The Book Launch of Jim Stewart’s THIS

The very moving book launch of Jim Stewart's THIS, 14 November 2018 @ Toppings, St Andrews. The collection is posthumously published by The Voyage Out Press. Readings of his poems are by Beth McDonough, Alan Jackson, Marion Wynne Davies, Marilla Flogdell, Sue Haigh, Emma Sutton, Dawn Wood and Jane Goldman (colleagues, former students and family), Read More

To an Unknown Shore

To an Unknown Shore is a collection of last poems by Theodore Enslin, the prolific, American avant-garde poet, who died in 2011. On the back cover he’s quoted as saying ‘I like to be considered as a composer who happens to use words instead of notes.’ His experience shows not only in the way he Read More

The Middle o’ Nowhere—a Bothy Haunting

Imagine the socio-political-economic texture of Scotland as an enormous loch. Writer, songwriter, and actor Gary Robertson has placed stepping stones on its sometimes placid, often roiling surface for his audience to skip across in his latest production. The play, raucous and gentle, threatening and comfortable, has the feel of an adult pantomime. Although Robertson touches Read More

Illuminations

  Arthur Rimbaud, eminent French poet of the late 19th Century, precocious in his genius and revolutionary in his poetic considerations, was a defining figure of Symbolist and early Surrealist movements. This volume is a reissue of the masterful translation by John Ashbery, considered one of the greatest American poets of the 20th Century, having Read More

Randomer

Randomer is Colm Keegan’s second collection of poetry; his first, Don’t Go There was released to critical acclaim in 2012. Shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writer Award four times, he won the All Ireland Poetry Slam in 2010. Perhaps that’s not surprising as from a young age Keegan liked reading out loud. In interviews Read More

Killing and Dying

Killing and Dying, the latest comics anthology from Adrian Tomine is a collection of well-crafted shorts that  reflect on modern life with dark wit but also poignant humanity.   The collection comprises six stories, all of which work well both alone and in tandem with each other. Longer works are followed by shorter pieces. ‘Amber Read More

I Am Not Okay With This

‘Dear Diary, go fuck yourself’ opens I Am Not Okay With This, author and artist Charles Forsman’s latest graphic novel, a line that made me laugh with its direct belligerence. An opening like this, coupled with the comic’s cartoon art style  – reminiscent to me of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work – lured me into expecting Read More