January is traditionally the month for poetry in Scotland and we’re sure you’ve been reading your Burns, celebrating his life and works by eating haggis, drinking whisky and toasting the lassies (not literally in front of the fire, we hope). So, why not finish the month with some contemporary Scottish poetry? Shore Poets meet for the first time this year on January 28th and we hope you can join us. In fact, you could say January is going from Bard to verse (sorry!).

Sunday 28th January 2018
7pm (doors open 6.30pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)
Please be there in plenty of time to get a seat. Unfortunately, fire regulations mean we have to turn people away if the room becomes overcrowded.

MAIN POET: PETER MANSON

Photo gratefully borrowed from the Scottish Poetry Library website. Photo credit: Tom Raworth

Peter Manson (born Glasgow, 1969) is a poet and translator of poetry.  His books include English in Mallarmé (Blart Books), Poems of Frank Rupture (Sancho Panza Press),  Adjunct: an Undigest and For the Good of Liars (both from Barque Press), and Between Cup and Lip (Miami University Press, Ohio).  Miami UP also publish his book of translations, Stéphane Mallarmé: The Poems in Verse.

NEW POET:  PATRICK ERRINGTON

Photo credit: PJ Errington

Patrick James Errington’s poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets, Boston Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Oxford Poetry, and have won or been commended for several international competitions, such as the Wigtown, The London Magazine, the McLellan, and The National Poetry Competitions. His French translation of PJ Harvey’s The Hollow of the Hand was published in 2017 by Éditions l’Âge d’Homme and a chapbook of his own poems will be available from ignitionpress in February. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Patrick currently lives in Edinburgh and is a PhD student at the University of St Andrews. You can find out more about his work on his website: http://pjerrington.com/

SHORE POET: IAN MCDONOUGH

Ian McDonough was brought up in Brora on the East Coast of Sutherland. He has published four collections of poetry, most recently A Witch Among the Gooseberries published by Mariscat in 2014. His work has appeared widely, including Poetry Review, Times Educational Supplement, Physics Review, New Writing Scotland and The Scotsman.  A member of Shore Poets, Ian lives in Edinburgh with his partner and daughter. When not writing he works as a mediator and trainer.

MUSICIANS: HOLM

Holm are Stewart Veitch (guitar) and Shore Poet, Frank Glynn (violin/viola). Holm play music that is a wordless mix of their own compositions alongside music by Hildegaard of Bingen, Charlie Haden, Manuel de Falla, Tomasz Stanko, Henry Purcell and others. Their style is cinematic, with more than a nod to Scandi-noir.

WILDCARD SPOT AND THE LEMON CAKE RAFFLE

The lemon cake raffle provides us with much-needed funds, so we very much appreciate your support. And it is a most excellent lemon cake. (Occasionally, we also have poetry books in the raffle, and are very grateful to the donors thereof.)

We should have a wildcard spot this month. Please mention to the person selling tickets that you’d like to put your name in the hat (ideally we will ask you, but sometimes we forget to ask and then we feel sad once we remember our omission). Bring a poem to read in case you’re chosen! You’ll have three minutes (this includes any preamble or introduction – it’s a good idea to time yourself in advance to make sure you’re within the time limits).

See you on 28^th January!

Useful information:

1) we have a mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is usually only for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’. You can unsubscribe anytime you want to, although we would be sad if you did.

2) Our email address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com. Emails sent to any other email address go to the great rubbish bin in the virtual sky.

Sunday 26^th November 2017, 7 pm (doors open 6.30pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)
Please be there in plenty of time to get a seat. Unfortunately, fire regulations mean we have to turn people away if the room becomes overcrowded.

Please join us for an entertaining evening of poetry and music at the last Shore Poets of 2017. We have a fantastic line-up of three Edinburgh poets, two of the city’s previous makars, plus an up-and-coming talent. We’re also excited to welcome one of Scotland’s best known accordionists to provide sensational musical interludes.

NEW POET: TIM CRAVEN

Tim Craven – originally from Stoke-on-Trent – is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University under the supervision of our own Shore Poet Jane McKie and Miriam Gamble. He has an MFA from Syracuse University (USA). He won the Grierson Poetry Prize this year and was the winner of the last but one Shore Poets Quiet Slam. He has been widely published in magazines and hopes to have a collection out soon.

