Eggplant.place

253d

Moscow is milling with watermelons.
Everything breathes a boundless freedom.
And it blows with unbridled fierceness
from the breathless melonvendors…

“Commended as a Russian translator… for his rendering of Mayakovsky into Scots, Morgan gets the muscles of the English language working with similar vigour in his treatment of Voznesensky”

—Carol Rumens on Edwin Morgan’s translation of Andrei Voznesensky

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/26/poem-of-the-week-selling-watermelons-by-andrei-voznesensky-translated-by-edwin-morgan

#Scottish #literature #translation #Russian #poem #poetry

Selling Watermelons
by Andrei Voznesensky
translated by Edwin Morgan

Moscow is milling with watermelons.
Everything breathes a boundless freedom.
And it blows with unbridled fierceness
from the breathless melonvendors.

Stalls. Din. Girls’ headscarves.
They laugh. Change bangs down. Knives —

and a choice sample slice.
— Take one, chief, for a long life!
Who’s for a melon?
Freshly split! —

And just as tasty and just as juicy are
the capbands of policemen
and the ranks of motor-scooters.
The September air is fresh and keen
and resonant as a watermelon.

And just as joyfully on its own tack
as the city-limit melon-multitudes,
the earth swings in its great string-bag
of meridians and latitudes!

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241d

Died this Day:

Murray Leinster (June 16, 1896 – June 8, 1975), an American writer of science fiction. He is best known for “First Contact,” which won the 1996 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Leinster also won the 1956 Hugo Award for “Exploration Team” and is honored by the Sidewise Award, named after his story “Sidewise in Time”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Leinster
#Literature
#SciFi
#ScienceFiction
#books
#bookstodon
#coverart
#MurrayLeinster

Groups:
@books
@scifi
@Scifiart
@sciencefiction

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237d

We are all Mrs Dalloway now

For Virginia Woolf, stream of consciousness was a method. Now, it’s a way of life.

By George Monaghan

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2025/06/we-are-all-mrs-dalloway-now

Mrs. Dalloway at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71865

#books #literature

First edition dust jacket of Mrs. Dalloway, 1925; cover art by Vanessa Bell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Dalloway#/media/File:Mrs._Dalloway_cover.jpg

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240d

Why H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” Is a Timely Warning to the World

Wells turned the future around in his novel.

https://www.thecollector.com/hg-wells-time-machine-eternal-timeliness/

Books by H. G. Wells at PG

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=h.+g.+wells

Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 by Edward Bellamy at PG

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/624

#books #literature #sciencefiction

Cover of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells with a sphinx.

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252d

#OTD The Irish writer and poet Thomas Moore was born in 1779. He was "widely regarded in the late Georgian era as Ireland's "national bard."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Moore

Thomas Moore at PG

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2185

#books #poetry #literature

Painting of Thomas Moore by Thomas Lawrence.

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230d

Pink sand and sandpipers pink in the setting
sun and pink granite and the pink swirl
of green waves…

—“Camas Tuath”, by poet, playwright & novelist Tom Buchan (1931–1995) – born #OTD, 19 June

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/camas-tuath/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury

Camas Tuath
Tom Buchan

Pink sand and sandpipers pink in the setting
sun and pink granite and the pink swirl
of green waves: no mediterranean relics
here, no ruined amphitheatres, no amphorae,

no half-submerged statuary – only the
children’s wet sand-pies and a standing
stone, a druidic lingam standing for nothing
anyone knows about nowadays, a stony

finger, green with years, specific of an idea
which was no doubt straight, strong and complex
once, but is now obliterated by the hysterical
cries of children and the birds’ pink squealing.

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252d

Into perplexity: as an itch chased round
an oxter or early man in the cave mouth
watching rain-drifts pour from beyond

his understanding…

—“The Beautiful”, by Roddy Lumsden (1966–2020) – born #OTD, 28 May. A 🎂 🧵
Published in POETRY magazine, Dec 2008

1/5

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51938/the-beautiful

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #RoddyLumsden

The Beautiful
by Roddy Lumsden

Into perplexity: as an itch chased round
an oxter or early man in the cave mouth
watching rain-drifts pour from beyond

his understanding. Whether to admire
the mere sensation, enough, or hold out
for sweeter ornament, vessels of wonder

born with that ur-charm of symmetry;
lovely ones we ache to prize and praise,
climb into and become because they try

our day-by-day significance: some of us
ugly and most of us plain, walked past
in the drowned streets: pearls of paste,

salted butter, secondary colors. They
drift unapproached, gazed never-selves,
blunt paragons of genetic industry. We

desire them but cannot want such order.
We stand, mouths open, and cannot help
stammering our secrets, nailed to water.

