Samuel Tongue

Projects & Learning Co-ordinator

About me: I’m an award-winning poet and Projects Co-ordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library. My poetry has been published in many journals and newspapers including Magma, Gutter, Butcher’s Dog, and The Scotsman. My first full collection, Sacrifice Zones was published by Red Squirrel in 2020, and I have three pamphlet collections: Hauling-Out (Eyewear, 2016), Stitch (Tapsalteerie, 2018), and Nakedness of the Fathers (Broken Sleep, 2022). You can find out more about my poetry by visiting my website www.samueltongue.com.

Contact me about National Poetry Day, our ongoing book projects Tools of the Trade: Poems for Doctors, and To Learn the Future: Poems for Teachers and any other projects that you think would benefit from the Scottish Poetry Library’s unique input and resources.

My favourite poetry quote is: World is crazier and more of it than we think, / Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion / A tangerine and spit the pips and feel / The drunkenness of things being various. (Louis MacNeice, ‘Snow’)

My favourite poets are (in no particular order) John Glenday, Danez Smith, Liz Berry, ee cummings, Walt Whitman, Claudia Rankine, Kei Miller, Sarah Howe, R. S. Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Helen Mort, Emily Dickinson, Gillian Clarke […]

When not at work I enjoy writing, cooking, film, cycling, and theatre