Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Ryan Van Winkle recently visited Prague with Literature Across Frontiers and chatted to a selection of poets he met there. We begin with Tomáš Míka, a poet, hip-hop artist and translator of many works including James Hogg and Samuel Beckett, who reads his poem 'If we do not entertain ourselves, they will entertain us' and discusses his chaotic 'maximalist' approach to poetry performance. Translator, poet and episodic essayist Ondřej Buddeus‎ reads his poem 'bit-poetics', tells us why Google is both a poetic and hilarious word and how he is exploring how language adapts to new technology. Playwright and poet Kerry Shawn Keys reads one of his poems and tells us about how he used to experiment with 'trance' states. Glasgow born and Prague based writer Christopher Crawford, the editor of online magazine Body http://bodyliterature.com reads one of his poems and talks about his approach to editing. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser http://culturelaser.com

In this podcast, recorded in August during the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Glyn Maxwell (http://www.glynmaxwell.com/) reads poems from his most recent collection Pluto (Picador) and talks with our Programme Manager, Jennifer Williams, about the breath and blood of poetry, how actors are the best first readers, why Auden is so important to his work and much more.

Photo by David Shankbone.

Edinburgh-born Ross Sutherland is one of the most interesting young poets working in Britain today. Inspired by cut-ups and new technology, his latest collection Emergency Window (Penned in the Margins) features a sequence of classic poems fed through Google Translate many times until they become something else entirely. He wrote a sequence of sonnets about the characters in video game Street Fighter 2, and yet his work is never gimmicky or unemotional. Ross talks to the SPL about the hairstyles of millionaires, how John Cooper Clarke inspired him, and about taking part in one of the more unusual poetry readings of recent times.

Published on 15 October, 2013.

Photo by Will Ireland.

Ryan Van Winkle interviews J.O. Morgan at his home in the Scottish Borders. His latest book, At Maldon by CB Editions, will be launched on 8 October at Looking Glass Books in Edinburgh. They discuss his approach to writing and talk in detail about his first book length narrative poem, the award-winning Natural Mechanical. He also discusses the intriguing story of how At Maldon started out as a translation of an Anglo-Saxon poem and how he was fascinated by the fact that it is a form of historical document written by the losers rather then the winners of the battle. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle and produced by Colin Fraser, both of Culture Laser Productions http://culturelaser.com @culturelaser. Music by Ragland.

In this podcast, Programme Manager Jennifer Williams talks to poet, playwright and recording artist Kate Tempest about hip hop, poetry, her play Brand New Ancients, mythology, world peace and much more. 

Kate has written plays for Paines Plough and the Battersea Arts Centre, written poetry for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Channel 4 and the BBC, worked in schools and won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2012, for Brand New Ancients. 

Her band, Sound of Rum, has performed at myriad venues and festivals and she has a collection of poetry coming out with Picador in 2014. 

Find out more about Kate at www.katetempest.co.uk

Image © Melanieflash.co.uk

Omnesia is a very modern condition, whereby our ability to store unprecedented amounts of information is combined with ever-shortening memories and attention spans. Omnesia is also the name of not one but two new collections by W.N. Herbert, both published earlier this year by Bloodaxe Books. During the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Herbert stopped off at the Scottish Poetry Library to explain his concept of omnesia and to read poems from his latest collections. He also talks about being a bad traveller, education minister Michael Gove’s take on poetry, and why Robert Burns is an omnesiac.

Image by David Williams

Irish poet Paula Meehan has been called "that rare and precious thing – a vocational poet of courage and integrity" by Carol Ann Duffy, and in this wide ranging interview with Ryan Van Winkle you will see why. "I think poetry acts as lightning rod to earth the energies of the Zeitgeist that you are living through... Often to get real, true peace you have to actually nearly reopen the wound to clean it." They discuss the troubles in Ireland, issues with the priesthood, witchcraft, abuse and suicide, but at all times Paula remains sparklingly eloquent, thoughtful and maintains a sense of intense wonder and joy with the world. Her many accolades include the Irish American Cultural Institute’s Butler Award, the Denis Devlin Award and the Marten Toonder Award. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle and produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions http://culturelaser.com Recorded at the StAnza poetry festival. Photo by user Copynoir on Wikipedia.

In this longer-than-usual podcast SPL Programme Manager Jennifer Williams talks to Kay Ryan (http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=975), American poet and educator and 16th United States Poet Laureate. Kay was a 2011 MacArthur Fellow, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, among many other awards and accolades. She was in Edinburgh to read at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as part of a tour (http://carcanetblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/kay-ryan-goes-transatlantic.html) including Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Aldeburgh and Dromineer Literature Festival. Before Jennifer and Kay headed out to conquer Arthur’s Seat and to sample Kay’s very first can of Irn-Bru, they read and discussed a number of poems from Kay’s Selected and New Poems Odd Blocks (http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781847771308) published by Carcanet in the UK. They also talked about such varied topics as Buddhism, cycling across America, ‘cool’ poetry, the ticklish delights of rhyme and much more. We hope you enjoy!

Music by James Iremonger www.jamesiremonger.co.uk.

One of the more heartening developments of recent years as far as Scottish literature is concerned is the development of Edinburgh’s thriving spoken word scene. Throw a stone in Edinburgh and you’ll hit someone involved at some level. At the forefront of the scene is Neu! Reekie!, a night mixing poetry, film and music, and the brainchild of two poets, Kevin Williamson and Michael Pedersen. Pedersen’s debut collection Play With Me (Polygon) has just been published so it seemed a good time to ask him about the Edinburgh scene, and his poetry.

We travel around the world in this episode of the podcast. First up, from merry Cornwall, we have performance artist and poet Sally Crabtree, aka the Poetry Postie, who we caught up with at the StAnza poetry festival. Also at StAnza we recorded three poems from the Romanian poet and TV presenter Robert Serban. And we speak with Persis Karim from the Bay Area in San Francisco about Iranian poetry and the importance of translation. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser http://culturelaser.com Music by Ragland.