Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

This summer's major SPL project was Walking With Poets. What was it? It looked at an old subject, one of the oldest, nature, using new media. It provided poets, readers and visitors to Scotland’s botanic gardens with a fresh way to engage with the environment and writing about it. We put four poets - Sue Butler, Mandy Haggith, Jean Atkin and Gerry Loose - in Scotland's botanic gardens. For this special podcast, we interviewed each of the poets in their garden and asked them to read poems inspired by their residencies.

McGuire is a young Scottish poet, sometimes described as a performance poet, who is pushing the boundaries of what poetry has to say with hilarious and uncompromising material about masculinity and pornography. The SPL met up with him to discuss 'making it new', situationism and the page versus the stage.

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 @culturelas

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

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.

In this podcast SPL Programme Manager talks to poet, teacher and editor Antonio Ochoa about living and working with, translating and editing the Uruguayan poet Eduardo Milan (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Selected-Poems-Eduardo-Milan/dp/1848612001). Antonio reads some of Eduardo’s poems as well as his own, in both Spanish and English. Find some of Antonio’s poetry here: http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/15367479/ecopoetics-no-67.aspx Find out more about Antonio here: http://www.mobius.org/events/cut-time Music by James Iremonger: http://jamesiremonger.co.uk/

Iain Sinclair is one of the UK's greatest living writers. Famed for his novels, such as Downriver, and documentary prose, most famously perhaps London Orbital, Sinclair began his career self-publishing his own poetry on his Albion Village Press in the 1970s. This year sees the publication of three books, 2 poetry collections and a longer book on his relationship with the Beats. Colin Waters travelled to Sinclair's home in Hackney in May 2012, where he asked Sinclair about his Scottish roots, John Clare and his lost 1970s collection Red Eye, which is being published this year by Test Centre. Picture of Iain Sinclair by Luca Del Baldo.

In January this year Reel Festivals http://reelfestivals.org organised a series of events and translation workshops in Erbil, Iraq with Scottish and Iraqi poets. They then came over to Scotland in March (with one exception) and gave readings of the translations they had worked on earlier in the year. This podcast features all of the participants talking about their experience and reading from a selection of the translations and includes the following poets: John Glenday, Jen Hadfield, Ghareeb Iskander, William Letford, Krystelle Bamford, Awezan Nouri, Sabreen Kadhim, Zaher Mousa with support from Dina Mousawi and Lauren Pyott. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions http://culturelaser.com @culturelaser. Music by Khyam Allami.

In this podcast, Jennifer Williams, SPL Programme Manager, talks to Polish poet, essayist, editor and critic Tadeusz Dąbrowski. They are joined by Kasia Kokowska of Interaktywny Salon Piszących w Szkocji, who came along to help with translating. He has also been the winner of numerous awards, among others, the Kościelski Prize (2009), the Hubert Burda Prize (2008) and, from Tadeusz Różewicz, the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Culture (2006). He is the author of six volumes of poetry, and edited the anthology Poza słowa. Tadeusz has been widely published and translated into 20 languages, and a collection of his poetry in English, Black Square, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, was published by Zephyr Press (http://www.polishculture.org.uk/literature/books/news/article/black-square-by-tadeusz-dabrowski-1625.html) in 2011. He lives in Gdańsk and says in this interview, “All art is something like self-recognition.”

Kona Macphee has been many things in her lifetime, from waitress to motorcycle mechanic to computer scientist. Poetry lovers will know her as a poet, although the word she uses to describe herself is 'thingwright'. Colin Waters interviewed her earlier this year about her new collection What Long Miles (Bloodstone). During the interview, Kona discusses reality and the media, being inspired by history and how her garden is her R and D lab, as well as reading poems from her new collection.

Tusiata Avia is a poet and performer from New Zealand and a recent Fulbright Pacific Writer at the University of Hawai’i. She performs her poems and talks with Ryan Van Winkle about her work and influences, including how she rediscovered poetry in her 30s. Her two collections of poetry are Wild Dogs Under My Skirt (2004) and Bloodclot (2009). David Stavanger aka Ghostboy is a poet and one of Australia’s premier young adult and children’s spoken word presenters. As well as reading a few of his poems, David also talks about his love of poetry, how he is developing his voice and the way he plays with genre and audience expectations. We also include one of his music tracks with the Golden Virtues, 'The Woman Who Is All Heart'. http://www.ghostboy.net Presented by Ryan Van Winkle http://www.ryanvanwinkle.com. Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions http://www.culturelaser.com. Music by Ewen Maclean.

SPL Programme Manager Jennifer Williams talks with Griffin Award Winning Canadian poet Ken Babstock about 'the thingyness of things', Paul Muldoon, the weather, Canadian garrison mentality's effect on the work of Canadian writers and much more, including his own extraordinary poems. This interview is from StAnza 2013, and takes place in a tiny attic room at the top of the Town Hall, in the midst of all sorts of weather. Ken Babstock’s most recent collection, Methodist Hatchet (Anansi, 2011), won The Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry and was a finalist for The Trillium Book Award. He lives in Toronto. Music by James Iremonger www.jamesiremonger.co.uk Image: Ken Babstock, Toronto by Steve McLaughlin, under a Creative Content licence

Who is Eddie Linden? A poet, an editor, and a man with an extraordinary range of contacts, friends who ranged from Tom Leonard to Harold Pinter. Linden is a person who has achieved much considering his incredibly tough childhood. Born illegitimate, he was passed from pillar to post as a boy in Glasgow. Later, he suffered much anguish when his Roman Catholicism conflicted with his sexuality. In the 1960s, after moving to London, he began an extraordinary literary magazine Aquarius, which over 30 years became a veritable Who’s Who of contemporary poets. In the SPL's latest podcast, he discusses his life and verse from his home in Maida Vale. Image by Mazengarb