SHORE POET: CHRISTINE DE LUCA

Christine De Luca – born and brought up in Shetland but has lived in Edinburgh for many years (with frequent visits north). She writes in both English and her native Shetlandic. She has just retired as Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate) after an incredibly busy three and a half years – but shows no sign of slowing down – she seems as busy as ever, reading at festivals all over Europe and beyond. She has had six collections of poems published. A recent pamphlet, Dat Trickster Sun (Mariscat Press) was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award and her latest collection, just out, is Edinburgh: Singing the City, published by the Saltire Society and bringing together poems written during her Makarship. Her first novel came out in 2011 and she has collaborated with both jazz and traditional musicians. She is a long-time member of Shore Poets and a real (and much-loved) driving force behind the group.

GUEST POET: VALERIE GILLIES

Valerie Gillies is one of Scotland’s most distinguished poets. She was born in Canada but brought up in Scotland. She has had nine collections of poetry published, the most recent being The Cream of the Well: New and Selected Poems (Luath 2015) and has often worked with artists and musicians. Her early writing was encouraged by Norman MacCaig. Her concerns include Scottish identity and history, often interwoven with nature and environment: the interconnectedness of things. ‘She has worked to disseminate poetry in many forms – written, oral and visual – so that it is a presence in the everyday life of the Scottish people’ (Professor Laura Severin, North Carolina State University). She was Edinburgh’s second Makar, succeeding Stewart Conn, and serving 2005-8.

MUSICIAN: SANDY BRECHIN

Photo by Arne von Brill

WILDCARD SPOT AND THE LEMON CAKE RAFFLE

The lemon cake raffle provides us with much-needed funds, so we very much appreciate your support. And it is a most excellent lemon cake. (Occasionally, we also have poetry books in the raffle, and are very grateful to the donors thereof.)

We will have a wildcard spot this month. Please mention to the person selling tickets that you’d like to put your name in the hat (ideally we will ask you, but sometimes we forget to ask and then we feel sad once we remember our omission). Bring a poem to read in case you’re chosen! You’ll have three minutes (this includes any preamble or introduction – it’s a good idea to time yourself in advance to make sure you’re within the time limits).

Useful information:

1) we have a mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is usually only for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’. You can unsubscribe anytime you want to, although we would be sad if you did.

2) Our email address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com. Emails sent to any other email address go to the great rubbish bin in the virtual sky.

Sunday 29th October 2017
7pm (doors open 630pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane,
Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)

We had our last Quiet Slam in January, but thanks to some shifting around of the Shore Poets calendar, this year’s slam will be happening in October!

Ten poets will entertain you, but they will also be judged and there can only be one winner.

We are still looking for slammers, and the sign-up deadline has been extended to 8pm on Friday 20 October. Please email Tracey at writingmostly at gmail.com if you wish to throw your name in the hat. This is the only method of signing up (so please, no comments on this entry, carrier pigeons sent to Shore Poets Towers, etc.).

What’s the format?
Each of our ten poets will perform twice. We’ll have a first round, in which each poet will read for 2 minutes. After a break, there’ll be a second round, and each poet will read again – this time for 2.5 minutes. This gives each poet two chances to wow our judging panel and entertain you, our audience! The three highest-scoring poets will go into a final, where they’ll read for three whole minutes. The winner of the slam will read one final poem.

We’ll also have our usual lovely music and our raffle, so you’ll still get the chance to win the infamous lemon cake and support Shore Poets. (Thank you for your support.) There might be a feature poet as well, though last year’s winner, Tim Craven, will not be performing – he should be coming up later in the year, though, so do look out for him.

What’s a quiet slam?
A quiet slam is a competitive poetry event where loudness is not necessarily a virtue. (Have you been to a not-quiet slam? It is usually very loud. We don’t mind loudness, but we like to offer something different.) Participants won’t be marked down for speaking softly, reading from paper, or being nervous. We also like to encourage new slammers to take part. Finally, judges will score participants on the quality of their poem and the quality of their performance, not for the loudness of the audience response. Some poems just don’t lend themselves to whooping, you know?

