“Can a man ‘make’ a feminist? It is the final riddle of a mesmerising mind game in which not even the heroine, and certainly not the author, can be trusted”
Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel POOR THINGS was inspired by FRANKENSTEIN (& several other things)
https://alasdairgrayspace.net/who-is-alasdair-gray/poor-things
#Scottish #literature #MaryShelley #Frankenstein #FrankensteinDay
Scottish Peasants in the Magical Landscape
22 September, 7–8:30 p.m. BST, online. £6.00.
A Folklore Society Online talk by Professor Julian Goodare
The common folk experienced the pre-modern Scottish landscape as benevolent and dangerous, negotiating with it in rituals and traditions
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scottish-peasants-in-the-magical-landscape-tickets-1992159418448
#Scottish #folklore #tradition #premodern #history #folkbelief
Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.
—Norman MacCaig, “Memorial”
from THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
Today, 30 August, is Grief Awareness Day
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-poems-of-norman-maccaig/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #NormanMacCaig #grief #GriefAwarenessDay
My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress…
—Jackie Kay, “George Square”
published in LIFE MASK (Bloodaxe, 2005)
Today, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace
https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace
#Scottish #literature #peace #poem #poetry #InternationalDayofPeace
Hochformat oder Querformat?
Was gefällt dir besser?
Schottisches Hochlandrind auf einer Weide, Acryl
--> https://www.artheroes.de/de/motiv/Schottisches-Hochlandrind-auf-einer-Weide-Ausschnitt/1960296
#cows #animals #farm #art #painting #artist #arte #contemporaryArt #colors #InteriorDesign #TraditionalArt #kunst #ArtForSale #handmade #MastoArt #FediArt #FediGiftShop #MastodonArt #BuyIntoArt #ArtistsOnMastodon #creativeToots #scottish #highlands
40 Years On: Aberdeen, Enlightenment, & Global Legacies
15 Oct, in-person & online – free
A landmark 1986 gathering placed Aberdeen at the centre of Scottish Enlightenment studies. This event revisits that scholarship & explores new perspectives on Aberdeen’s intellectual, cultural, & global impact
#Scottish #literature #culture #culturalstudies #Enlightenment #ScottishEnlightenment #18thcentury #Aberdeen
[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
W. S. Graham
Inscribed by W. S. Graham on the flyleaf of a copy of THE WHITE THRESHOLD belonging to Sheila Lanyon, widow of the painter Peter Lanyon. The poem is dated June 18, 1966 & the “second summer” referred to is the second since her husband’s death, after a gliding accident, on August 31, 1964.
Published in POETRY, January 2018
Bookings are officially open for Rutherglen’s first-ever Book Festival. Taking place from 29 October to 21 November – with a special additional event on 7 December – the festival brings together author talks, readings, conversations, storytelling & creative workshops.
All events are FREE, but places are limited – explore the programme and book your favourites now!
Taobh a-muigh na h-uinneag-sa
tha an canal cho trang sa bhitheas e.
Tha na lachan, na cearcan-uisge
’s na faoileagan uile cha mhòr air fàs a-nis,
na h-iteagan aca laidir is grinn gu leòr
gus teicheadh air sgiath…
—Pàdraig MacAoidh, “Crann-cuinnse”
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/crann-cuinnse/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #autumn
A 🎂 🧵 for Violet Jacob (1863–1946) – poet, novelist, short story writer, & key figure in the 20th-century Scottish renaissance & Scots language revival – born #OTD, 1 September
1/8
https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/violet-jacob
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #19thCentury #20thcentury #WomenWriters #VioletJacob
The moon is thin and poised like a curlew’s beak–
all bone. Hanging over the ocean, the abbey.
We watch the sea birds being swept by the wind
and I try to tell you about all my life you’ve missed.
There are still so many sentences I can’t reach…
—Roshni Gallagher, “The Whitby”
Book launch: A Wee Bit Zen, by Alan Spence
7 October, Typewronger Books, Edinburgh – free
Haiku & senryu, translations from the Japanese; found poems, sound poems, visual & text poems, puns & one-liners, overheard word-on-the-street poems, everyday zen – this new collection of short-form poetry from Alan Spence is a descendant of his bestselling cult classic GLASGOW ZEN
#Scottish #literature #poetry #booklaunch #Edinburgh #Zen #haiku #senryu #translation
“Scottish authors Susan Ferrier and Mary Brunton […] were popular and widely read in their own historical moment. As their names suggest, these were works concerned with propriety and expectation, but they were also experimental in their own ways.”
Dr Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman on two Scottish female novelists who outsold & inspired Jane Austen
#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #19thcentury #Regency #womenwriters #SusanFerrier #MaryBrunton #JaneAusten
An lùib na droighne
anns an dris-choille
tha meas an fhoghair
toradh mo ghràidh…
—Niall O’Gallagher, “Crindreas”
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/crindreas/
#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #autumn
“Though her characters struggle, their hardship does not sanctify them. Theirs is not an ennobling suffering. ‘I don’t write about people that are nice people,’ Owens said. ‘They’ve got to be sinners, with a wee touch of goodness here and there, you know.’”
