Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

We’ve all heard the arguments in favour of Scotland’s best poet or favourite poem, but what about its greatest collection? The SPL invited two guests - James Robertson, poet, publisher and author of the novels And the Land Lay Still and The Testament of Gideon Mack, and Dorothy McMillan, editor of Modern Scottish Women Poets and former Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow - to join SPL director Robyn Marsack to discuss what might be Scotland’s best collections of poetry in an extended podcast.

We’ve all heard the arguments in favour of Scotland’s best poet or favourite poem, but what about its greatest collection? The SPL invited two guests - James Robertson, poet, publisher and author of the novels And the Land Lay Still and The Testament of Gideon Mack, and Dorothy McMillan, editor of Modern Scottish Women Poets and former Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow - to join SPL director Robyn Marsack to discuss what might be Scotland’s best collections of poetry in an extended podcast.

Rozalie Hirs, poet and composer of chamber, vocal and electroacoustic works, discusses her work with Ryan at the StAnza poetry festival. We also include snippets from her pieces In LA and Bridging Babel. Find out more about Rozalie and her work at http://www.rozalie.com/ Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Rozalie Hirs, poet and composer of chamber, vocal and electroacoustic works, discusses her work with Ryan at the StAnza poetry festival. We also include snippets from her pieces In LA and Bridging Babel. Find out more about Rozalie and her work at http://www.rozalie.com/ Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Rozalie Hirs, poet and composer of chamber, vocal and electroacoustic works, discusses her work with Ryan at the StAnza poetry festival. We also include snippets from her pieces In LA and Bridging Babel. Find out more about Rozalie and her work at http://www.rozalie.com/ Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean.

We met up with Sean Borodale at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2012, where he was reading from his debut collection Bee Journal. Bee Journal has since been shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot prize. Here Sean reads poems from Bee Journal and talks about his interests in time, bees, Virgil and much more with our Programme Manager, Jennifer Williams. Music by James Iremonger (www.jamesiremonger.co.uk).

We met up with Sean Borodale at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2012, where he was reading from his debut collection Bee Journal. Bee Journal has since been shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot prize. Here Sean reads poems from Bee Journal and talks about his interests in time, bees, Virgil and much more with our Programme Manager, Jennifer Williams. Music by James Iremonger (www.jamesiremonger.co.uk).

We met up with Sean Borodale at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2012, where he was reading from his debut collection Bee Journal. Bee Journal has since been shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot prize. Here Sean reads poems from Bee Journal and talks about his interests in time, bees, Virgil and much more with our Programme Manager, Jennifer Williams. Music by James Iremonger (www.jamesiremonger.co.uk).

Possessing a friendship that spans the Atlantic, Scotland's John Burnside and America's Allison Funk are captured in conversation, speaking about what they enjoy about each other's country, from poetry and music to the mutability of the landscape and people. Allison Funk is the author of four volumes of verse, the most recent of which is The Tumbling Box (2009). John Burnside's latest, Black Cat Bone (2011), is one of only two titles to have won both the Forward Prize and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry. In a conversation that runs from delta blues to Virginia Woolf, Funk and Allison explain the way in which they've influenced each other's work while still being 'opposite sides of the same coin'.

Possessing a friendship that spans the Atlantic, Scotland's John Burnside and America's Allison Funk are captured in conversation, speaking about what they enjoy about each other's country, from poetry and music to the mutability of the landscape and people. Allison Funk is the author of four volumes of verse, the most recent of which is The Tumbling Box (2009). John Burnside's latest, Black Cat Bone (2011), is one of only two titles to have won both the Forward Prize and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry. In a conversation that runs from delta blues to Virginia Woolf, Funk and Allison explain the way in which they've influenced each other's work while still being 'opposite sides of the same coin'.

Possessing a friendship that spans the Atlantic, Scotland's John Burnside and America's Allison Funk are captured in conversation, speaking about what they enjoy about each other's country, from poetry and music to the mutability of the landscape and people. Allison Funk is the author of four volumes of verse, the most recent of which is The Tumbling Box (2009). John Burnside's latest, Black Cat Bone (2011), is one of only two titles to have won both the Forward Prize and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry. In a conversation that runs from delta blues to Virginia Woolf, Funk and Allison explain the way in which they've influenced each other's work while still being 'opposite sides of the same coin'.

Ryan Van Winkle chats to poets Ken Arkind and Jon Sands during their recent UK tour. They discuss their poetry workshops, what they think about slam poetry and we get a chance to hear them read. Ken is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and full time touring artist who has performed across the US, been published in numerous anthologies. Jon is a full-time teaching & performing artist. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. He is currently the Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Ryan Van Winkle chats to poets Ken Arkind and Jon Sands during their recent UK tour. They discuss their poetry workshops, what they think about slam poetry and we get a chance to hear them read. Ken is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and full time touring artist who has performed across the US, been published in numerous anthologies. Jon is a full-time teaching & performing artist. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. He is currently the Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

Ryan Van Winkle chats to poets Ken Arkind and Jon Sands during their recent UK tour. They discuss their poetry workshops, what they think about slam poetry and we get a chance to hear them read. Ken is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and full time touring artist who has performed across the US, been published in numerous anthologies. Jon is a full-time teaching & performing artist. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. He is currently the Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean.

“I feel poets have saved my life. The poets are our companions. They have found words for states all of us have experienced.” So says Marie Howe on a recent visit to Scotland, where she was appearing as a guest of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Howe’s first collection, The Good Thief (1988), was chosen for the National Poetry Series by Margaret Atwood, who praised Howe’s ‘poems of obsession that transcend their own dark roots’. Jennifer Williams, Programme Manager at the Scottish Poetry Library, interviews Howe about the craft of writing poetry, focussing on her poems ‘The Star Market’ and ‘The Snow Storm’. Music by James Iremonger.