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240d

"Writers are so much braver than any other artist," says Georgia Riordan in our latest newsletter, featuring thoughts from our interns.

Find out why she thinks so:

https://newdoorbooks.net/so/7fPTLaOoC?languageTag=en

#WritingCommunity #bookswithheart #Literature

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239d

CFP: Foreclosure
a Special Issue of Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism

Theorising foreclosure in relation to British cultural production since 1960. The editors seek contributions on literary imagination, questions of genre & form, interpretive practices, & material conditions of cultural production

Deadline 18 July

@litstudies

https://raymondwilliams.co.uk/2025/06/09/call-for-contributors-foreclosure-a-special-issue-of-key-words-a-journal-of-cultural-materialism/

#Scottish #English #Welsh #Ulster #literature #Literarystudies #CulturalStudies

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251d

Aminatta Forna: Creative Conversations X UBelong
16 June, free online

A conversation with Aminatta Forna, award-winning author of the essay collection THE WINDOW SEAT: Notes from a Life in Motion, & more.

This event is part of the Building Solidarity & Kinship programme curated by Esraa Husain at the Refugee Festival Scotland 2025, developed in partnership with Creative Conversations and U Belong Glasgow.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aminatta-forna-creative-conversations-x-ubelong-tickets-1387176776079

#Scottish #literature #solidarity #kinship #war #trauma

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239d

‘Who controls the present controls the past’: What Orwell’s ‘1984’ explains about the twisting of history to control the public

by Laura Beers

https://theconversation.com/who-controls-the-present-controls-the-past-what-orwells-1984-explains-about-the-twisting-of-history-to-control-the-public-257798

Dystopias at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/3316

#book #literature

Picture of George Orwell which appears in an old accreditation for the BNUJ.

Orwell is shown from the shoulders up, facing slightly to his lef. His dark hair is neatly combed back, and he wears a collared shirt, possibly with a tie visible beneath a jacket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#/media/File:George_Orwell_press_photo.jpg

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251d

The Long Shadow of Scottish Gothic
31 July, Glasgow
Tickets £13.44

From ‘Tam o Shanter’ through Jekyll & Hyde to Alasdair Gray & Muriel Spark, the Gothic has a vicelike grip on the Scottish imagination. Dr Valentina Bold & Prof Liam McIlvanney discuss Liam’s new psychological thriller THE GOOD FATHER, the enduring appeal of Scottish Gothic, & our fascination with the dark side

https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/the-long-shadow-of-scottish-gothic-liam-mcilvanney

#Scottish #literature #gothic #RobertBurns #RobertLouisStevenson #AlasdairGray #MurielSpark

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251d

33 Colorized Photos From The Harlem Renaissance That Capture This Transformative Era

The Harlem Renaissance lasted from 1910 to 1930.

By Austin Harvey

https://allthatsinteresting.com/harlem-renaissance-colorizations

At PG: "Fire!!: A Quarterly Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists, Volume 1, Number 1" is a collection of works from some of the most influential artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Unfortunately, only one issue was ever published.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71448

#culture #literature #art

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251d

Finding Your Way Into Writing Fiction as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Grandson

Simon Tolkien on the Double-Edged Sword of a Mighty Literary Inheritance

https://lithub.com/finding-your-way-into-writing-fiction-as-j-r-r-tolkiens-grandson/

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

#books #literature

Photograph of J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1920s on leaving Leeds University.

Tolkien appears clean-shaven, and neatly dressed in formal, early 20th-century attire. He typically wears a suit and tie.

