“Slit open, unfolded, written across, and handed over to chance, they reject the asylum offered by the lyric to probe the last privacies of our existence.” The so-called myth of Amherst continues to intrigue and perplex us, nearly 150 years after her death. Emily Dickinson’s reclusive life spanned 55 years, 1,800 distinct poems, 2,357 known Read More
“Is everything made of atoms?” The voice at the other end of the antique dial phone is gentle, pensive, and crackles with soft static. “Even thoughts? If not, what are they made of?” The phone sits on an imposing mahogany desk, beside a mahogany chair, both positioned upon a plush Persian-style rug. Beside the phone Read More
The latest collection of poems from Stevie Ronne is a challenge in its opening sections, but particular rewarding, when it reaches its final, ambitious prose poems. The collection is divided into three sections, “Manifestations”, where some of the more classically styled poems mingle with bold experimental pieces, followed by the epic prose poem “A Night Read More
It’s hard to get past the foreword to this intriguing book of poetry. The foreword – penned by JG Ballard, no less – claims that “Jeremy Reed’s talent is almost extra-terrestrial in its brilliance” and that “No other poet (and very few novelists) has so accurately conveyed the essence of what it is to be Read More
Jim Carruth’s collection, Rider at the Crossing, provides a fairly different style of writing from the Renfrewshire farmer’s usual pastoral concerns. Although not his most recent work, the poems compiled here represent the ever-changing, yet compelling style of Glasgow’s 2014 Laureate. In Rider at the Crossing, the poet examines a darker, more unsettling set of Read More
Whether they aim to make us laugh, to shock or to inspire, we are constantly bombarded with images that promise to improve our lives. This exhibition, however, presents us with images that actually changed lives and offers a visual diary that bookmarks significant social and political moments during the past hundred years. Over seventy original Read More
The phrase “night crawler” evokes nothing pretty – a slang term for a burglar, perhaps, or a prostitute. The only formal definition of its portmanteau version refers to a species of large earthworm, so called for its habit of surfacing at sundown. Fittingly, Nightcrawler the film is something of a creepy-crawly affair as well – Read More
Christopher Nolan’s latest feature is not so much a cinematic blockbuster as it is a meditation on the future of the human race. The director of Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy delivers a celluloid love letter to grand impossible dreams and ideas, coupled with a pioneering spirit. Interstellar is not, however, without its flaws. Read More
It is hard to know where to start with Mortals, as it is a book of epic proportions. Set in Botswana, in the early 1990s as the Cold War is drawing to a close, the novel traverses the innermost thoughts of Ray Finch, a Milton Scholar, secondary school teacher, and bit part CIA operative. Norman Read More
A ghost moon… “You traced its outline, hardly daring to press your fingertip on the chill glass, afraid the sliver of unexpected light might melt to nothing at your touch.” Ron Butlin’s latest novel,Ghost Moon, takes its title from the phenomenon of the daytime moon, first observed by central character Maggie as she pushes her son, Read More