From Kaye Lee‘s review of my collection:

‘There may not be any nightingales in Judith Taylor’s Scotland, but there are plenty of other creatures, real and imagined, plus folk-tales and sea- and landscapes for her to cast her sometimes humorous, often dark, words at… It is an enjoyable journey… we feel we are right there with her, whether she is outside with nature or inside with art, opera, or reading fairy tales. “think of this poem”, she says, “as a kind of thought-experiment. / … / a small demon / … / shutting away the particles it wants to keep / from the general disorder” (Thought-experiment). And isn’t that the purpose of all poems?’

(Kaye Lee: Short Reviews in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 20, May 2018, p 48)

A wee review of Red Squirrel’s recent showcase event in Glasgow, from the Scottish Writers Centre

Red Squirrel Press: New Poetry

I will be reading at the Centre for Contemporary Arts on Tuesday 8th May, along with fellow Red Squirrel Poets Colin Will, Elizabeth Rimmer, and Brian Johnstone. If you’re in town we’d love to see you there.

 

CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

7pm in the Clubroom

Entry free

 

 

 

 

StAnza, as always, was wonderful, and this year I was there as a participant, which was the icing on the cake. On Friday morning I had a visit to Newport Primary School, reading some poems and answering some questions and seeing their brilliant Tam O’Shanter puppets. And then at lunchtime I was part of the Red Squirrel Showcase, with Colin Will and Elizabeth Rimmer. I didn’t advertise it here, because it sold out really quickly – no pressure! But it was a smashing occasion and I hope the audience enjoyed it as much as I did.

And this was amazing: Innes’s Bookshop is the Festival Bookshop and here’s their window display, with Not in Nightingale Country in amongst it (along with Colin’s and Elizabeth’s books). I used to walk past this window on my way to tutorials, back in my student days. To walk past it and see my own book was slightly mind-blowing

Very pleased to have a poem, Collective Noun, in Issue 19 of ARTEMISpoetry. The magazine is available from Second Light Live

Thank you to all at Books and Beans for a lovely evening – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Here are one or two photos…

And here I am with Bernard Briggs, who compered. I have no idea what the hand gesture was about. But you can see from the surroundings what a gorgeous place Books and Beans is.

If you didn’t make it to the event and you would like a copy of the book, it is available from the Red Squirrel Press website, price £8.99 (p&p free in the UK)

My Corbenic Notebook, a sequence of short poems composed on the Corbenic Poetry Path last summer, has been published in Poetry Scotland 95.