The wide corridors seem all the more expansive, empty as they now are. I cannot fathom why they made them so wide and so long. I sit on a wooden bench and lean against the wall and stare off into the distance. My thoughts are blind, difficult and abstract but they seem to want to Read More
Zadie Smith is no stranger to a literary award shortlist, but her fifth novel, Swing Time, is a particularly intriguing nominee for this year’s Man Booker Prize. Skilfully tackling complex issues of race, class and identity, Swing Time firstly gives us an honest and engaging insight into these subjects through the eyes of a seven-year-old Read More
With the release of the 2017 Man Booker Prize shortlist thoughts must turn not only to the books listed but to the prize itself. Amongst the myriad of book prizes from local to global, from first novels to specific genres, why does this one stand out? How was this prize was inaugurated? British literary prizes Read More
[…] and when I enter the black grey waves, bobbing and bouncing, this emptiness inside me is the buoyancy, it keeps me up. Turbulent, cleansing, and uplifting. Dani Gill’s debut collection, After Love, is the textual equivalent of open water, purifying as it immerses. Serving as a kind of therapeutic act, the poet uses the Read More
life has become a postman each day dropping more envelopes of bad news through the letter box on which the name and address are never not yours. Bad News Good News Bad News is a contemporary poetry collection from Edward O’Dwyer all about contemporary living ‒ specifically, everything that’s wrong with it. O’Dwyer’s poetry focuses Read More
The film’s opening title scrawls the word “Mother’” across the screen, the “!” added as an afterthought. The script is handwritten, scrappy and artistic, the accompanying sound effect, sharp and abrasive. If such a perfect microcosm ever presented itself so early in another film, I can’t think of it. Aronofsky’s latest film addresses themes that Read More
Clive James’ name suffices as its own introduction; with Poetry Notebook the Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist excels again. Following his two most recent collections (Sentenced to Life and Injury Time) this was a moving, educating and stimulating read. James, as usual, writes with witty relish which both motivates and challenges in Read More
Already from the south I heard them weeks ago creaking above me through the air at dusk – and then the cold. Eighteen below, each pond a cataract of ice. Where did they go? Read More
It’s a pity Ross Hair’s Avant-Folk is aimed at the academic market-place – pricing it off the bookshelves for most of us – as there’s so much of interest and relevance to Scottish writers and readers. Hair examines the inter-connections and shared sensibilities of poet-artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Thomas A. Clark, Lorine Niedecker, Simon Cutts Read More
Visitors entering through the main foyer may well have their attention caught by the major Pictish cross-slab, the St Madoes Stone, or by the delicately embroidered butterflies in glass cases, before they notice the unexpected large black steel arachnid on the wall above eye level. This is placed above the entrance to the Louise Bourgeois Read More