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  • Liz Lochhead on the 40th anniversary of Memo For Spring
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Liz Lochhead on the 40th anniversary of Memo For Spring

September 2012

In 1972, Liz Lochhead published her debut collection, Memo For Spring, a landmark in Scottish literature. In an extended interview with Colin Waters, the National Poet of Scotland discusses what the early 1970s poetry scene she emerged into was like, one in which women poets were few and far between. She recalls early meetings with the elder generation – Norman MacCaig, Edwin Morgan, Robert Garioch – and with contemporaries such as Tom Leonard, James Kelman and Alasdair Gray. The Makar also speaks about life during the era of the three-day week and compares it with an economically troubled present-day that, in some respects, mirrors 1972. And she reads several poems from Memo For Spring.

The image of Liz Lochhead is provided by Norman McBeath.

Music by Will Campbell

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Liz Lochheadb.1947

Appointed Scots Makar from 2011 to 2016, Liz Lochhead is both transgressive and popular; as Anne Varty wrote, ‘her work is that of one woman speaking to many,  and one person speaking for many’.
More about Liz Lochhead

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