So, it is lovely to have a new poem, “Going Up” published in the latest issue. It is double lovely to be in an issue with my good friend Nick Holdstock who has an tense story in there called “How to Bait a Hook“. It is a dark piece and very worth reading. There’s also an excerpt from “The Two Sides of The Pass” a poetic conversation in Gaelic and English between Maoilios Caimbeul and Mark O Goodwin plus an enlightening review of John Glenday’s endlessly good book “Grain”. You can download the whole issue as a .pdf here. Or pick it up at The Forest, The Scottish Poetry Library or numerous other places. Check the Northwords website for more information.

Or Listen:

If you are interested, I inteviewed Maoilios Cambeul, Mark Goodwin and John Glenday for the Scottish Poetry Library podcast. You can hear the podcasts below but please, if you can, subscribe. It is free and easy and the podcasts will go direct to your music listening machine! How nifty. Enjoy the interviews!

John Glenday and Kim Edgar

John Glenday talks about and reads from his new collection Grain (Picador) and we hear Kim Edgar’s wonderful musical response to John’s poem ‘Nothing to Hold Onto’…

Or download as MP3

Maoilios Caimbeul and Mark O. Goodwin

Maoilios Caimbeul (Myles Campbell) and Mark O. Goodwin chat to Ryan about their recent book, The Two Sides of the Pass (Two Ravens Press, 2009), a conversation in poems across two languages and the landscape of the Isle of Skye…

Or down load the Mp3

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Enjoy the pictures (and words) as they fly through the air!

From the Original:

The images below are from different photographers across the Edinburgh taking photos of the same moon, on the same night, but with different styles and foregrounds.

Some of the skylines might be familiar – the moon over Arthur’s Seat, the Camera Obscura, or the gothic spire of the Hub.

Others are rooftops that look ordinary in the day – but at night, silhouetted by the moon, you can zoom in and select some unusual details. You start to see strange shapes, more akin to pyramids, Aztec temples or Buddhist monasteries, on the roofs of Marchmont flats or the Royal Mile.

Poet Ryan Van Winkle of the Scottish Poetry Library also composed this poem for the night.

Link to this audio

You can catch Ryan’s weekly poetry podcasts here.

Now, if you are confused – check out Cleikit site and if you spin the wheel around you can find my poem – titled “Whiff of Winter”. My voice shall be on it shortly.

Also, Peter McCarey is looking to open the project up and may be willing to give YOU (yes you!) a syllable to work with and will publish it along side mine and others. See the site to contact him!

Our friend Aiko explained all of this already on her blog in a much clearer and more interesting fashion. (Also, I stole the above pic from her site. Sue me!) So go there if you want more details.

As you can imagine, an independent Scottish literary magazine needs support to survive and none of this content is available on-line. Please consider buying issue two or subscribing if you can afford it. (When is the recession?)Those of you who know about the magazine industry know that a magazine lives or dies after the third of fourth issue so a subscription now means a lot to a good and ambitious magazine like this. Further, aside from containing “Babel” it also includes works from the following excellent writers of quality: Rodge Glass, Ron Butlin, Anneliese Mackintosh, Colin Will, Jo Swingler, Gordon Legge, Alan Bissett, Kapka Kassabova and Sophie Cooke all of whom, I declare, are more than worth the price of admission. Rodge, Ron, Anneliesse, Jo, Alan and Kapka have all  graced us with readings at The Golden Hour for which I’m totally grateful. If you saw Rodge read, than this is your chance to get a copy of his debaucherous “Weekend of Freedom”. Ron delivers a tense slice of life on Newington Road while Anneliese goes all deadly and kind of surreal. Anyway, I hate writing about people’s writing — it is all interesting stuff so you’re best to have a read for yourself.

If you want to support new writing, and (more importantly) enjoy it — Gutter is the horse to bet on. You won’t be disappointed.

* And if you happen to be in Glasgow — check out the Gutter event at Aye Write!

It features our friends Ewan Morrison and music by Rodge Glass’s Burnt Island and loads of other talent too. Tickets £7/£6 available from www.ayewrite.com

* You can order your copy of Gutter 02 at www.guttermag.co.uk

* Ron Butlin & Jo Swingler appear in Forest Publication’s book of Stolen Stories. Still availible! Order online now!

* And here‘s a great interview with Mr. Alan Bissett. That’s free. So, buy the magazine.

* Enjoy this video of Anneliese reading from Art, Divided here in Edinburgh.

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The Forest Book of Bedtime Stories was born in the hours which follow meetings, the hours of liquor and suggestiveness. The hours in which, under a thick cloak of Cockborn’s Reserve Port, we question what it is to be literary: whether we are not, perhaps, suited to something a little more upfront, a little more base.

There is a tendency among some of us to lean more towards the horizontal than the historic, particularly as the slump of winter comes upon us and we draw the curtains closed. As such, we requested from our friends they crawl into the filthier recesses of their imaginations and dredge up something which would tickle our fancies. This year, our Christmas present to you is some things we hope will warm your heart and get you out of your stockings.

