photo by Ericka Duffy

Edinburgh International Book Festival Gig – Be There.

THE GOLDEN HOUR!

August 18th, 2010
8pm
Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Pl
Free! Free! Free!

NOW WITH A LICENCE!!!

Reading:
Lidija Haas – stops the presses with her new chapbook

AL Kennedy – novelist, comedian, rude and wonderful.

Ryan Van Winkle – short poems, long stories.

Nick Holdstock — Holds his strong meat.

Music:
Earl Grey and the Loose Leaves – A brawling bar-room  blues band that sounds like Captain Beefheart oan the train over tae Howlin’ Wolf’s hoose fur a bevvy and a brace with Sonny Terry and the Mississippi Sheiks. Contagious.

&&&& loads more!!!!

Very excited!

Van Winkle Meets Glenday

Anon is a poetry magazine which fits in your back pocket and is a perfect poetic treat. I was fortunate enough to be asked to interview one of my favourite poets for the latest issue — John Glenday. Glenday’s most recent book, Grain, garnered a ton wagon-load of much deserved praise including a nomination for the prestigious Griffin Prize. Grain was released a shocking 14 years after Glenday’s last collection — the magnificent Undark. Thanks a million to John for, comparatively, conjuring this interview up at the speed of light. In my opinion, Glenday’s work is the real deal — these poems reminds us why we continue to read and write poetry. His collection is an elegant argument for the importance and beauty of this medium. He wouldn’t say this, of course, but in the interview he does say many other interesting things like:

“Mint choc chip. It’s flavourful, a delightful melange of colours and textures and affordably alliterative.”

Buy Anon — £6.50 for one issue or £11 for a one-year subscription. It is a super high quality magazine that not only features my interview with The Good Glenday but also new poems and essays. Look!

Prose: An essay on poetry and film by filmmaker Alastair Cook; an interview with Scottish poetry star John Glenday; what it’s like to be a poetry apprentice with Chloe Morrish; blind faith and anonymity with Claire Askew; and a personal take on the New York poetry scene through the eyes of Alice White.

Poetry: Excellent contemporary poetry from a wide variety of poets including Matt Merritt, Caroline Crew, Juliet Wilson, Adam Strickson, Rob A. Mackenzie, Ken Champion, Dave Coates, Jayne Fenton Keane, Richard Moorhead, Emily Van Duyne and Scott Edward Anderson and many others.

What is Anon?

“This is nothing short of fabulous. Our celebrity culture is in such desperate need of an enema. We’re completely clogged up with ego and projects like this have become essential in every way.” Mario Petrucci

Like it says on the tin — Anon is a magazine that only takes anonymous submission. This democratizes the editorial process ensuring that Big Names with Bad Poems don’t get in the magazine just because their name might sell some copies. It also means the editors, Colin Fraser & Peggy Hughes, can not favour their friends. Truly, it is anonymous — if you are interested you can easily submit online.

Buy Anon — Support Literary Magazines — £6.50 for one issue or £11 for a one-year subscription.

Word Power Book Fringe 2010

Our friends at Word Power have a great programme of events for you all of August kicking off with the poet Tom Leonard giving what is sure to be a rollicking read on August 11th. Also, there’s friends Mr. Nick Holdstock reading along-side the esteemed Edinburgh Maker, Ron Butlin, on the 12th. Plus plenty more to dip into — like Louise Welsh on the 14th and my favourite, Kei Miller, on the 22nd.

Oh, and it is all for free! See Word Power’s site for all the literary berries.

The Edinburgh Book Fringe 2010 –  from Wednesday 11 to Wednesday 25 August 2010 at Word Power Books

43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB, Scotland, UK.

And here’s some audio of Kei reading from the SPL Podcast

Kei Miller

SPL poet of month for July, Kei Miller, reads from his new book A Light Song of Light at last month’s West Port Book Festival…

How Pedestrian -- Ryan Reads a Poem

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Katherine Leyton runs How Pedestrian — a fine video-poetry blog. It really is unique, colourful, interesting and full of good poems. Normally, she asks people on the street, airport, grocery store to take a moment and read a poem for the camera. There are some brilliant readers and some not-so-great ones but it is a totally cool experiment and there are some very good poems and themes on there. If you explore you’ll find Haiku on High Finance, World-Cup Poems and a great bunch of videos featuring “Dante in Sicily“. Yep — it is groovy and I was glad Leyton asked me to read one of my own. So, check me out but also explore the rest of the site. It is really good. And really free. And I’m really happy to be on the site. Go on — lose a few minutes with poetry.

