Eggplant.place

230d

“There’s no conflict in Death Comes for the Archbishop, except for the grinding of tectonic plates, the breaking of treaties, the murder of nations.”

by Patricia Lockwood

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/patricia-lockwood/supersensual-ear?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KMQRP0Q8ZXZ5KZJ37PEDJH14&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Death Comes for the Archbishop at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730

#books #literature #literarycriticism

1st edition cover of Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

The central illustration shows a black silhouette of a robed rider on a rearing horse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop#/media/File:DeathComes_ForTheArchbishop.jpg

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230d

There are some stones that open in the night like flowers
Down in the red graveyard where Bessie haunts her lovers…

—Jackie Kay, “The Red Graveyard”
published in OTHER LOVERS (Bloodaxe, 1993)

Today, 28 March, is International Women in Music Day

https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/jackie-kay

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #music #song #singing #BessieSmith #InternationalWomenInMusicDay

The Red Graveyard
Jackie Kay

There are some stones that open in the night like flowers
Down in the red graveyard where Bessie haunts her lovers.
There are stones that shake and weep in the heart of night
Down in the red graveyard where Bessie haunts her lovers.

Why do I remember the blues?
I am five or six or seven in the back garden;
the window is wide open;
her voice is slow motion through the heavy summer air.
Jelly roll. Kitchen man. Sausage roll. Frying pan.

Inside the house where I used to be myself,
her voice claims the rooms. In the best room even,
something has changed the shape of my silence.
Why do I remember her voice and not my own mother’s?
Why do I remember the blues?

My mother’s voice. What was it like?
A flat stone for skitting. An old rock.
Long long grass. Asphalt. Wind. Hail.
Cotton. Linen. Salt. Treacle.
I think it was a peach.
I heard it down to the ribbed stone.

ALT

I am coming down the stairs in my father’s house.
I am five or six or seven. There is fat thick wallpaper
I always caress, bumping flower into flower.
She is singing. (Did they play anyone else ever?)
My father’s feet tap a shiny beat on the floor.

Christ, my father says, that’s some voice she’s got.
I pick up the record cover. And now. This is slow motion.
My hand swoops, glides, swoops again.
I pick up the cover and my fingers are all over her face.
Her black face. Her magnificent black face.
That’s some voice. His shoes dancing on the floor.

There are some stones that open in the night like flowers
Down in the red graveyard where Bessie haunts her lovers.
There are stones that shake and weep in the heart of night
Down in the red graveyard where Bessie haunts her lovers.

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230d

“Certain individuals live delusionally, thinking they’re perfect, and so The Delusions was me asking, ‘What if everyone had to face who they really are?’, even if it doesn’t happen in this life but in the next. The only real value you have is your soul.”

—SNACK Magazine interviews Jenni Fagan about her new novel, THE DELUSIONS

@bookstodon

https://snackmag.co.uk/jenni-fagan-the-delusions-souls-complicity-and-instinct-interview

#Scottish #literature #afterlife #novel #womenwriters

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229d

Smoky sky.
In autumn wind
I stroll by the quays
in the last light…

—Edwin Morgan, “Je ne regrette rien: in memory of Edith Piaf”
published in COLLECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2012)

28 March is International Women in Music Day

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781857541885

#Scottish #literature #InternationalWomenInMusicDay #poem #poetry #EdithPiaf #music #singer

Edwin Morgan
Je ne regrette rien
in memory of Edith Piaf

Smoky sky.
In autumn wind
I stroll by the quays
in the last light,
my coat flaps, flaps,
wet chestnut leaves
spatter the Seine.
I glance in a window
and touch my hair, yes
I am tiny as they say,
tiny as a sparrow.
Now the lights come on.
I stand under the lamp,
turn up my collar
in a circle of rain
and wait for you.