Unknown photo studio commissioned by Tolkien's students 1925/6 (private communication from Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist, Bodleian Library) - Epistle of Dude, Photos from the lives of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, probably originally sourced from John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien#/media/File:J._R._R._Tolkien,_ca._1925.jpg

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239d

“It didn’t occur to me for about five or six years after leaving school that literature was something I could be involved in. Then I discovered it was possible to write stories myself…”

—an extract from James Kelman on “Elitism & English Literature”, from a book I’m currently typesetting

#Scottish #literature #workingclass #writers #writing #JamesKelman #elitism

It didn’t occur to me for about five or six years after leaving school that literature was something I could be involved in. Then I discovered it was possible to write stories myself, I just had to go out and buy a couple of reliable ball-point pens and a good-sized notebook. I could even write stories about ordinary people if I wanted to. There wasn’t anybody going to stop me by using physical force. After that I found out there were other people in this country also doing such things, and there were other people who had been doing such things for a couple of hundred years. It was just that nobody in any of the positions of power in society had got round to telling me.

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251d

Kerri Andrews & Merryn Glover in conversation about Nan Shepherd
11 June, Pitlochry Festival Theatre – £3

Authors Dr Kerri Andrews & Merryn Glover discuss how Nan Shepherd has inspired their own walking & writing, followed by a book-signing & the matinee performance of Nan Shepherd: Naked & Unashamed

https://www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com/whats-on/merryn-glover-and-kerri-andrews-in-conversation/

#Scottish #literature #NanShepherd #walking #hillwalking #womenwriters

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238d

Helen Craik (1751–1825), Gothic novelist & friend of Robert Burns, died 200 years ago #OTD, 11 June. Craik published 5 novels but no poetry. In 1919, excerpts of her poems appeared in a newspaper, but the source – a notebook Craik presented to a family friend – disappeared…

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#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #poetry #Gothic #WomenWriters #manuscripts

A manuscript page, headed

Poems
by
A LADY

Underneath is a paragraph in ornate copperplate handwriting (it's from Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, by Mr Yorick, vol. II):

Dear sensibility! source inexhausted of all that’s precious in our Joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw—and ’tis thou who lifts him up to Heaven—Eternal fountain of our feelings, ’tis here I trace thee.—

Below is a drawing of a curly-haired cherub's face, with wings made of looping pen-strokes.

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238d

Cents and Sensibility by Sandra Cisneros

How does a woman writer make her own money? How does she find the time to write?

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/06/10/cents-and-sensibility/

Sense and Sensibilty at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/161
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21839

#books #literature

In ch. 9 of Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen Novel) Willoughby comes to Marianne rescue, and carries her home.

The picture depicts a dramatic and emotionally charged moment from Chapter 9 of Sense and Sensibility. In the scene, John Willoughby, a dashing young man with a commanding presence, is shown mid-action, carrying Marianne in his arms with care and urgency. His expression is intense yet gentle. Marianne, in a flowing Regency dress, appears pale and vulnerable, her arm loosely around his shoulder.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Sands-brock-06.jpg

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238d

Afro-Scottish Poetry Event 2025
25 July, Glasgow. Tickets £0–£10

A multicultural evening of poetry, music, & storytelling that celebrates African & Scottish identities through powerful performances. Created & curated by Chisom Okoronkwo with U Belong Glasgow

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/afro-scottish-poetry-event-2025-tickets-1396145632169

#Scottish #literature #African #poetry #storytelling #performance #identity #Glasgow

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180d

Twa Cats anes on a Cheese did light,
To which baith had an equal Right,
But Disputes, sic as aft arise,
Fell out at sharing of the Prize…

—Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), “The twa Cats & the Cheese”
via the National Library of Scotland
😾😾🧀🐵

An 18th-century Scots poem for International Cat Day

https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105690319

#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #poem #18thcentury #law #legal #humor #humour #InternationalCatDay

The twa Cats and the Cheese
Fable IX
by Allan Ramsay

Twa Cats anes on a Cheese did light,
To which baith had an equal Right,
But Disputes, sic as aft arise,
Fell out at sharing of the Prize;
Fair Play said ane, Ye bite o’er thick
Thae Teeth of yours gang wonder quick:
Let’s part it, else lang or the Moon
Be chang’d, the Kebuck will be done.

