Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Every year the SPL teams up with Literature Across Frontiers to bring poets from different countries together to participate in a week of translation workshops in Crear. We chat with one of the 2011 participants, Maltese poet Adrian Grima, who is co-ordinator of Mediterranean cultural organisation Inizjamed which he co-founded in 1998 and which organises the annual Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival. We get to hear him reading poems in Maltese with translations from Miriam Gamble (read by Ryan) and Ian Stephen and he discusses poetry, language and place. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email: [email protected]

Young Dawkins, winner of the 2011 Scottish Slam Championship, chats with Ryan about the trajectory of his work, his views on the Beat poets, love, life and his approach to writing. We also get to hear a few of Young's poems. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email: [email protected]

Collaborative projects involving poetry with other art forms provides the focus of this week's episode. We chat with filmmaker and artist Alastair Cook about his fascinating filmpoem project, which produces beautiful films that arise out of a unique meditation between film, poetry and music. Check out his http://www.filmpoem.com. We also chat with Ken Cockburn who discusses his artistic collaboration with Alec 'Eck' Finlay, The Road North, which exhibited at the library last year. For more information head to: http://www.theroadnorth.co.uk/ Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Mail: [email protected]

Poet, musician, editor and broadcaster Donny O'Rourke talks about Scottish poetry, Scottish identity and Scottish nationalism with Ryan Van Winkle. Editor of the prominent 1994 Scottish poetry anthology Dream State, Donny discusses it and his views on politics, poetry and how the 1970s referendum on devolution influenced his generation of poets and what he thinks of the contemporary poetry scene. Including poems and songs read and sung by Donny. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Mail: [email protected]

Ryan chats with the Poet Laureate of New Zealand, Ian Wedde. They discuss his book, Commonplace Odes, inspired by Horace and he reads a couple of poems from it as well as a few from other collections. He also talks about why he gave up writing for a prolonged period and his plan as Poet Laureate to offer a platform for writers to explore collective memory based on material in the National Library of New Zealand. Find out more on the Poet Laureate website, http://nzpoetlaureate.natlib.govt.nz/ We also include a new track from Small Feet Little Toes called 'I Like You'. Check out her Soundcloud http://soundcloud.com/small-feet/ Presented by Ryan Van Winkle from the Poets House in New York City. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email: [email protected]

In May this year the Scottish Poetry Library teamed up with Reel Festivals to produce a series of events centred around writers and artists from Lebanon, Syria and Scotland. This podcast features snippets in Arabic and English from readings, interviews and panels that took place in Edinburgh and Beirut during the festival. You'll hear Golan Haji and Rasha Omran from Syria, Yehya Jaber and Mazen Maarouf from Lebanon and Scottish writers Tom Pow, Emily Ballou, William (Billy) Letford and Ryan Van Winkle. A free eBook in English and Arabic is available of all the poems read on this podcast from http://www.reelfestivals.org Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Email: [email protected]. SPL Twitter: @byleaveswelive

We chatted with the editor of Anything, Anymore, Anywhere and author of too ok, Colin Herd. He tells us what he looks for in submissions and how his own changing aesthetic preferences influence his choices and how the process of editing affects him as a writer. Colin also reads a number of his poems and tells us a little about his own poetry influences. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser of Anon Poetry Magazine @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Mail: [email protected] Twitter: @byleaveswelive

The poet and translator Matthew Zapruder reads a few of his poems and discusses his views on poetry, including his own response to the Occupy Wall Street movement, 'Poem for Plutocrats'. Find the updated version here: http://occupywriters.com/works/by-matthew-zapruder They discuss Matthew's editorial work with Wave Books, including his anthology of political poetry and muse poets writing about being poets. We also get to find out the story behind his deceptively non-haiku poem, 'Haiku'. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser of Anon Poetry Magazine http://www.anonpoetry.co.uk Twitter: @anonpoetry and @byleaveswelive. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Ryan caught up with New Zealand poet Sarah Broom in Auckland recently. She reads from and discusses her first collection, Tigers at Awhitu, including how it was put together and how her diagnosis with lung cancer affected the tone of the last part of the collection. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Email: [email protected]. Twitter @anonpoetry and @byleaveswelive.

We bring you three interviews on this bumper episode, recorded at the StAnza poetry festival in St Andrews in March 2011. We chat with Durs Grünbein, one of Don Paterson's favourite living poets, the Melbourne Mathematics professor, novelist and poet Tom Petsinis and sound poetry troupe Krikri from Belgium. Presented and produced by Colin Fraser with interviews by Ryan Van Winkle. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @anonpoetry & @byleaveswelive. Photo by @jo_bell