Roxani Krystalli on Agnes Owens, in GUTTER Magazine
https://www.guttermag.co.uk/reviews/a-wee-touch-of-goodness
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #AgnesOwens #workingclass #workingclasswriters
Currently available on BBC Sounds: A WORKING MOTHER, by Agnes Owens
Ten years after WW2, our unreliable narrator Betty – arch, witty, clever – is married with children & feels trapped. While her husband, Adam, drinks and complains, Betty plots her escape…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030x96
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #AgnesOwens #workingclass #workingclasswriters #audiobooks
Queer Scottish Voices: the suspended blue blue air
16 September, Typewronger Books, Edinburgh. Free, ticketed
Join host Iain Morrison for an evening with Scottish poets David Kinloch & Colin Herd, & hear them read from their latest books & talk about what queer poetics means to them today in Scotland.
The evening is raising money for the Terrance Higgins Trust in Glasgow.
#Scottish #literature #poetry #LGBTQ #queer #queerliterature #Edinburgh
“Back home there was a heat wave. Arthur’s Seat was on fire, as were the Cairngorms … we felt untethered from time, from nature’s predictable rhythms. How one week felt like four seasons. A local artist said that the effects of climate change had been felt in the arctic for a long time, & that it seemed that us southerners were only noticing it now.”
Iona Lee considers storytelling as a means of survival in colder climates
The mile-high buildings flashed, flushed, greyed, went dark,
greyed, flushed, flashed, chameleons under flak
of cloud and sun…
—Edwin Morgan, “Clydegrad”
from CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)
Today, 3 September, is Skyscraper Day
1/2
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #sonnet #skyscraper #SkyscraperDay #EdwinMorgan #Glasgow #scifipoetry
Nothing But The Poem – Imtiaz Dharker
The Scottish Poetry Library’s resident podcast host Sam Tongue takes a deep dive into two poems – “Bairn” & “Stitch” – by one of Britain’s most beloved poets, Imtiaz Dharker.
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/nothing-but-the-poem-imtiaz-dharker/
Afro-Scottish Events 2026: Voices Beyond Borders
11 September, Glasgow – £0–£15
Afro-Scottish Events returns with an evening of poetry, music, culture & community celebrating the stories, sounds & experiences that connect us across borders
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/afro-scottish-events-2026-tickets-1990760184301
#Scottish #AfroScottish #literature #poetry #music #storytelling #culture
Seasonal Quartet: Ali Smith & New European Ensemble
30 October, Aberdeen: £0–£14
A concert performance with live readings by Ali Smith from her novels 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘯, 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 & 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳, focussing on eternally relevant contemporary themes such as climate, ecology, migrations, social media, Brexit, war, populism.
https://sound-scotland.co.uk/event/seasonal-quartet-ali-smith-writer-new-european-ensemble
#Scottish #literature #novel #AliSmith #music #classicalmusic
“It all started in the playground – the word was there was a vampire and everyone was going to head out there after school”
Beginning #OTD, 23 September 1954, and for three consecutive nights, over 200 children aged from 4 to 14 – armed with knives, clubs, & even a crucifix – hunted a 7-foot-tall vampire through Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis
#Scottish #folklore #Glasgow #Gorbals #vampires #vampire #urbanmyths #20thcentury
In the lift there is nae steer
And in the schaw nae soun’:
Saftly through the cauld air
The grey smurr comes doun…
—William Soutar, “October”
Published in William Soutar: Collected Works, vol. 1 (Tippermuir Books, 2024)
https://tippermuirbooks.co.uk/product/william-soutar-collected-works-vols-1-2/
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #autumn #October
Night Eater
by Louise Welsh
Currently on BBC Sounds: An ambitious young librarian journeys deep into the Bavarian forest in search of ancient folk tales, & encounters a mysterious “wise woman”
![[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
BY W. S. Graham
Sheila, we speak here on the fly
Leaf of a book which was myself
A good few graves ago.
Now I am maintained by other
Words for better or for worse
To whisper my hello.
The seasons turn. Threshold on thresh
Hold forms continually and falls
Under grief’s lonely hammer.
What did you say? I thought between
These fly leaf words I heard you speak
Out of your Second Summer.
The summer chimes and turns its blue
Dragon-flying eyes to see
We two are not afraid.
Hello, Sheila, I can hear
Your breath on the other side of the word
And see you turn your head.](/proxy/post_attachment/1173374/ca3ade82381d8777b693782e27910519.webp "[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
BY W. S. Graham
Sheila, we speak here on the fly
Leaf of a book which was myself
A good few graves ago.
Now I am maintained by other
Words for better or for worse
To whisper my hello.
The seasons turn. Threshold on thresh
Hold forms continually and falls
Under grief’s lonely hammer.
What did you say? I thought between
These fly leaf words I heard you speak
Out of your Second Summer.
The summer chimes and turns its blue
Dragon-flying eyes to see
We two are not afraid.
Hello, Sheila, I can hear
Your breath on the other side of the word
And see you turn your head.")