MUSICIANS: Cantabile

John Mortimer with the vocal group Cantabile will present some of his new compositions, including works which use words written by members of Shore Poets (Diana Hendry, Hamish Whyte and Frank Glynn). The presentation will illustrate the contrasting challenges faced by composers setting metrical and free verse, and also the reverse, i.e. fitting words to an existing melody.

We hope to see you at our Quiet Slam! Those details again:

Sunday 29th October 2017
7pm (doors open 630pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane,
Edinburgh, EH1 3LY

We’re back! The first Shore Poets event of the 2017-18 season is approaching and we’d love you to join us! Please come along and help us launch this year’s line-up.

Sunday 24th September 2017

7pm (doors open 6.30pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)
Please be there in plenty of time to get a seat. Unfortunately, fire regulations mean we have to turn people away if the room becomes overcrowded.

MAIN POET: JAMES McGONIGAL

James McGonigal is a poet, editor and translator. He has published on modernist poetry and on Scottish and Irish literature, as well as four pamphlet collections. Cloud Pibroch (Mariscat Press, 2010) won the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Award. His most recent collection is The Camphill Wren (Red Squirrel Press, 2016). A friend and literary executor of Edwin Morgan, he wrote Beyond the Last Dragon: A Life of Edwin Morgan (Sandstone Press, 2012), and co-edited The Midnight Letterbox, a selection of his correspondence 1950–2010 (Carcanet Press, 2015). His website www.jamesmcgonigal.com gives samples of his work.

NEW POET: VICKI HUSBAND

Vicki Husband’s first collection of poetry, This Far Back Everything Shimmers, was published by Vagabond Voices in 2016 and shortlisted for the Saltire Society Best Scottish Poetry Book of 2016. Vicki’s poetry reading highlights include StAnza International Poetry Festival, Lahore Literary Festival and Airdrie Observatory.

SHORE POET: JANE MCKIE

Jane McKie’s first collection, Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press), was awarded the 2008 Sundial/Scottish Arts Council prize for best first book of 2007. Her other publications include When the Sun Turns Green (Polygon, 2009), and Garden of Bedsteads (Mariscat, 2011), which was a Poetry Book Society pamphlet choice. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh.

MUSICIANS: TRIBAISER

Tribaiser are Fraser Sharp, Kyle Kinnear and Jack Lodge, playing keyboards, drums and trombone; three students who have emerged from the increasingly successful music programme at Heriot Watt University, who have just completed a very successful Highland tour with the Heriot Watt Jazz band. ‎

They play early standards to contemporary jazz. ‎Fraser played a superb set at their last Shore poets outing, and we are looking forward to ‎welcoming him back with some new friends.

WILDCARD SPOT AND THE LEMON CAKE RAFFLE

The lemon cake raffle provides us with much-needed funds, so we very much appreciate your support. And it is a most excellent lemon cake. (Occasionally, we also have poetry books in the raffle, and are very grateful to the donors thereof.)

We will have a wildcard spot this month. Please mention to the person selling tickets that you’d like to put your name in the hat (ideally we will ask you, but sometimes we forget to ask and then we feel sad once we remember our omission). Bring a poem to read in case you’re chosen! You’ll have three minutes (this includes any preamble or introduction – it’s a good idea to time yourself in advance to make sure you’re within the time limits).

LOOKING AHEAD:

Our Quiet Slam this year takes place on Sunday 29 October! A quiet slam is a competitive poetry event where loudness is not necessarily a virtue. Participants won’t be marked down for speaking softly or reading from paper. We also like to encourage new slammers to take part. Full details will be posted next month, and the throwing-your-name-in-the-hat deadline will be 15 October. If you already know that you want to throw your name in the hat (or you have any questions in the meantime), please email Tracey at writingmostly at gmail.com with the words ‘Quiet Slam’ somewhere in the subject line.

Meanwhile, see you on 24^th September!

Useful information:

1) We have a mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is usually only for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’. You can unsubscribe anytime you want to, although we would be sad if you did.

2) Our email address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com. Emails sent to any other email address go to the great rubbish bin in the virtual sky.