Here’s one more: Stephen Dunn on a Tractor

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At The Golden Hour a few months ago Mr. Rodge Glass (Editor, Prize-Winning Biographer, Novelist, Musician and general kind of “allright dude“) mentioned he was editing a collection of New Scottish Fiction. I said I wish I wrote fiction so I could be in the book amongst the other amazing writers he’d lined up  (listed below — check it — they are the real deal). I was jealous. I wanted to be in an anthology of New Scottish Fiction. I wanted to be in because it sounded too good. Not only are the authors all top-shelf but the book is not political in the sense that it doesn’t seek to define Scottish-ness. The anthology is a representation of The Now. The people who are living and creating in this country at This Moment. I liked that notion. It seemed to cut through a lot of the Talk Talk Talk surrounding Scottish Publishing. Anyway, Mr. Rodge said I could try my hand at a poem to kind of open or maybe even close the book. I thought about doors and Scotland and what it means to be a writer. I watched Arrested Development. I read comic books. I went to Berlin. I sent Mr. Rodge the poem. Mr. Rodge liked the poem. Mr. Rodge put it in his book of New Scottish Fiction. So, how about that — I’ve got a poem in a book of New Scottish Fiction amongst names so fine you can lose a day just going through their websites.Trust me: Buy the Book.

OR

Have a look at the other great people involved below. Then go Buy the Book.

And Come to an Open Door Gig at the Book Fest’s Spiegeltent!

Monday, 30 August, 9pm -- Edinburgh International Book Festival, Spiegeltent — FREE

The Year Of Open Doors: Music Night

There will be poems from me & The Alan Bissett

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Music from Burnt Island & Adrian Crowley

My poem is in The Year of Open Doors — a very excellent collection of new Scottish Fiction. It is quality. It features great new stories from people like:

Alan Bissett

Sophie Cooke

Kirstin Innes

Kapka Kassabova

Anneliese Mackintosh

Kevin MacNeil

Duncan McLean

Aidan Moffat

Suhayl Saadi

Tawona Sithole

&

Ryan Van Winkle (That’s ME!)

Check Out Cargo Publishing’s Website for News, Contests, Videos and all things Open Doorsy — See you at the Gig!

And here is Mr. Rodge explaining what he was doing.

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SPL Podcasts You May Have Missed

I’ve not updated you all on the last 6 podcasts or so not because I forgot, not because I think you don’t care, not because they aren’t any good — but because I was away from work for a while. So, here’s a list of the fine fine programmes you missed. Special thanks to Colin Fraser and Peggy Hughes of ANON for keeping these going and for doing some interviews for me. If anyone is curious about these and doesn’t know where to start — I highly recommend the amazing Kei Miller who has to stunning collections of poetry and a great novel under his belt. He is a beautiful man. It is a luxury to have him in your ears, I assure you. What are you waiting for? Catch up now!

	Kevin MacNeil Poet, playwright, bicyclist and novelist Kevin MacNeil chats to Ryan about why he’s glad he started off life as a poet, the challenges of performance and why he describes himself as a “writer” rather than a “poet turned novelist…
	Gerry Cambridge Ryan and Gerry Cambridge talk about how the Dark Horse magazine got started, whether it is possible to say what an editor is looking for in a magazine and muse the general state of literary magazine culture in the UK and the US…
	Kei Miller SPL poet of month for July, Kei Miller, reads from his new book A Light Song of Light at last month’s West Port Book Festival…
	West Port Book Festival SPL and West Port Book Festival’s Peggy looks back at the poetry of last year’s fest, and forward to what’s coming this year…
	Chase Twichell Ryan chats to Chase Twichell about ecological views, the intricacies of the poetry publishing world in the US and what it’s like to release a collected works…
	Rab Wilson Mining, Pablo Neruda, Scots poetry, Arabic translation and more with Rab Wilson and Ryan…

Where Did That Decade Go?

