Happy February, friends! Thankfully, winter is nearly over, and Spring is coming. To celebrate, we have a massive event for you this month, with lots of special happenings. Have a look!

SHORE POETS: FEBRUARY
Henderson’s at St John’s, Lothian Road, Edinburgh
7.45 pm to 10.00 pm
Sunday 23rd February 2014
Bar from 7.15pm
Admission £5 / Concessions £3

Our headline poets (no Shore Poet slot this month!) are Diana Hendry and Stewart Conn. Stewart Conn is one of Scotland’s leading poets. He was born in Glasgow but has lived in Edinburgh since 1977, where until 1992 he was head of radio drama for BBC Scotland. He was Edinburgh’s first Makar, or Poet Laureate, 2002-2005. His collection The Breakfast Room (2010) won the SMIT Book Awards Poetry Book of the Year. His most recent publication is Estuary (Mariscat Press 2012) and The Touch of Time: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming next month from Bloodaxe Books. He is Honorary President of Shore Poets.

Diana Hendry is an Honorary member of Shore Poets. She has published five collections of poems. Her latest, published last year, is The Seed-box Lantern: New & Selected Poems (Mariscat Press). She has also written over forty books for children, including Harvey Angell, which won a Whitbread Award, and recently The Seeing, which was shortlisted for the Costa Prize.
She has been Writer in Residence at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Edinburgh University. She lives in Edinburgh.

In a change to our original billing, our new poet will now be Lesley Glaister. Lesley is well-known for her fiction writing, but has only recently begun to compose poetry. The Shore Poets feel privileged to offer her a first-ever poetry reading slot in Edinburgh. We hope lots of you will come and help us to welcome her.
We hope that William Letford, originally billed as our new poet for the month, will join us sometime in the 2014/15 season.

This month we will also be presenting the Mark Ogle Memorial Award to Meg Bateman. Meg Bateman was born in 1959 in Edinburgh, studied Gaelic at the University of Aberdeen, and holds a PhD in Classical Gaelic religious poetry. Her first collection, Òrain Ghaoil / Amhráin Grá was published, with facing Irish translations by Alex Osborne, in 1990. In English, the title is “Love Songs.” Poems from Òrain Ghaoil were republished in Aotromachd agus Dàin Eile in 1997. Meg’s third collection, Soirbheas, was published in 2007. She lives in Skye with her son and teaches at the Gaelic college, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

We’ll have live music this month from Holm. Holm is Frank Glynn (violin/viola) and Stewart Veitch (electric guitar). They are an eclectic duo who play arrangements of music by Ron Sexsmith, Charlie Haden, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, Elvis Costello and Hildegard of Bingen among others, as well as their own compositions. They have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HolmDuo

As usual, we’ll also have our two wildcard slots up for grabs, where YOU can read alongside this amazing line-up! Just bring a poem you’d like to perform, put your name in the hat when you arrive at the door, and wait to see if your name is picked!

All topped off by our delicious lemon cake raffle.

See you there!

Henderson’s at St John’s, Lothian Road, Edinburgh
7.45 pm to 10.00 pm
Sunday 23rd February 2014
Bar from 7.15pm
Admission £5 / Concessions £3

Let us know you’re coming at our Facebook event!

If you would like to receive regular news about our poetry events, send e-mail to: newsletter (at) shorepoets.org.uk

You can also join us at our Facebook group.

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