Hello, people!

Before we get on to the March event, a word about Sunday 30 April, which is our Open Night (with Jane McKie in the Shore Poets spot). If you’re interested in throwing your name in the hat to do a 5-minute reading, please email shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com by the end of the day on Friday 7 April. [Please don’t use any other email address or leave a comment on a social media platform.] We’ll draw names from that hat and also create a reserve list in case of dropouts.

But first we have the March event! We have four, count ’em, FOUR (4) poets and one (1) fantastic musical group.

Sunday 26 March 2017
7pm (doors open at 630pm or a bit later, depending on prior events in the space)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)
Please be there in plenty of time to get a seat. Unfortunately, fire regulations mean we have to turn people away if the room becomes overcrowded.

Main poet: ALAN SPENCE

Alan Spence is an award-winning poet and playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He is Professor Emeritus in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen, where he founded the WORD Festival. With his wife, he runs the Sri Chinmoy meditation centre in Edinburgh. His most recent books are the novel Night Boat, the poetry collection Morning Glory (with Elizabeth Blackadder), and the playscript No Nothing.

Shore Poets: HAMISH WHYTE and FRANK GLYNN

The Shore Poet spot this month will be filled by twice the usual number of Shore Poets.

Hamish Whyte runs Mariscat Press, is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, and plays percussion in the band The Whole Shebang. Two collections of poems, A Bird in the Hand and The Unswung Axe, have been published by Shoestring Press. In 2007 he was a joint Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow with Diana Hendry. A pamphlet, Hannah, Are You Listening?, was published by HappenStance in 2013.

Frank Glynn has been writing poetry and prose for many years, with several novels in his drawer. He plays violin and viola in several ensembles around Edinburgh, in The Whole Shebang, in Holm, and in the St Andrew Orchestra. He is the music facilitator for Shore Poets.

New poet: KATE HENDRY

Kate Hendry’s first collection of poems, The Lost Original, was published by HappenStance Press last year. The Glasgow Review of Books described it as a collection of ‘deeply affecting poems that take the familiar and the everyday, and turn them into something new, something profound, and often something unsettling.’ She spent many years teaching in prisons, followed by stints at Edinburgh Napier and the National Library of Scotland. She now teaches English in a secondary school and runs the monthly Nothing But the Poem reading groups at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Music by IT & THEM

It & Them have been playing together since 2012, originally through Edinburgh College Traditional Ensemble. They play a variety of well-known folk music from Scotland and Ireland with a few obscure tunes thrown in the mix. The trio consists of Fiddle (Leona McNab), Clarsach (Sam Macadam), and Guitar (Nathaniel Haas). For more music from them, check out facebook.com/itandthem or soundcloud.com/it-them.

We hope to see you on 26th March!

Useful information:

1) we have a mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is likely only going to be for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’.

2) we have a new email address; the old one will not forward anything to the new one, though there should be an auto-reply. That new address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is: shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com

3) Dates for your diary: the final Shore Poets events of the 2016-17 season will be 30 April, 28 May, and 25 June 2017.

In January, we crowned Tim Craven the Quiet Slam 2017 champion! Congratulations to Tim and thanks to all our slammers and our musicians for being so entertaining. Now we’re going back to our usual kind of event, but we still vow to be entertaining.

Sunday 26 February 2017
7pm (doors open 630pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)
Please be there in plenty of time to get a seat. Unfortunately, fire regulations mean we have to turn people away if the room becomes overcrowded.

We have three great poets and one fantastic musician:

Main poet: KEVIN CADWALLENDER

Kevin is a widely published poet, as well as a well-known spoken word performer. He was Scottish National Slam Champion 2012, and was shortlisted for a Sony Award and a Clarion Award for the BBC Radio 4 programme Voyages. He organised 10RED (a night of spoken word), is Edinburgh producer for the podcast 10RED Out Loud, and has edited various magazines and many anthologies. He’s creative editor at House of 3 Press.

Shore Poet: IAN MCDONOUGH

Ian McDonough was brought up in Brora on the East Coast of Sutherland, and began to be interested in literature in school when he was made to clear out a book cupboard as a punishment for insubordination. His first full-length poetry collection was shortlisted for Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year, and his latest collection, A Witch Among The Gooseberries (Mariscat, 2014) was runner-up for the 2015 Callum Macdonald Memorial Award.