Ten years ago, on August 4th, some friends told me A Thing was having an opening party. Some friends of friends were involved. You could bring your own booze. There would be music. Art. We were jammed into a tiny postage-size stamped cafe. I fell asleep on the pavement outside. Somewhere, there is photographic evidence of this. Anyway, it has been a long and legendary ten years and The Forest has planned many a Celebratory Event for those involved and those who have come to dance. So, first, let’s have a look at some of the festival highlights!

Remember:

10 years old birthday party. Featherface, Baptism tank, Granny flats, more bands than is possible to name. The insanity of this project is a closely guarded secret.

Some events where you will find Ryan reading or performing in some manner. Please come.

Wednesday 4th August, 6:00pm  – Free
Blackwell, 53-62 South Bridge Edinburgh

Join us to celebrate the launch of the latest volume of New Scottish Writing. My poem is in there. Buy the book.

Download the FREE CD HERE

A unique chance to hear a fantastic international line-up of Salt poets at the Free Fringe – Simon Barraclough, Julia Bird, Isobel Dixon, Mark Granier, Rob A. Mackenzie. Andrew Philip, Eleanor Rees, and Ryan Van Winkle.

Saturday 4 September, Stornoway Book Festival, 21.00 – Free

The Golden Hour returns to Stornoway to make magic in the lovely An Lantair venue. Here’s who is performing:

Words:

Ryan Van Winkle – Short poems, long stories

Kei Miller – poet, novelist, award-winner. Really, you love him already and you don’t even know.

Listen to him on the SPL Poetry Podcast!

Music:

Hailey Beavis – an angelic voice, but devilish on six strings.

Foxgang -  punked-up reggae and pop and Fox Gang stap your dancing wellies on!

Many months ago the lovely David O’Doherty and I sat down at a hotel on the Royal Mile. He bought me coffee and we talked about comedy, jazz and poetry and some other stuff like his fantastical book “100 Facts About Pandas“. David will be comedy-a-fying at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 4 -- 30 August at The Pleasance Courtyard. You can get tix here. Listen to our podcast and then go see him make funny. Enjoy! And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, it is free!!!!

David O’Doherty

Author and comedian David O’Doherty, past winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award, chinwags with Ryan about jazz, literature, comedy, the pressures of working in the creative industries, good stand-up, his favourite poetry and much else. Including comedy excerpts from David’s new CD, “Let’s David O’Doherty”.

Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email us: splpodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @byleaveswelive & @anonpoetry.

Or subscribe without iTunes (RSS)

Listen now…

Or download as MP3.

About David O’Doherty

David O’Doherty is from Dublin and is a stand up comedian, playwright, author, musician and actor. His stand-up has won two awards at the Edinburgh Fringe -- Best Newcomer first of all and the Edinburgh Comedy Award (then named the if.comedy award) in 2008 for his show Let’s Comedy. He has been nominated twice more for his work at the festival.

O’Doherty has also written a children’s book, composed two plays and released two comedy CDs, the first of which Giggle Me Timbers (Jokes Ahoy) was recorded at his home in front of 35 people. O’Doherty’s second more recent CD release called Let’s David O’Doherty was recorded in Whelans of Dublin and released in December 2009. Snippets of it are featured on this podcast, by kind permission of David.

• More about David on his website
• David on YouTube
  

Here is a picture of 100 Facts About Pandas

And a bit about txt messaging that many of us will understand too well

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New Writing Scotland 2010 Launch at Blackwells

I’m pleased to say that my poem, Ode to a Rain from Death Row made it into the latest edition of New Writing Scotland edited by Alan Bissett and Carl MacDougall.

Come to the Event or Buy the Book

Wednesday 4th August, 6:00pm
Blackwell, 53-62 South Bridge Edinburgh

Join us to celebrate the launch of the latest volume of New Scottish Writing. New Writing Scotland is the principal forum for poetry and short fiction in Scotland today. Every year it publishes the very best from both emerging and established writers, and lists many of the country’s leading literary lights among its past (and present) contributors.

Edited by Alan Bissett and Carl MacDougall, Stone Going Home Again is the latest collection of excellent contemporary writing, drawn from a wide cross-section of Scottish culture and society.

There will be readings from a number of contributors to the volume such as Patricia Ace, Dorothy Alexander, Graham Fulton, Tracey S. Rosenberg, Gerda Stevenson and Ryan Van Winkle on the night.

This is a FREE event but a ticket is required. Tickets are available from the front desk at Blackwell. For more information please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8206 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.