It’s all beginning again.
Dead leaves or spring
it comes back, it begins.
How could I struggle?
When you held me, your shoulders
were a wall, I sheltered
in your shadow, it began.
They say I couldn’t count my men –
in thirty years I couldn’t count them!
But who counts years?
Count the years I was blind?
Dandled in a brothel? Taught by whores?
Count the prayers that gave me my sight at Lisieux?
Or the heartbeats of my daughter, in thousands,
when I bore her at fourteen
till she starved and died?
Count the crusts I’ve had, or those I’ve given?
The gutters I’ve sung in, or the great halls?
Count the glasses I’ve drunk? Count the beds
I’ve lain in, the lips I’ve kissed?
I can’t count the surgeons who’ve opened me –
do you think my lovers are in a book?
Do you want me to start counting tears?
Count what? The cost? What cost? I won!

No! let the men that had me go their ways.
I regret nothing, nothing. Some were kind.
But I don’t care if they were kind!
I don’t remember if it was bad.
I don’t keep the past in my pocket.

ALT

I’ve paid for it all, I’ve forgotten it all.
I’ve paid for it all, I’ve forgotten it all.
I strike a match to my memories,
they light a fire and disappear.

I warm my arms tonight
the fire begins
the stars come out
yes it begins
I am forty-five
it begins again
I hear his step
yes it begins
his broad shoulders
glisten through the rain
I can see
the dead cigarette
in his firm mouth
he throws it aside
it begins and
I regret nothing

We sway in the rain,
he crushes my mouth.
What could I regret
if a hundred times
of parting struck me
like lightning if this
lightning of love
can strike and
strike
again!

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203d

RM Ballantyne (1825–1894) was born #OTD, 24 April. Best known today for THE CORAL ISLAND – which influenced Robert Louis Stevenson, JM Barrie, William Golding, & others – he wrote more than 100 books.

In this blog post, National Library of Scotland Curator Graham Hogg introduces Ballantyne’s 1867 novel FIGHTING THE FLAMES: A Tale of the London Fire Brigade

https://blog.nls.uk/curators-favourites-r-m-ballantynes-fighting-the-flames/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #kidlit #ChildrensLiterature #Ballantyne #firefighters #firebrigade

The front cover of a late 19th-century edition of "Fighting the Flames: A Tale of the London Fire Brigade", by R. M. Ballantyne. The faded grey-green cloth cover is printed with flower and foliage in black and brownish-red. Across the centre is an embossed gold rectangle, showing a helmeted fireman descending a ladder through swirls of smoke, carrying the unconscious forms of a woman and a young child. The book's title and author are printed on the gold rectangle, behind the fireman's back.

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203d

Roderick Watson: The Silver of Old Mirrors
27 April, University of Glasgow – free
Creative Conversations with Alan Riach

A poet & academic, Roderick Watson has lectured & published widely on modern Scottish literature & is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His poetry publications include True History on the Walls (1977), Into the Blue Wavelengths (2004), & The Silver of Old Mirrors (2025).

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/roderick-watson-the-silver-of-old-mirrors-creative-conversations-tickets-1987816006185

#Scottish #literature #poetry #Glasgow

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178d

Graphic Novel Recommendation: "Are You Listening?" by Tillie Walden

I’m currently reading this graphic novel while enjoying a few days off before heading back to work, and I’m loving it! It’s a beautifully written story about two women and a cat on a road trip, blended with a touch of magical realism.

@reading
@bookstodon
@comics

#IAmReading #Books #GraphicNovel #Literature #bookstodon #LGBTQ+

A cozy close-up photo of the graphic novel Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden resting on a dark blanket. The book cover features soft pastel colors and illustrations of two characters and a cat, creating a calm and dreamy atmosphere. Foto by Ronja Biernat

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229d

Chalk Scribblers meet the author: Ken MacLeod
1 April, free online

Ken MacLeod’s first novel, The Star Fraction, was published in 1995 and earned him a place among the cohort of British science fiction authors who were gaining prominence at the time. He’s been nominated for every genre award worth being nominated for & he’s won more than a few of them.

