Tom Pow on Alastair Reid

To mark the publication of Barefoot: The Collected Poems of Alastair Reid (Galileo), this episode is dedicated to the late poet. Alastair Reid was a poet, an essayist, translator and traveller. Born in 1926 in Galloway, he served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War before moving to the US in the early 1950s, where he was published in The New Yorker, the start of a long association with that magazine. In the decades that followed he travelled the world, establishing friendships with two South American poets he translated, Neruda and Borges. Tom Pow, Barefoot’s editor, discusses Reid’s life and work: what Reid thought of his homeland, his relationships with Borges and Neruda, and how Pow came to know Reid the man and Reid the poet.

The SPL wishes to thank The Poetry Archive for granting us permission to feature a performance of Reid reading ‘Weathering’. If you wish to download a copy of the performance from The Poetry Archive, click here.

The Poetry Archive is a unique collection of poetry recordings. Hear more poets in their collection here.