In anticipation of reading Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, I examined a number of other reviews of the collection. Now, having read the work, one of these reviews strikes me as particularly interesting. David Clarke perceives Letter Composed as largely self-obsessed. With regard to the poem “Improvised Explosive Device”, written from the perspective Read More
In her new collection, Louise Gluck writes of originary griefs and joys mediated by memory, in a recovery of aboriginal feeling prior to any intellectualising process. The poetry is open ended and inconclusive; its modes are parabolic, or narrativised, or staged as a prose poem, and the poetic persona she adopts throughout is male, possibly Read More
Vidyan Ravinthiran is a research fellow at Selwyn College, born to Sri Lankan parents , and Grun-tu-molani is his first collection of poetry. This is a large first collection: large in its desire to encompass everything from the poet’s history to the complexities of prose-style. Ravinthiran’s enthusiasm spills off the page but never outstrips the Read More
Liz Berry opens her debut collection, Black Country, with the jubilant line, “When I became a bird, Lord, nothing could not stop me”, and, indeed, she never stops soaring. Themes range from summers of childhood innocence to sex and marriage, all set against Black Country landscapes, history and characters. In these dazzling, sensuous, and utterly Read More
If Kei Miller hasn’t produced a poetry collection since 2010, the intervening years have been anything but unproductive: two marvellous novels, a blog, a doctorate, editing work and a wonderful collection of essays. Yet Miller’s poetic sensibility is special; his ability to suggest a transcendent luminosity in the single line or a small commonplace detail, Read More
DJCAD Master’s Show 2014 18-23 August Mon- Fri 10am- 8pm, Sat& Sun- 10am- 4pm The official course page for the MSC Animation and Visualisation course at DJCAD states that the aim of the programme is to explore “new ways of communication through visual storytelling”. If you have been a follower of the work of the Read More
DJCAD Master’s Show 2014 18-23 August Mon- Fri 10am- 8pm, Sat& Sun- 10am- 4pm Art and Humanities is a course not just about the practical making of art but also the academic thinking and meaning behind it. All of the artists’ works are about an interaction between theory and practice in art. One such Read More
DJCAD Master’s Show 2014 18-23 August Mon- Fri 10am- 8pm, Sat& Sun- 10am- 4pm The MSc programme in Forensic Art exhibition shows the work of four artists, each of whom has used computer-generated facial reconstruction techniques to render life-like, two and three-dimensional facial representations from human skulls. The students’ research projects have been supported and Read More
In 2010, Glasgow-based artists Rob Churm, Raydale Dower and Tony Swain collaborated on Le Drapeau Noir, an exhibition staged for the Glasgow International Festival. In the context of GENERATION – a nationwide programme that celebrates some of the most significant Scottish art from the past 25 years – the trio is brought together again for Read More
“I was bored stiff with it all and the referendum was still weeks away. Other people were starting to get fed up with it as well; the initial excitement had worn off by now, reality had kicked in and people were sick of the hullabaloo. We were being force-fed a diet of political candy floss, Read More