When a new poetry collection has gained as much accolade as this second collection by Ishion Hutchinson, we can assume it’s something special. The title seems to refer to both highs and lows in his own life, high and low cultures, from the mythology of the Greeks to the Jamaican classroom of his childhood, and Read More
Ulsterman Jon Plunkett is both a poet and the impetus behind Perthshire’s Corbenic Poetry Path, an inspiring stroll through beautiful moorland and forest to the accompaniment of wayside poetry and poetic fragments carved into wood, stone and glass. His first full collection takes something of the wind-blown spirit of Corbenic, but adds the warmth and Read More
‘It is monumental, more than the sum of its parts.’ (Christine De Luca) We are faced less with ‘how do you solve a problem like Maria?’, more how do you define a Titan like Paolozzi? If you can, how then do you celebrate his extraordinary legacy? Sculptor, collage-artist, printmaker, mosaicist, teacher. Collaborator with scientists. Activist. Read More
Errington’s debut collection comes as a tight, coarse publication, 18 poems across 21 pages, buzzing with energy from cover to cover. The work sits astride the writer’s recently completed PhD at the University of St Andrews, arguing that a poem’s meaning is ‘co-created’ between the text and the reader themselves. In his poetry, Errington’s objective Read More
Arthur Miller’s post-war family drama, All My Sons is not the first time the Dundee Rep Ensemble has taken on work by the American playwright. Their 2017 production of Death of a Salesman was widely praised and this their second stab at a Miller play is another success. However, Miller’s play is a first for Read More
(UK/Ireland, 2019) 08-21 February, DCA Burning is the sixth feature film by South Korean director, screenwriter, and producer Lee Chang-Dong after his critically acclaimed 2010 feature Poetry. Based on the short story Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami, the film follows Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), a lazy aspiring writer who spends his days hazily going through Read More
Utilising the Rare Books Collection and the manuscripts held in the Archive Collections (University of Dundee), this trove of disparate pieces is a fine example of the different ways that creative writers find answers to a common challenge. Fragments of ancient text with wonderfully obsolescent language, books on anatomy with archaic text and exquisite artwork, tomes Read More
Passing over the delicate blooms, looking radiant in its flight, the blue monarch lands on a honeysuckle, the air filled by the aroma. Serene, it pauses for a moment before it flutters again. Undecided, it glides onto another bloom, this time a rose. The rose – ivory and silky disguises an ominous secret. Looking angelic, Read More
Forwards opening, backwards closing desire widening, hours leaking, words as poems, poems as prayers: time home love. So many ways of seeing the forward thrust of desire, the steady backward tug of time, beating, knowing, not knowing. © Geraldine Gould From A Cabinet of Curiosities: Reimagining Rare Books. A disparate trove of pieces created by students of Read More
With an osprey on his back, in full flyte, and looking as if he might leave: an abruption in nature. Instead, offering further anecdotes, he crosses over into other territories not covered by his map of words; accosting a soldier with questions of how it feels to kill. The osprey on my own back surges Read More