New poet: JAY WHITTAKER

Jay Whittaker has lived and worked in Edinburgh for over 20 years. Her pamphlet Pearl was published in 2005 (Selkirk Lapwing Press) and poems have been published in Envoi, Brittle Star, The Frogmore Papers, Orbis, and The Interpreter’s House. She was shortlisted for a Scottish New Writers 2016 Award and the 2016 Bridport Poetry Prize. She is a member of Edinburgh’s Other Writers. Her first full length collection, Wristwatch, comes out in autumn 2017 (Cinnamon Press).

Music by CERA IMPALA

Cera Impala is a wild banjo-wielding mama from the USA who has toured internationally. A magnetic songsmith she has a voice both timeless and unique and she performs with relaxed charm, wit, intelligence and passion. Her compositions and lyrics spin genuine and intimate yarns. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays ukelele, guitar, and her very own brand of hard-driving clawhammer banjo.

We hope to see you on 26th February!

Useful information:

1) we have a mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is likely only going to be for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’.

2) we have a new email address; the old one will not forward anything to the new one, though there should be an auto-reply. That new address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is: shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com

3) Date for your diary: the March event will be Sunday 26 March 2017.

We’ll soon be looking for performers for our Open Mic night, which is coming up in April. Keep an eye on this website, or join our mailing list to get information!

Sunday 29th January 2017
7pm (doors open 630pm – but we may not be able to go upstairs immediately)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane,
Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Admission: £5 (concessions £3)

Happy new year! Once more, it’s time for our Quiet Slam! (Or our ‘Quite Slam’ if you type too quickly and forget to proofread.)

Ten poets will entertain you, but they will also be judged and there can only be one (winner).

What’s the format?
Each of our ten poets will perform twice. We’ll have a first round, in which each poet will read for 2 minutes. After a break there’ll be a second round, and each poet will read again – this time for 2.5 minutes. This gives each poet two chances to wow our judging panel and entertain you, our audience! The three highest-scoring poets will go into a final, where they’ll read for three whole minutes. The winner of the slam will read one final poem.

We’ll also have a feature set from last year’s winner Russell Jones, our usual lovely music, and our raffle, so you’ll still get the chance to win the infamous lemon cake and support Shore Poets. (Thank you for your support.)

What’s a quiet slam?
A quiet slam is a competitive poetry event where loudness is not necessarily a virtue. (Have you been to a not-quiet slam? It is usually very loud. We don’t mind loudness, and indeed one of our judges is publicly known for being a Loud Poet, but we like to offer something different.) Participants won’t be marked down for speaking softly, reading from paper, or being nervous. We also like to encourage new slammers to take part. Finally, judges will score participants on the quality of their poem and the quality of their performance, not for the loudness of the audience response. Some poems just don’t lend themselves to whooping, you know?

What if I want to perform in the slam?
I’m afraid we are no longer accepting entries. Please keep your eyes peeled for the Open Night callout.

MUSICIANS: The Fraser Sharp Trio

The Fraser Sharp Trio play early standards to contemporary jazz. They are three students who have emerged from the increasingly successful music programme at Heriot Watt University. This will be their debut performance.

We will not have a wildcard spot this month.

We hope to see you at our Quiet Slam! Those details again:

Sunday 29th January 2017
7pm (doors open 630pm)
Oh! Outhouse, 12a Broughton Street Lane,
Edinburgh, EH1 3LY

Useful information:

1) we have a new mailing list, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance: just click right here and fill in the few bits of information. This is likely only going to be for event notifications and things like ‘looking for slam/open night participants’.

2) we have a new-ish email address; the old one will not forward anything to the new one, so if you emailed us there and never received a reply, unfortunately that’s probably why. That new address (take out spaces on either side of the @) is: shorepoetsedinburgh @ gmail.com

3) Date for your diary: the next event will be Sunday 26 February 2017.

You can also join us at our Facebook group.

Readings by mainly Scottish poets on the last Sunday of every month

(Photo credit)