The title of Maggie Sullivan’s second collection is suitably cryptic; the remote suggests detachment as well as control. Sharp, capricious and clever, these poems are interested in process—creative, physical, and political. The opening poem, ”How to build a poem” uses the metaphor of building a wall to demonstrate the creative process: Balance stones, two, three, Read More
More than any of Denise Mina’s work to date, The Red Road is a novel about the past and its ability to haunt the present. Mina’s latest foray into Glaswegian crime and corruption involving Detective Inspector Alex Morrow is a story which begins on the night of Princess Diana’s death. Rose Wilson, a fourteen year Read More
This is an edited transcript of an interview with Denise Mina at the Dundee Literary Festival 25th October 2013. The full audio recording can be heard by clicking HERE. Alex Henry: I am delighted on behalf of DURA as well as the University in general to welcome award-winning writer Denise DM to our interview room here Read More
Drunk on the sun, a day’s excursion to East Neuk’s well-known arts festival – with the Isle of May in the distant background – is an unadulterated pleasure, lulling you into an illusion that “warm days will never cease”. Pittenweem’s distinctive charm lies in its temporary conversion of local cottages into art galleries, in addition Read More
Paul Batchelor has brought together a range of diverse perspectives in Reading Barry MacSweeney which, with its insights about MacSweeney’s life and work, adds much to an understanding of Wolf Tongue, reviewed here on the DURA poetry pages. Contributors include WN Herbert, Harriet Tarlo and MacSweeney’s former partner, SJ Litherland. Batchelor doesn’t flinch from the Read More
First published in 2003, Wolf Tongue has been re-printed by Bloodaxe, complemented by Paul Batchelor’s illuminating book of essays, Reading Barry MacSweeney, also reviewed here on the DURA pages. MacSweeney, a prodigious poet, selected most of the poems for Wolf Tongue before his death in 2000. For much of his life, he was little known, having Read More
On opening Rana Dasgupta’s reflections on Delhi, I wondered which image of the capital I would find among its pages. Would it be that of resplendent Chandni Chowk, buoyed by magnificent Mughal architecture, offering up an array of unmatched cultural experiences? Would it be the city on leafy Sansad Marg, the heart of Indian government for Read More
In a recent online conversation with John Glenday on the subject of poetry editing, Don Paterson confessed to being a notorious re-drafter (ninety variants are not unknown), and fastidious about the ordering of poems in a collection – whilst simultaneously acknowledging that the reader is unlikely to fret much about the outcome. With that in Read More
Sleeping Keys is Jean Sprackland’s third poetry collection. It was published in September of last year, following on from her 2007 Costa Poetry Award winning Tilt. Sleeping Keys “looks back at endings and beginnings” – taking its title from one of the poems that epitomises Londoner Sprackland’s chosen themes. The “obsolete treasure[s]” that are “decommissioned Read More
Sirkka Turkka (b.1939) is widely acknowledged as a major figure in contemporary Finnish poetry. Since her first collection A Room in Space in 1973, she has published some twenty collections to critical acclaim, winning both the Finlandia Prize and the Eino Leino Prize. This collection, A Sure Star in a Moonless Night, has been translated Read More