ALT

But wha’s to do’t,—They’re Parties baith,
And ane may do the other Skaith,
Sae with Consent away they trudge,
And laid the Cheese before a Judge,
A Monkey with a campsho Face,
Clerk to a Justice of the Peace,
A Judge he seem’d in Justice skill’d,
When he his Master’s Chair fill’d;
Now Umpire chosen for Division,
Baith sware to stand by his Decision.
Demure he looks.—The Cheese he pales,—
He prives it good,—Ca’s for the Scales,
His Knife whops throw’t,—In twa it fell,
He puts ilk Haff in either Shell;
Said he, We’ll truly weigh the Case,
And strickest Justice shall have Place,
Then lifting up the Scales, he fand
The tane bang up, the ither stand;
Syne out he took the heaviest Haff,
And ate a Knoost o’t quickly aff,
And try’d it syne,—It now prov’d light,
Friend Cats, said he, We’ll do ye right.
Then to the ither Haff he fell,
And laid till’t teughly Tooth and Nail,
Till weigh’d again it lightest prov’d:
The Judge wha this sweet Process lov’d,
Still weigh’d the Case, and still ate on,
Till Clients baith were weary grown,

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And tenting how the Matter went,
Cry’d, Come, come Sir, We’re baith content.
Ye Fools, quoth he, and Justice too
Maun be content as well as you.
Thus grumbled they, thus he went on,
Till baith the Haves were near hand done;
Poor Pousies now the Daffine saw
Of gawn for Nignyes to the Law:
And bill’d the Judge that he wad please
To give them the remaining Cheese:
To which his Worship grave reply’d,
The Dues of Court maun first be paid.
Now Justice pleas’d,—What’s to the Fore
Will but right scrimply clear your Score;
That’s our Decreet,—Gae Hame and Sleep,
And thank us ye’re win aff sae cheap.

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237d

The wisdom of surrender

Samuel Beckett turned an obscure 17th-century Christian heresy into an artistic vision and an unusual personal philosophy

by Andy Wimbush

https://aeon.co/essays/how-samuel-beckett-sought-salvation-in-the-midst-of-suffering?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8829cb6bbe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_06_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

#books #literature #philosophy

Photo of Samuel Beckett in 1977.

His hair is silver-gray, brushed back or tousled, and his eyes are intense, often staring directly into the camera or cast down in thought.

The expression is contemplative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett#/media/File:Samuel_Beckett,_Pic,_1_(cropped).jpg

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213d

Sweet-Smelling Lies

We are discreet sheep, says Mark Twain.

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/freedom/sweet-smelling-lies

The Autobiography of Mark Twain at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=The+Autobiography+of+Mark+Twain

#Books #Literature

A portrait of the American writer Mark Twain taken by A. F. Bradley in New York, 1907.

Twain sits in a three-quarter view, gazing slightly off-camera with a thoughtful, almost pensive look. His trademark bushy white hair and sweeping mustache give him a leonine, distinguished appearance.

He is dressed in his characteristic light-colored white suit, paired with a waistcoat and tie, which became his signature attire in the final decades of his life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#/media/File:Mark_Twain_by_AF_Bradley.jpg

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237d

How Jane Austen Pulled It Off: On Emma

One of Jane Austen’s many mind-bending skills was her ability to wrest so much drama from a world that was, by present-day standards, almost unfathomably static.

By Jennifer Egan

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/06/11/how-jane-austen-pulled-it-off-on-emma/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01JXJ3YQ6CT1ZYTRMRJRX2Q4ZP&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Emma at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/158

#books #literature

Colour illustration of a 1909 edition of Emma (Jane Austen's novel), by C. E. Brock (died 1938).

Emma explains that it was she who planned Miss Taylor's wedding all along.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emma_CE_Brock_1909_Vol_I_chapter_I.jpg

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237d

Christian Isobel Johnstone (1781–1857) – novelist, journalist, & editor – was born #OTD, 12 June.

Johnstone was editor for more than a decade of Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, a journal famous for its vigorous liberal viewpoints & incisive literary reviews, & wrote some of the most remarkable Scottish novels of the #Romantic era.

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https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/christian-isobel-johnstone

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #18thcentury #19thcentury #romanticism

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237d

McGonagall Salon(agall)
24 June, Edinburgh & online – free

The Edinburgh Literary Salon & the International Ghost Society – Edinburgh’s newest & most easily-distracted paranormal investigation society – present an interactive journey through the life & poetic gems of William McGonagall, including a playable big screen RPG, hidden Easter eggs, & a virtual McGonagall experience

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/junes-mcgonagall-salonagall-tickets-1407703903269

#Scottish #literature #poetry #19thcentury #Victorian #Dundee #McGonagall

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