I mentioned in my previous post that, towards the end of last year, I was published for the first time – insofar as I had a couple of poems included in an anthology of Scottish political poetry. So I thought, while I was catching up on some of the things I’ve been doing for the last however-long, it was worth saying a bit more about the book. It’s called “Aiblins: New Scottish Political Poetry”, it’s available from Luath Press and it was edited by the lovely Katie Ailes (of Loud Poets) and Sarah Paterson (pictured below).
If you’re so inclined, there’s also  a video on YouTube, of me performing, “The Chair”, one of my two poems from the book. And the photos at the very bottom are from the launch events in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The book is a snapshot of Scottish poetry at a particular time – and the particular time it was put together has meant that there’s a bit of a focus on the referendum-before-last, which is probably to be expected. But what’s interesting to me – looking back – is the way in which the book reflects the level of political engagement and (by extension) the amount of politically engaged content on the Glasgow spoken word scene. Maybe it was always that way – I don’t know, I haven’t been around for that long. But it’s certainly that way now. And that’s a good thing.
The Glasgow Empire