What lies inside are tales that hang in the tricky balance of smut. These are not the cheap titillation of your newsprint-stained fingers working over Page 3. They are not content to hint, to nudge, to snicker behind palms at what is going on. We come to you honestly and say: this is what we think about.

Please: take your desires in hand and indulge…

I’m happy to have two kind of sexxxy poems in this fine anthology. One involves sex with Italian food and one is, essentially, an ode to a stranger’s bum. There’s also other great stuff including Ben Morris’ “Sextina”, stories about vampires (everyone loves vampires) and doing it with octopuses. A perfect coffee-table book or Valentine’s Day gift for that special someone. Let us know how you get on. xxl, R

Deep Inside:

• Jason Harrison Morton, Sauchiehall
• Ryan Van Winkle, Ode to Food, The Hand of God (aka: The Ass Poem)
  
• Jane Flett, Tako
• Ian Cartland, Intruders
• Danielle Mantia, Twins
• Helen Mort, White Hart
• Benjamin Morris, Sextina
• Kiran Millwood-Hargrave, Art Lover
• Kirsty Logan, The Last 3600 Seconds

Twas the Night Before Festivus…

“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,/ And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.”

In this Festivus podcast we feature a specially commissioned interpretation of the classic Christmas poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’ aka ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ from the amazing Toby Mottershead and some of Black Diamond Express (listen to Toby on another podcast in our series). And as home is something many of us return to at this time of year, we’ve also a discussion on poetry and homecoming between New Zealand born Robyn Marsack, Director of the Scottish Poetry Library, and Connecticut bred Ryan van Winkle, Reader in Residence at the SPL and Edinburgh City Libraries. They talk about their respective journeys to Scotland from their native lands and explore the influence of the poems they have brought with them from their homes and a few they have picked up along the way.

From all of us at the Scottish Poetry Library, Season’s Greetings, Nollaig Chridheil and Guid Yule!

Email Ryan and Colin about your thoughts on the podcast and what’s whetting your poetical whistle for 2010.

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Listen now…

or download the mp3…

One of the nicest things about hosting, performing and touring with the Golden Hour is that I occasionally get to collaborate with great musicians. So, on this podcast I share with you one of my favourites -- Jed Milroy and I performing Bluegrass. In the podcast I explain a bit about where the poem comes from but here are some more interesting facts.

* I recorded the vocal part sitting in Jed Milroy’s loo.

* I never lived with anyone named Tuna. The name is an oblique reference to the horrendous Johnny Depp film, Blow. At some point the overweight character named Tuna wanders into the ocean as a solemn Johnny Depp says, “Nobody knows where Tuna went” or something like that. At the time, we found it very funny and it managed to sneak into the poem.

* The poem wouldn’t have been written if I didn’t live with an amazing bunch of people in a huge house in Ithaca during the Summer of 2001. This experiment in communal living was revolutionary but not in the naive way we all expected. Hammocks and skinny-dipping in waterfalls, table football, music and artistic endeavours were all around us. Living closely with a dozen artists and activists changed my life and, in a way, has guided me to this day. We made some mistakes, and we were young enough to believe we could change the world in some way. Then 9/11 happened, the house broke up and the world really did change. This is what we looked like:

* The poem wouldn’t have been written if Jed Milroy, Jack Richold, Andy McKay, and Ian Stoddart didn’t play magnificent bluegrass music every week for a while at The Jazz Bar on Chambers Street. Hearing songs like Wagon Wheel and Loudon Wainwright’s Swimming Song brought me back to America and returned me to the friends I lived with. Thank you Greenman Bluegrass Boys!

Anyway, that’s all a lot of preamble. Here’s the blurb from the SPL site. Let us know how you enjoy the podcast.

Emily Ballou & Bluegrass

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain…”

Ryan catches up with American/Australian poet Emily Ballou just before her event at the SPL. They discuss what it’s like to be a poet abroad, the influences on her work and her recent collection, The Darwin Poems. We’re also treated to ‘Bluegrass’, a poem by Ryan, with musical accompaniment by Jed Milroy.

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Please subscribe to the pod-cast.

And here is the surreal world of Aaron’s Magic Pants!

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3q9S6mIE68

I recently wrote a poem for The Syllabary project. To be honest, I’m still not sure how to explain this thing but, basically, there are hundreds of syllables. Each syllable has a word or multiple words which can be made out of it. Poets then write a poem using all the words for the syllable they were given. By way of example – I was given the syllable FIP which can only make one word – FLIP. So, I wrote a poem which contained the word “Flip”.

Now, if you are confused – check out The Syllabary website. It won’t help but it LOOKs really cool. Also, Peter McCarey (who wrote all the poems on that site) is looking to open the project up and may be willing to give YOU (yes you!) a syllable to work with.

Our friend Aiko explained all of this already on her blog in a much clearer and more interesting fashion. (Also, I stole the above pic from her site. Sue me!) So go there if you want more details. The Syllabary site is sadly lacking in context but – once again – it does look very cool.

Here is my poem for the Syllabary: