Make sure you don’t miss a single thing from our incredible 2023 programme, by taking advantage of our festival pass – allowing you to access as many events as you want. With a very limited number of passes available, get yours early to avoid missing out. A pass offers free entry to all events in
An immersive audio guide leads its listener through a series of images; an unreliable narrator, its tone fluctuates between direct, abstractly poetic, and contemplative, provoking questions about the tension between what our eyes perceive and the guide’s narration. Does the audio align with how we view the photographs? How many ways can an image be
In this panel discussion, we will take an honest look at the role mentorships and awards play in nurturing creative and professional growth and how they contribute to enriching the literary landscape and building community around poetry.
Our home is on fire and our houses unmade. When climate change is also (as Margaret Atwood puts it) ‘everything change’, how might poetry reckon with the far-reaching implications and existential contradictions of environmental crisis?
Discover what’s what and who’s who in the live poetry scenes of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle in this informative panel that will inspire you to get off the sofa and onto the mic. Chaired by Catherine Wilson Garry of Rock the Boat, this panel will feature Degna Stone, Leyla Josephine and Jo Gilbert.
Accent Society is a nomadic literary organization that facilitates synergies across languages, borders, and media. It is a home where accents become the strongest notes. Here, we are pleased to introduce a diverse ensemble of Chinese poets: Wang Yin, Wang Jiaxin, Ming Di, Qin Sanshu, Su Xian, Chris Song Zijiang , Shangyang Fang, Jiaoyang Li,
In this workshop with Stuart King and Lynda Clark, we will explore the convergence of poetry and technology. Using computer-based AI-driven tools we will delve together into the world of co-creation with AI, from remixing and weirding texts to creating from scratch.
Embrace the cat life in this extra special event at Maison de Moggy Cat Cafe with The Cat Prince himself, prize-winning poet Michael Pedersen. The Cat Prince & Other Poems (Little Brown) is the third collection from acclaimed poet and author of Boy Friends, Michael Pedersen. Rich unfolding imagery tumbles off the page in this
Join this whistle stop tour of the adventures of Henrietta Liston, wife of the second British ambassador to the newly-formed USA. Discover her recipe for ink and Martha Washington’s dinner menu through the words of Open Book participants from across Scotland. A poetry reading like no other, in association with NLS.
Embrace the cat life in this extra special event at Maison de Moggy Cat Cafe with The Cat Prince himself, prize-winning poet Michael Pedersen. The Cat Prince & Other Poems (Little Brown) is the third collection from acclaimed poet and author of Boy Friends, Michael Pedersen. Rich unfolding imagery tumbles off the page in this
A special live recording of the Lantern Scottish Poetry podcast, with Scottish Makar Kathleen Jamie and Alistair Heather talking tradition, mentoring and passing the baton, with their guest, the poet and mentor, Niall Campbell.
Join us for our first Cocktail Hour of the festival and where poetry and cocktails will combine to form the greatest mix of all! Mixologists from Ruma are ready to lead you through a host of cracking cocktails, introducing you to each drink with a story and the history of each tipple. The incredible poet, author and comedian Kate Fox, will add to this heady mix of rum and rhyme with a poem to accompany each drink. Ticket price covers the cocktails (and poetry) at this workshop.
A sublimely dark, gothic, evening’s entertainment as Michel Faber, Ever Dundas and Harry Josephine Giles perform specially-commissioned poems inspired by the bicentenary of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at Summerhall, each set to original music composed and performed by David Paul Jones.
Hear work from two new debut collections from Scotland-based poets K Patrick and Marjorie Lotfi. K Patrick’s poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, Granta and Five Dials, and was shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize in 2021. Their debut novel, Mrs S was selected as an Observer Best Debut of the Year, and K
Poetry reminds us what it is to be human, and more importantly, humane. It creates a haven for those who care. In a mutually supportive atmosphere, poet John Glenday will share existing poems and discuss how to approach writing your own. Using tools and tips, you will write a poem that reflects your experience of caring in a world that often overlooks kindness as a force for change.
Writer, actor and poet, Bea Webster-Mockett, facilitates this d/Deaf-only, safe space within Push the Boat Out Festival, where you are encouraged to explore BSL poetry. Come along and release your inner poet!
This workshop will be conducted entirely in BSL.
Three hugely talented lyricists– rising indie star Hamish Hawk, Scottish folk legend Karine Polwart and celebrated cross-disciplinary artist Inua Ellams –come together to offer rare insight into the processes behind creating a song. How do they make the language of words and music meet to tell stories, set moods and paint sonic landscapes?
An incredible chance to write and converse with one of the world’s most exciting radical thinkers, Indian poet, novelist and activist Meena Kandasamy, in this online writing workshop. Described by the Independent as a ‘one-woman, agit-prop literary-political movement’, Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, translator, anti-caste activist and academic based in Chennai, India. Her extensive
Delve into the BBC archives in this screening of pioneering film Hair. After the screening Hannah McGill, Nadine Aisha Jassat, Khadijah Ibrahiim and Joanna Bourke will discuss all things follicle, and poet Francesca Beard will read a new poem inspired by the film.
Part cooking-class, part-poetry reading, Dumpling Poetry promises a delicious afternoon of tasty morsels for the ears and the taste buds. Gather round the table with writer and performance maker Sean Wai Keung to make an assortment of filled dumplings from scratch, as he also reads from his collection sikfan glaschu. Like a list from a
To tell your story is to create it. In this double bill, Kim Moore and Iona Lee both share poems and lyrical essays firmly written from the female gaze. In All The Men I Never Married, Kim Moore reckons with the harms and coercions of being female in a male-dominant world. Moore’s 2023 collection of
Ready to take the stage? Join Rock the Boat for this hands-on workshop for aspiring open mic performers! Learn how to use a mic, develop your delivery, discover where to perform and build your confidence engaging with audiences, in the capable hands of Rock the Boat hosts Julia Sorenson and Catherine Wilson Garry.
As well as a shared belief in a fairer, more equal Britain, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and trade unionist Len McCluskey share a love of poetry. In this special event, they share poems from their new co-edited anthology Poetry for the Many and talk about why poetry is for everyone.
Catrìona NicÌomhair Parsons is a native Gaelic speaker who moved from Lewis to Cape Breton in the 1970s; Beth Freiden crossed the Atlantic in reverse, from the US to Scotland. Both of them now write in Gaelic. Tune in to hear them read and discuss ideas of home and place, language and identity with Peter