Recurring themes in his work include socialist theory & marine zoology.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chalk-scribblers-meet-the-author-ken-macleod-tickets-1984677623197?aff=oddtdtcreator

#Scottish #literature #scifi #Sciencefiction

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203d

Jenni Fagan & Irvine Welsh
28 May, Hay-on-Wye. £16

Celebrate the best of Scottish writing with two giants from the country’s literary scene. Jenni Fagan & Irvine Welsh will explore their own writing, discuss creativity & reflect on modern Scottish literature.

Part of Hay Festival Global 2026

https://www.hayfestival.com/p-25319-jenni-fagan-and-irvine-welsh-talk-to-jude-rogers.aspx

#Scottish #literature #novel #novelists #contemporaryliterature #JenniFagan #IrvineWelsh #HayOnWye #HayFestival

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219d

‘The Queen of the Ghetto’ Gave New York’s Immigrant Community a Voice. A Century Later, It’s Re-emerging

Anzia Yezierska wrote from experience then worked hard to make sure her work found an audience. Then a new audience found her

by Fred Nadis

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/queen-ghetto-gave-new-york-immigrant-community-voice-century-later-reemerging-180988409/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

Women immigrants at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/2680

#books #literature

Sketch of the author Anzia Yezierska accompanying an article in the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, March 5th, 1921.

The central illustration is a large pen-and-ink portrait drawing of Yezierska — captioned "Anzia Yezierska: Filmdom's Newest Author" — showing a young woman with abundant curly hair, alongside a smaller vignette of a figure writing at a desk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzia_Yezierska#/media/File:Yezierska_CedarRapids_5Mar1921.jpg

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148d

5 of Agatha Christie’s Works You Won’t Be Able to Put Down

Don’t miss out on this list of bestselling Agatha Christie works, which remain unrivaled in the murder mystery genre.

https://www.thecollector.com/agatha-christie-works/

Christie at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/451

#books #literature

Agatha Christie in a play at Cockington Court in 1912 - picyrl.com. She is wearing a large, elaborate fabric turban. It is heavily textured and trimmed with a strand of beads or pearls across her brow. Her dress is light-colored and long-sleeved with loose, flared cuffs. A darker, open vest is layered over the top. A beaded necklace hangs down close to her waist.

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218d

It steppit like a stallion,
Wha’s heid hauds up a horn,
And weel the men o’ Scotland kent
It was the unicorn…

—William Soutar (1898–1943), “Birthday”

Another poem for National Unicorn Day 🦄 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #Scots #Scotslanguage #NationalUnicornDay #unicorn

Birthday
William Soutar

There were three men o’ Scotland
Wha rade intill the nicht
Wi’ nae mune lifted owre their crouns
Nor onie stern for licht:

Nane but the herryin’ houlet,
The broun mouse, and the taed,
Kent whan their horses clapper’d by
And whatna road they rade.

Nae man spak to his brither,
Nor ruggit at the rein;
But drave straucht on owre burn and brae
Or half the nicht was gaen.

Nae man spak to his brither,
Nor lat his hand draw in;
But drave straucht on owre ford and fell
Or nicht was nearly düne.

There cam a flaucht o’ levin
That brocht nae thunner ca’
But left ahint a lanely lowe
That wudna gang awa.

And richt afore the horsemen,
Whaur grumly nicht had been,
Stude a’ the Grampian Mountains
Wi’ the dark howes atween.

Up craigie cleuch and corrie
They rade wi’ stany soun’,
And saftly thru the lichted mirk
The switherin’ snaw cam doun.

They gaed by birk and rowan,
They gaed by pine and fir;
Aye on they gaed or nocht but snaw
And the roch whin was there.

ALT

Nae man brac’d back the bridle
Yet ilka fit stude still
As thru the flichterin’ floichan-drift
A beast cam doun the hill.

It steppit like a stallion,
Wha’s heid hauds up a horn,
And weel the men o’ Scotland kent
It was the unicorn.

