussed will be there in print only.
SPL Poetry Workshop Scottish Poetry Library Tue, 25 Oct & Tue, 29 Nov
18.00 – 20.00
£5/£3
JL Williams, poet (and SPL Programme Manager), facilitates this writing workshop in which we read, discuss and write poems. All levels of experience welcome. Please bring paper and a pen or pencil, or laptop/tablet of choice.
The Belonging Project Workshops Scottish Poetry Library 10.00 – 12.00 6 Sep, 13 Sep, 20 Sep, 27 Sep, 4 Oct, 11 Oct
Free
Join us for this series of creative writing workshops that explore the universal experience of undertaking a journey. We will consider journeys as diverse as holidays and work travel, metaphorical journeys through personal experiences of illness, family history and self-discovery, and the flight of migrants and refugees. We will reflect on what these experiences have in common and consider what it means to belong. Each workshop stands alone, with participants welcome to attend one or all of the sessions.
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Give me unsilent unwatchful women Give me monstrous women on the pavements of 14
Cologne women London women Tahir Square women Belfast women Stockholm women Cape Town women The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate Rachel McCrum
Learning We offer Poetry CPD for teachers and workshops for pupils tailored to suit requirements. Contact our Learning Manager, Georgi Gill, for more information and to book: georgi.gill@spl.org.uk. For teachers: www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/teachers Education Blog: makingmakars.wordpress.com
Access The Scottish Poetry Library has a ground-floor entrance and a lift that provides access to all three floors of the building. There is one adapted toilet on the basement floor.
Companion Service
At the Library
Artlink offers a companion service for people who have difficulty visiting libraries and attending events on their own. For more information please phone 0131 229 3555, type talk 18001 0131 229 3555 or go to artlinkedinburgh.co.uk.
Hearing loop: If you require our hearing loop, please let the person at Reception know.
If you need a companion to help you attend any SPL workshops or events, please let us know when booking. Your companion’s ticket will be free.
Wheelchair Space: We can reserve space for you and nearby seats for your guests if required. Guide and hearing dogs are welcome. If you would like to use any of these services, contact SPL Reception on 0131 557 2876, reception@spl.org.uk or in person. Please then make yourself known to Reception on arrival.
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Support us Help us to continue our work by becoming a Friend of the Scottish Poetry Library from £20 per year and you will receive the following membership benefits: •• •• •• •• ••
Poetry Reader magazine subscription Discounts on SPL events 10% discount in the SPL shop Free postal borrowing throughout the UK Voting rights at our AGM
Visit our website for more information and to join online, or telephone 0131 557 2876 to request a membership form by post.
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Many of our events will include a donation bar, where you can get a drink in exchange for a suggested donation. Donations to the SPL are always welcome, especially at our free events.
Further details, tickets & thanks Please go to scottishpoetrylibrary.eventbrite.co.uk for event booking. Friends of the SPL receive the concession rate for events and workshops. For more details on events, directions to the Library and information about Library services, podcasts and poetry, please see scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk or call us on 0131 557 2876. For updates on events in and outwith the SPL, as well as links to our latest podcasts and blogs, subscribe to the SPL’s fortnightly e-newsletter by emailing colin.waters@spl.org.uk. Thank you to our Patrons – The Binks Trust, Edwin Morgan Trust, Dr David Summers Charitable Trust, Professor Alexander McCall Smith, Nora Senior and Ian Wall – and to our Friends, partners and sponsors for their generous support.
SEPTEMBER Wed 7
Poetry for Peanuts
Sat 17
NBTP: Jackie Kay
SPL
Tue 27
LEuL Workshop
SPL
Thu 29
LEuL Reading
SPL
SPL
OCTOBER Wed 5
Poetry for Peanuts
SPL
Thu 6
Eyewear Publishing
SPL
Wed 12
Whatever the Sea
SPL
Sat 15
NBTP: Bill Manhire
SPL
Wed 19
Filmpoesie
SPL
Thu 20
Wojciech Bonowicz & Ela Wójcik-Leese
SPL
Sat 22
Polish Signs
SPL
Tue 25
SPL Poetry Workshop
SPL
NOVEMBER Wed 2
Poetry for Peanuts
SPL SPL
Fri 11
Women Translate
Sat 12
Scottish Women’s Poetry
SPL
Thu 17
Bill Manhire
CCA, Glasgow
Sat 19
NBTP: Vahni Capildeo
SPL
Wed 23
Don Paterson & Krystelle Bamford
SPL
Tue 29
SPL Poetry Workshop
SPL
DECEMBER Thu 1
Jean Portante & Zoë Skoulding
SPL
Wed 7
Poetry for Peanuts
SPL
Wed 7
Loud Poets XMAS Special
SPL
Wed 14
HappenStance Winterfest
SPL
…as well as Collective Hush on Wednesdays throughout the season, and The Belonging Project Workshops as listed.
ROYAL MILE
People’s Canongate Kirk Story
CANONGATE CRICHTON’S CLOSE
OLD TOLBOOTH WYND
NEW STREET
JEFFREY STREET ST MARY’S STREET
to Castle
Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8DT.
Museum of Edinburgh
to Holyrood
Hemma
Scottish Parliament
HOLYROOD ROAD
reception@spl.org.uk 0131 557 2876 www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk @ByLeavesWeLive facebook.com/scottishpoetrylibrary
This programme has been printed in Scotland. Please pass on or recycle when finished. The SPL is a certified Green Arts Venue.
Book tickets at scottishpoetrylibrary.eventbrite.co.uk
Design: www.everyonelovescake.co.uk
AVAILABLE IN LARGE PRINT