‘where and who we are’: two pamphlets

Vietnamese-born writer Ngan Nguyen’s lines (from How Do We Talk About Knives) speaks to some of the underlying and important questions about identity and acceptance explored in these two very different short collections. Published by two vibrant independent Scottish publishers, the quality of the content and the uncompromising editorial and aesthetic standards shine a real beam of light in these difficult times for print collections, times that are in truth never easy anyway for small poetry presses. Bravo to both Red Squirrel and Matecznik for bucking the problematic trend….

When The Whooper Swans Came

This is the poet’s first collection, Perthshire-based Picton Smith and it comes with considerable verse credentials, already having been long-listed in the National Poetry Competition, commended in the Hippocrates Prize, and placed second in the Neil Gunn Writing Competition; she also holds a PhD in Contemporary Scottish Poetry.  When The Whooper Swans Came demonstrates what a pamphlet can achieve. This is a taut beauty, flensed of flab, an example of less being more, with the promise of a great deal yet to come.

Clyack

There is a warmth that emanates from the pages of Sheila Templeton’s eclectic collection of remembering, intimate reminiscences that span a lifetime, taking in a whole generation of perspectives. Clyack is a passage through life that can be enjoyed from cover to cover or, like the recollections explored and shared, as memories that surface in the mind, singular and unexpected though inextricably linked.

Avanti!

Tim Turnbull’s writing seems oddly familiar – and not just because we share a surname. His work evokes the sense within us that there is something more to our lives than the simple 9 to 5 routine. Avanti!, his fourth poetry collection, presents many Turnbull-esque qualities, for example he focuses on ‘adult lives blighted by Read More

Juke Box Jeopardy

The first thing one notices upon picking up Brian Johnstone’s latest poetry collection, Juke Box Jeopardy, is the binding. The pamphlet comes in a brightly coloured sleeve, like a record. It’s a promise that you have picked up something unique, maybe even fun. And Johnstone delivers. As the title and sleeve suggest, this is a Read More

A Melody Of Sorts

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

The Night I Danced With Maya

I have one simple expectation of every poetry collection that I’ve ever read or will read: that each poem will connect with others towards a cohesive whole. You can imagine my hesitation when four poems in I realised that Colin Will’s The Night I Danced With Maya failed to meet my criteria. Or did it? Read More

A Beginner’s Guide to Cheating

Not for Andy Jackson the esoteric or the pastoral lark ascending, it is realism that is essential to his work. Jackson has been published in a wide range of magazines and periodicals and had his first collection, The Assassination Museum, published in 2010, also by Red Squirrel Press. In this his second collection, Jackson takes Read More

Grown Up

Fresh from his win in the Edinburgh Fringe Slam Poetry final in 2015, Scott Tyrell’s momentum shows little signs of halting any time soon. The poet’s recent collection of poems, Grown Up, can only be described as a comedic satire on domestic life, follows the poet’s personal progression from cynical lost soul to grounded family Read More

The Facebook of the Dead

Valerie Laws, in the title pages of this poetry collection, is described as “Poet, crime novelist, performer, playwright, Writer-in Residence at science institutes, sci-art installation specialist, mathematician.” Phew! Like many other writers and artists, Laws clearly has her fingers in many different creative pies; this is very much in evidence in the varied subject matter Read More