It steppit like a stallion,
Snaw-white and siller-bricht,
And on its back there was a bairn
Wha low’d in his ain licht.

And baith gaed by richt glegly
As day was at the daw;
And glisterin’ owre hicht and howe
They saftly smool’d awa.

Nae man but socht his brither
And look’t him in the e’en,
And sware that he wud gang a’ gates
To cry what he had seen.

There were three men o’ Scotland
A’ frazit and forforn;
But on the Grampian Mountains
They saw the unicorn.

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201d

Does reading do us any good?

Stripped of easy moralising, literature makes us relish the search for truth in an age when many believe truth to be dead

by Flora Champy

https://aeon.co/essays/the-role-of-literature-as-the-key-to-personal-freedom

Classics of Literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/649

#books #literature

Photo de Marcel Proust par Otto Wegener (1849-1924).

A sepia studio photograph of Marcel Proust with dark-haired and a moustache, seated pensively with his chin resting on his hand.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcel_Proust_vers_1895.jpg#/media/File:Otto_Wegener_Proust_vers_1895_bis.jpg

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201d

Groundbreaking Novel Ranked Among ‘Best Books of All Time’ Turns 307 Years Old

https://parade.com/news/groundbreaking-novel-ranked-among-best-books-of-all-time-turns-307-years-old

Robinson Crusoe at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70841

#books #literature

“For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well—”

From: Robinson Crusoe

Author: Daniel Defoe

Illustrator: N. C. Wyeth

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70841/pg70841-images.html

A colour illustration of a bearded, bare-chested man standing on a makeshift raft at sea, shielding his eyes to scan the horizon, surrounded by salvaged trunks, a barrel, and supplies, with seabirds and billowing orange and white clouds above.

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228d

George Buchanan’s Afterlives: Borrowings of Buchanan’s Works in Scottish Libraries, c.1750–1840
14 May, Stirling – free (suggested donation £5)

Prof Katie Halsey traces how George Buchanan’s works were borrowed & read in Scotland across the 18th & early 19th centuries, & what this suggest about literate culture more broadly

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/evening-talk-inside-the-eighteenthcentury-reading-room-tickets-1982190395833

#Scottish #literature #libraries #18thcentury #19thcentury #culturalstudies

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202d

The many literary lives of Mary Wollstonecraft – author of novels, travel writing and children’s books

Wollstonecraft’s literary career was dedicated to questioning power, society and the roles assigned to women.

by Aditi Upmanyu

https://theconversation.com/the-many-literary-lives-of-mary-wollstonecraft-author-of-novels-travel-writing-and-childrens-books-279885?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203747638388&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203747638388+CID_a5f7e1691899811906f2c3a5b8213e91&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20many%20literary%20lives%20of%20Mary%20Wollstonecraft%20%20author%20of%20novels%20travel%20writing%20and%20childrens%20books

Mary Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/84

#books #literature #womeninart

Wollstonecraft in 1790–1791, by John Opie

An oil portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft with powdered curly hair and a white headband, wearing a dark teal dress with a white fichu, holding an open book beside a quill and inkwell .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#/media/File:MaryWollstonecraft.jpg

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202d

The 100 greatest British novels

BBC Culture polled book critics outside the UK, to give an outsider’s perspective on the best in British literature. (from the archives)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels

Some of the are available in our catalog:
https://www.gutenberg.org/

#books #literature

A black-and-white engraved ornament showing an open book with text-filled pages, resting against a stack of closed books, with a rolled scroll lying in front. A classic decorative vignette typical of 19th-century printing.

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218d

Robert Frost at Midlife

In his poems for The Yale Review, the poet reckoned with mortality, imperfection, and the limits of form

by Kamran Javadizadeh

https://yalereview.org/article/kamran-javadizadeh-robert-frost?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KNPFNHND5AN53W9YE3E0G0Z2&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Robert Frost at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1091

#books #literature #poetry

"The Road Not Taken", as featured in Mountain Interval (1916).

