Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

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

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

Erín Moure discusses her recent book The Unmemntioable, an exploration of her complex family history and subsequent travel to western Ukraine. In conversation with Ryan Van Winkle at the StAnza poetry festival, where she was the poet in residence, they discuss "how you can identify who you are and where you come from when your mother says you come from nowhere." And nowhere, she discovered, was western Ukraine. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle http://www.ryanvanwinkle.com @rvwable Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions htto://www.culturelaser.com @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Erín Moure discusses her recent book The Unmemntioable, an exploration of her complex family history and subsequent travel to western Ukraine. In conversation with Ryan Van Winkle at the StAnza poetry festival, where she was the poet in residence, they discuss "how you can identify who you are and where you come from when your mother says you come from nowhere." And nowhere, she discovered, was western Ukraine. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle http://www.ryanvanwinkle.com @rvwable Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions htto://www.culturelaser.com @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Erín Moure discusses her recent book The Unmemntioable, an exploration of her complex family history and subsequent travel to western Ukraine. In conversation with Ryan Van Winkle at the StAnza poetry festival, where she was the poet in residence, they discuss "how you can identify who you are and where you come from when your mother says you come from nowhere." And nowhere, she discovered, was western Ukraine. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle http://www.ryanvanwinkle.com @rvwable Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions htto://www.culturelaser.com @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

On 15 February 2013, Jennifer Williams, SPL Programme Manager, and poet/author Tracey S. Rosenberg (http://tsrosenberg.wordpress.com/) had a chat about that dreaded and unavoidable demon that every publishing writer must do battle with: rejection. We hope this podcast will be of interest to all writers who have to deal with inevitable rejection, and especially to young and emerging writers who are starting down the challenging path towards publication. We’re grateful to Inky Fingers (http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com/), that marvellous Edinburgh creative writing organisation, for creating the Rejection Workshop that inspired this conversation. Find Tracey’s pamphlet here: Lipstick is Always a Plus http://stewedrhubarb.org/post/34371009207/lipstickisalwaysaplus. Music by James Iremonger www.jamesiremonger.co.uk.

On 15 February 2013, Jennifer Williams, SPL Programme Manager, and poet/author Tracey S. Rosenberg (http://tsrosenberg.wordpress.com/) had a chat about that dreaded and unavoidable demon that every publishing writer must do battle with: rejection. We hope this podcast will be of interest to all writers who have to deal with inevitable rejection, and especially to young and emerging writers who are starting down the challenging path towards publication. We’re grateful to Inky Fingers (http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com/), that marvellous Edinburgh creative writing organisation, for creating the Rejection Workshop that inspired this conversation. Find Tracey’s pamphlet here: Lipstick is Always a Plus http://stewedrhubarb.org/post/34371009207/lipstickisalwaysaplus. Music by James Iremonger www.jamesiremonger.co.uk.

On 15 February 2013, Jennifer Williams, SPL Programme Manager, and poet/author Tracey S. Rosenberg (http://tsrosenberg.wordpress.com/) had a chat about that dreaded and unavoidable demon that every publishing writer must do battle with: rejection. We hope this podcast will be of interest to all writers who have to deal with inevitable rejection, and especially to young and emerging writers who are starting down the challenging path towards publication. We’re grateful to Inky Fingers (http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com/), that marvellous Edinburgh creative writing organisation, for creating the Rejection Workshop that inspired this conversation. Find Tracey’s pamphlet here: Lipstick is Always a Plus http://stewedrhubarb.org/post/34371009207/lipstickisalwaysaplus. Music by James Iremonger www.jamesiremonger.co.uk.

On a dull and rain-soaked day in March of this year, the SPL travelled to St Andrews to interview the National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. Despite the weather, Gillian was in fine form after a magnificent turn at St Andrews poetry festival,StAnza. Then again, Gillian has a way of spinning grey days into poetic gold. Her latest collection Ice (Carcanet) is inspired by the terrible winter of 2009. Here, she explains how the snow took her back to childhood memories, which in turned inspired an entire suite of winter-set poems. Photo courtesy of Poetry Live

On a dull and rain-soaked day in March of this year, the SPL travelled to St Andrews to interview the National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. Despite the weather, Gillian was in fine form after a magnificent turn at St Andrews poetry festival,StAnza. Then again, Gillian has a way of spinning grey days into poetic gold. Her latest collection Ice (Carcanet) is inspired by the terrible winter of 2009. Here, she explains how the snow took her back to childhood memories, which in turned inspired an entire suite of winter-set poems. Photo courtesy of Poetry Live

On a dull and rain-soaked day in March of this year, the SPL travelled to St Andrews to interview the National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. Despite the weather, Gillian was in fine form after a magnificent turn at St Andrews poetry festival,StAnza. Then again, Gillian has a way of spinning grey days into poetic gold. Her latest collection Ice (Carcanet) is inspired by the terrible winter of 2009. Here, she explains how the snow took her back to childhood memories, which in turned inspired an entire suite of winter-set poems. Photo courtesy of Poetry Live

Ryan Van Winkle discusses language identity, Singapore literature and poetic practice with Alvin Pang at the StAnza 2013 poetry festival. We get a chance to hear a few of Alvin's poems and a selection from his anthology TUMASIK: Contemporary Writing from Singapore. Alvin talks to Ryan about how Seamus Heaney has influenced his work, his grandmother's deadly Cantonese aphorisms and he reads a poem of his written in the distinctive unofficial language of Singapore, Singlish. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Ryan Van Winkle discusses language identity, Singapore literature and poetic practice with Alvin Pang at the StAnza 2013 poetry festival. We get a chance to hear a few of Alvin's poems and a selection from his anthology TUMASIK: Contemporary Writing from Singapore. Alvin talks to Ryan about how Seamus Heaney has influenced his work, his grandmother's deadly Cantonese aphorisms and he reads a poem of his written in the distinctive unofficial language of Singapore, Singlish. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Ryan Van Winkle discusses language identity, Singapore literature and poetic practice with Alvin Pang at the StAnza 2013 poetry festival. We get a chance to hear a few of Alvin's poems and a selection from his anthology TUMASIK: Contemporary Writing from Singapore. Alvin talks to Ryan about how Seamus Heaney has influenced his work, his grandmother's deadly Cantonese aphorisms and he reads a poem of his written in the distinctive unofficial language of Singapore, Singlish. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

The SPL caught up with George Szirtes at the StAnza poetry festival in March, 2013. In town to read from his new collection Bad Machine (Bloodaxe), George Szirtes spoke to Colin Waters about memory, photography, Twitter and 1960s garage pop. Photo by Caroline Forbes.