Scottish Writers' Centre Blog
The Scottish Writers' Centre is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC040823.Archive for April, 2012
Gaelic Writing Group Tonight, 7-9pm
Our Gaelic Writing Group will meet tonight in the SWC 1st Floor Office at CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Hope you can come along!
Don’t forget the SWC Writers’ Hub this Thursday, 2-5pm. There will be a TED Talk by Amy Tan on ‘Creativity’ at 2.15pm and a repeat of Chris Abani’s ‘Stories of Africa’ at 4.15pm. There will be discussion, library browsing for all and book borrowing for members. Come and join us for a cuppa and literary chat!
SWC Great Debate, Thursday 26th April, 7pm
Clubroom, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Come and get your copy of The Road by Cormac McCarthy at the SWC World Book Night Giveaway and stay to give your tuppenceworth in another SWC Great Debate – ‘All the Languages of Scotland’
Our fifth great Debate and Discussion event for 2012, ‘All the Languages of Scotland’ discusses all the languages and voices of Scotland. Scotland is multi-vocal but the majority of books are written and published in English. Is Gaelic a minority language? Does Scots dialect transfer to the page? What about voices from across the globe who have made Scotland their home – are they heard and read? Is literature in translation a poor relation of English literature? Are all writers considered equal by publishers and booksellers? Do they want to be—do you want to be?
Leela Soma will lead a panel of voices, including Catriona Lexy Campbell, Kusay Hussain, Alan Riach, and Sue Reid Sexton. Come along on Thursday and join in the debate. Tell us what the Scottish Writers’ Centre can do to ensure that all voices are heard.
First meeting of the SWC (Scots/English) Writing Group
Monday 23rd April 7-9pm
The group will meet in the SWC Office, 1st Floor, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Please bring a piece of prose (maximum 2000 words) or poetry (maximum 30 lines) with you.
Next Hub Session This Thursday 19th April, 2-5pm
SWC Writer’s Hub - A drop-in facility for Writers Working in Scotland
2.15pm - Film of TED Talk (2) by Chris Abani on ‘Stories of Africa’ – CCA Clubroom
2.40pm – Discussion in the Clubroom
3pm – Visiting the SWC Library for browsing, borrowing, tea, coffee and chat, SWC Office, 1st Floor CCA
3.45pm - Replay of TED Talk (1) by Elizabeth Gilbert on ‘Nurturing Creativity’ – CCA Clubroom
5pm – Visiting the SWC Library for browsing, borrowing, tea, coffee and chat, SWC Office, 1st Floor CCA
If you would like to book a desk for 1, 2 or 3 hours please email info@scottishwriterscentre.org.uk
Gaelic Writing Group with Catriona Lexy-Campbell and Maureen McLeod
Our new Gaelic Writing Group will have its first meeting today Monday 16th April, 7 – 9pm in the SWC Office, 1st floor at the CCA. Hope you’ll be able to make it.
‘In Process’ Masterclass with Alan Bissett Thursday 12th April
Novelist to Playwright 7pm CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
This Thursday we’re delighted to have Alan Bissett running a Masterclass. Alan is a novelist, playwright and performer from Falkirk who now lives in Glasgow. In 2011 he was named Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Writer of the Year. His play Turbo Folk was shortlisted for Best New Play at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2010. He wrote and performed his own ‘one-woman show’ The Moira Monologues which toured Scotland to great acclaim and is now in development with the BBC. His novels include Boyracers (2001) The Incredible Adam Spark (2005) and Death of a Ladies’ Man (2009), which was shortlisted for a Scottish Arts Council Fiction of the Year prize. His most recent book Pack Men (2011) was called a ‘landmark in Scottish fiction’ by Irvine Welsh. The short film which he wrote and narrated The Shutdown has won awards at several major international film festivals and was shortlisted for a Scottish BAFTA.
International Women’s Day Poetry Book Launch Update
The launch in March went very well and several people asked to see the poem ‘Signalling’ by Amy Anderson and A C Clarke posted on our blog, so here it is. The poem, conceived as a dialogue between a younger and an older woman, is a joint production by Amy Anderson (who poses the questions) and A C Clarke, who offers the answers.
Signalling
Knowing when the clouds will greet their soft welcome
Knowing is for the young. I know only
that rain, lashing rain, with an ice in its heart
storms out of the blue, that I cannot tell
where sunlight will strike.
How to make the sun a compass
Getting lost, an art I’ve never mastered,
goes beyond pointers: sun, moon, stars.
Getting lost means having the nerve
to walk in circles, backwards,
over the edge. Trusting.
How to tell vision from illusion
Don’t try. Who knows
if the mad prophet’s beard
streams in the wind of his babble
or blown by the breath of the spirit?
Put out your hand to the dark.
How to read what is behind the mist
Behind-the-mist looms larger
than the patch of light we move in,
assumes the shape of dragon
or insurmountable cliff. There is no
looking ahead, only a path
you happen to take, finding later
the words to make it fit.
Knowing when to let the river carry away cherished things
Rinse your hands and watch the water
swirl your old skin away.
You do not step in the same hour twice
and all those things you carry at your heart
change with your blood.
Knowing when I should be still
I’d take lessons from a cat
which gives itself to sleep
with its whole being
lets itself fall
like a cushion,
at the last moment
brakes on its claws.
To know myself like childhood landscape
Childhood was orangejuice thick and sweet
as medicine, Vick’s vapour rub
stroked on in the light of a coalfire
coupons and everlasting
corned beef: a landscape
that doesn’t change.
I hope I never know my contours
so well I’m never taken by surprise.
To let my dark see the light
My dark sees the light
in the white ghost-shapes of words
poems which are
the other side of the self
slowly developing.
To let words fly away like egrets
would be a grace.
I strain too hard
to cage them.
When the fire in the grate will not flame
Strike matches until a stray spark kindles.
Go for a walk or a sleep and let the fire
light in its own time.
When I am an island on a cold continent
I remember every man (woman too)
is an island. We signal each other
like lighthouses
across acres of dark water,
guessing co-ordinates, unaware
how close the pattern of our flashes.
When I am finally alone
The world will have ended.
While the world lives
no final, no alone.
Even if I were barricaded
behind decades of waste
in a single room
part of me would be handed
to the future.
Scottish Writers’ Hub Opens This Week
Thursday 5th April 2-5pm at the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
We’re really excited about this new development in the life of the Scottish Writers’ Centre. This Thursday we will be showing a short TED talk with Elizabeth Gilbert on ‘Nurturing Creativity’ just after 2pm in the clubroom. There will be discussions afterwards with free deskspace where you can work. You can also have a look at the new SWC library.
