This Is Danseizure LP

Many years ago Dan and I sat down and recorded the poem ‘No Ideas But In Things’ which I’d kind of forgotten about. Luckily, Dan didn’t. He created a beautiful, 7 minute, electronic assault. You can download the whole album for FREE on bandcamp. Or listen to a taste below:

1000 thanks to Invisible Agent for this and for all their ongoing support, please check out their website for a treasure trove of Electronica wonderment from Ireland, Cambodia and beyond.

Ginsberg for the Georgians

Our good friend and Georgian Agent Provocateur – Zaza Koshkadze – translated a my long-ish poem which was part of the “Starry Rhymes” Anthology. If you would like to have a look at what Ryan looks Like in Georgian — go to HERE.

For my work and many others in full, bleeding English:

Starry Rhymes: 85 Years of Allen Ginsberg

My poem, indebted to Allen Ginsberg’s ‘America‘ (when will you send you eggs to India?), appears alongside many fine others in Read This Press’ limited edition chapbook. It is a great pleasure to be among so many international writers and friends celebrating one of my favourite influences. I should name some of the brilliant poets in this collection but then I would have to name them all. So, I’ll just say — buy the book. It looks great and the word on the street is — If you dig Allen, you’ll dig this. Go here and look for Allen’s face. He’ll sort you out.

In August I was pleased to have my poem ‘Last Night I Should Have Driven Straight Home‘ chosen as Poem of the Week in The Scotsman. Of course, that is pretty old news. However, the poem is still there if you haven’t read it. You could make it the poem of your week. Also, isn’t it nice that the Scotsman has a poem of the week and shouldn’t we support and encourage more of that kind of thing? Anyway, here is the link. Enjoy. x

I Chose to Listen – New Translations from Reel Festivals 2011 FREE DOWNLOAD

One of the most spectacular things I’ve had a chance to do recently was to work with a cohort of fantastic poets from Lebanon, Scotland and Syria on new translations of each others work. Some of you, I hope, were able to come to our readings in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Beirut. However, if you weren’t, these new translations should give you a taste of contemporary poetry from the region. You’ll also find brand-new work in both English and Arabic from our  friends Tom Pow, William Letford, and Emily Ballou. I also have a few poems inside there. I encourage you to check out this free book.

This free to download e-book (published in association with Forest Publications) features brand new English and Arabic poetry translations from collaboration and performance with the Reel Festivals poets.

From Syria, Golan Haji and Rasha Omran, from Lebanon, Yehya Jaber  and Mazen Maarouf and from Scotland, Tom Pow, Emily Ballou, William Letford and Ryan Van Winkle, along with beautiful Arabic Calligraphy by Everitte Barbee.

We are immensely thankful to Creative Scotland for making this book and all these outcomes possible through the Vital Sparks funding, to the British Council for their sponsorship and ongoing support and to the Scottish Poetry Library, Literature Across Frontiers and all Reel Festivals supporters. Some of these poems, artwork and an exclusive essay by Tom Pow originally appeared in ANON Magazine 8.

As the poet Andrew Philip said: ‘it fairly makes a difference when you know the poetry makes a difference’. We couldn’t agree more and hope you do too.

DJ Dolphin Boy – Ghazi by Reel Festivals

And new films from Roxana Vilk including this one with the mercurial Yehya Jaber:

The Confession a short film by Roxana Vilk from Roxana Vilk on Vimeo.

There’s lots more on the Reel Festivals website including writing from Bill Drummond, more films, live footage etc — make sure to check it out!

This Guy!

Read Raw is a lovely site which does the good work of promoting new writing in Scotland. I had the pleasure of meeting them in Glasgow at my Poetry @ The Ivory reading. On the site you’ll find a couple poems from ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here’ and one uncollected poem you might want to check out. Plus, some other stuff you might be interested in. Or not. Either way – it is there. On the internet. For now. Check it out here.

I was very pleased to be part of the “American Indy All-Stars” edition of the groovy on-line lit-love-in known as Beat the Dust.

You can do directly to reading those poems now, but make sure to poke around the site as well because it has some quality new stuff curated by our pal Jarred McGinnis and The Special Relationship.

From the site:

“The Special Relationship is a monthly literary event in London set up by the American Brothers and two English chaps as part of YARNfest. One of the American Brothers, Jarred McGinnis has curated a special edition of BTD to showcase new work from a talented tribe of US indy writers. We’ve got poetry, short fiction, novel extracts and an essay on the current state of American indy literature.

You can read Beat the Dust cyberspacially or print out the chapbook edition and have a gander at your leeeeeeisure.”

The Edinburgh International Book Festival

Charlotte Square, 8.30-9.30pm, £7/5

It is a real honor to have been invited to read as part of this year’s main programme at the Edinburgh Book Festival. What is even more amazing is that I’ll be reading with our old friend (and nominee for the prestigious Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection) Rachel Boast and Will Eaves the Arts Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. So, thanks to the Book Festival for inviting me to be on such a strong bill and let’s all hope I don’t embarrass myself. I’ll be reading from ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here‘ which you can buy from Salt. Just click on that cover.

I have two new poems in the latest issue of Gutter — The Magazine for new Scottish writing. I’m very pleased to have these published as they are the first new poems to see the world since the publication of Tomorrow, We Will Live Here — they sound a little different and I’m quite shy about them. So, support Gutter and check let me know what you think about ‘Gerontocracy’ and ‘A Raincoat, A Spell of Rain Ago’. Also, in this issue, you’ll find new work from a lot of talented friends — some of whom are:  Anneliese Mackintosh, Michael Cannon, Tracey Emerson, Kirsty Logan, Brian Johnstone, Sally Evans, Rodge Glass, Ewan Morrison, Iyad Hayatleh and Tessa Ransford, Jim Carruth, Sandra Alland, Kevin McNeil, and Colin Will. It is good to be in good company. You can get a copy of the magazine here.

I was happy to be invited by Conor Mahood to take part in his one thousand stories project. I’m pretty sure I ruined the whole thing as my other friends who have done it are far more interesting and articulate than I. So, if you don’t want to listen to me, you can hear Deborah Pearson, Holly Conrad or Morgan McBride all of whom know how to actually speak.

Here’s what Conor says about the porject:

A Thousand Stories is a podcast project where I will interview people using the same rough pool of questions each time and see what emerges.

Though it’s from a pool of questions, I may ask someone all or only a couple of these in the actual interview.

The goal is one thousand people.

And here is my contribution to the project — The Lucky Episode 13

For the long-delayed 13th episode I interviewed Ryan Van Winkle, reader in residence at the Scottish Poetry Library and poet, author of the collection Tomorrow, We Will Live Here. Ryan also hosts a poetry podcast for the Scottish Poetry Library, find out more about it here.

Listen Now

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