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“Tom Molineaux was ready to take on the world but the world wasn’t ready for Tom Molineaux”

The story of the Left-to-Die Boat provides a lens through which the future – more accurately, a present whose edge we seek to dull by referring to it as the future – may be brought into clarity.

July and August sees The Scottish Poetry Library host a unique exhibition  – WATERFALLS – combining  poetry and images, led by Artist and Photographer Oscar van Heek.

By Cáit O’Neill McCullagh I began writing poetry in December 2020, when ‘community transmission’, the connective tissue of our relational lives, became dangerous. It felt like a remedy; a kind of convivial activism elicited by our pandemic resort to living ‘the universe’ in our own ‘potato patches’, as Patrick Kavanagh would have it.  I found in […]

With the participation of poets from across Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Scotland, the festival was a true smorgasbord of poetries and styles

Artists are the bottom of the heap. So when you’ve got a chance [to speak to government officials, middle managers], three minutes in the room with them, you’ve got to make the point that artists are often forgotten about, and financially it really isn’t always sustainable.

Kathleen Jamie was in Norway in January with her Makar bunnet on, leading a Scottish crew in a Burns-inspired evening of poetry and song. They shared the stage with Norwegian poets in a meaningful cultural exchange. 

Tha Evie Waddell a’ taisbeanadh an dàn ùr aice anns a’ Ghàidhlig agus Cànan Soidhnidh Bhreatainn. Theirig a-steach dhan a’ bhoglaich comhla rithe ann am ‘Bogaidh’. Tha Evie gar bogadh ann an nàdar, an gnàth-shìde agus eag-shiostaman le briathran stèidheil anns an dà chànan. Ciamar a tha an iomlaid seo a toirt oirt fhèin a […]

“Poetry has always been massively international, and internationalist, regardless of political affiliations. We poets can make non-political connections. There are diplomats for politics. We’re diplomats for poetry, for literature, for humanity and culture.”

Bha sinne fortunach sùil fhaighinn a-steach dhan a’ bheatha aig Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir – ar tosgaire Gàidhlig aig an leabharlann agus sgrìobhadair air leth cliùteach. Bha a h-uile duine làn den a’ chnatan agus a’ faireachdainn buaidh an Fhaoilleaich – ge-tà thug e togail dhuinn uile a bhith còmhradh mu na tha dol aige […]