The title page and opening poem of Mountain Interval by Robert Frost, published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, copyright and first published November 1916.

The left page shows the title page with a small decorative woodcut device — an owl motif in a square border — and identifies Frost as "Author of 'North of Boston'", his celebrated 1914 collection.

The right page presents "The Road Not Taken" in full — the poem that opens the collection and became one of the most quoted and widely misread poems in the English language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost#/media/File:The_Road_Not_Taken_-_Robert_Frost.png

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201d

Poet, the flowers are open
even when we are dead…

—Iain Crichton Smith, “At the Funeral of Robert Garioch”
published in DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS (Carcanet, 2021)

Robert Garioch (1909–81), one of the greatest figures in 20th-century Scottish poetry, died #OTD, 26 April

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #elegy

Iain Crichton Smith
At the Funeral of Robert Garioch

Something about the April day
touched me
as they slid your coffin onto the trolley
in the Crematorium.

More and more often it troubles me
this wind my sails have missed
which is still around me
fluttering the bluebells.

‘The Lord’s My Shepherd’ we sang.
It was time for the burning.
The minister blessed it
dressed in his white gown,

his voice fat and voluptuous,
his enunciation pure.
You slid down into fire
in your yellow coffin.

In half-way April
the breeze was vulnerable
straying among the warble
of the first birds.

Poet, the flowers are open
even when we are dead
even when the power has gone
from our right arms.

The flowers open in flame.
The coffin slides home.
Fugitive April becomes
a tremendous summer.

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201d

2025 Nobel Prize winner, Laszlo Krasznahorkai writes about collapse, fear, absurdity, and the strange comedy of human behavior when the world feels close to breaking apart.
His novels are famous for their long hypnotic sentences.

A perfect place to start is Satantango or The Melancholy of Resistance.

#books #writers #reading #Krasznahorkai #nobelprize #literature #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #BookTok #booklovers #bookish #absurdity #novel #satantango #melancholy

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202d

Short Works: A Timeshare in the Heart
Currently available on BBC Sounds

A tale of wonder, heartbreak and tenderness during one boy's trip to the Scottish seaside. Original short story by Michael Pedersen. Read by Russell Tovey.

Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet & author. He is the current Edinburgh Makar & a former Writer in Residence at he University of Edinburgh.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002vc53

#Scottish #literature #shortstory #shortfiction

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201d

Environmental Scotland IV: Garry MacKenzie & Coinneach Maclean

A recording of the latest Environmental Scotland seminar on “Ben Dorain: A Conversation with a Mountain” (Garry MacKenzie) and “The Tourist Gaze on Gaelic Scotland” (Coinneach Maclean).
Facilitated by Monika Szuba (University of Gdańsk) and Petra Johana Poncarová (University of Glasgow / Charles University, Prague)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xXbocNE60

#Scottish #literature #environment #environmentalism #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poetry

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219d

The latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast talks to Donald S. Murray about his new novel The Loch of the Bees. Donald discusses his inspirations & the importance of place, as well as Highland history, Gaelic culture & language (& the attempts to suppress both), & the author’s personal connections to this novel.

https://www.scotswhayhae.com/post/the-sting-is-in-the-tale-the-scots-whay-hae-podcast-talks-to-donald-s-murray

#Scottish #literature #novel #podcast #Gaidhlig #Gaelic

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202d

Gintinn is giùlan / Bearing and Begetting

A story in Gaelic & English written by Mairi Kidd & illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones. Inspired by a poem in the National Library of Scotland’s collections attributed to Iseabail Ní Mheic Cailéin & preserved in the sixteenth‑century Book of the Dean of Lismore.

https://www.nls.uk/collections/stories/literature-and-poetry/bearing-and-begetting/

#Scottish #literature #shortstory #shortfiction #Gaidhlig #Gaelic