December 2014
“THIS PIECE OF EARTH” – A review of Scotia Nova: Poems for the Early Days of a Better Nation – by A C Clarke.
November 2014
THY NEIGHBOUR’S PIANO – A review of Katharine Grant’s first novel for adults, Sedition – by Michael O’Brien.
October 2014
“THIS IS THE NEW LANGUAGE” – A review of Marianne Morris’ The On All Said Things Moratorium – by A C Clarke.
SNOWLIGHT AND SUNLIGHT – A review of Pauline Stainer’s Tiger Facing the Mist – by Stephanie Green.
“NO MORE WORDS” – Pat Barker’s Regeneration on stage in Edinburgh – by Andrew Rubens.
September 2014
A GAME OF ARTHURS – On The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation – by R.A. Davis.
WE WERE PUNKS ONCE – a review Graham Fulton’s new collection of poetry – by Calum Rodger.
‘SOME DEY LEUCH / BIT IDDERS GRET’ – on a new anthology of Shetlandic literature – by Stewart Sanderson.
EIBF 2014: ALEXANDER KLUGE – ‘Money Rules the World’; A review of Alexander Kluge’s most recent film Grapes of Trust and the estrangement of New German Cinema – by Lin Li.
A BOX TO CLIMB OUT OF – Anneliese Mackintosh’s short story collection Any Other Mouth – by Laura Waddell.
EIBF 2014: THE MOTH – An evening of enchanting amateur storytelling with US writer George Dawes Green’s collective ‘The Moth’ – by Defne Çizakça.
August 2014
EIBF 2014: BILLY COLLINS – ‘Just a Regular Fellow’; On twice U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins who read from his most recent collection Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (Picador 2013) – by Stephanie Green.
EIBF 2014: ALEXANDER HUTCHISON AND DAVID HARSENT – ‘Fiery Moons’; On Scotland’s best kept poetic secret, Alexander Hutchison and his new collection Bones & Breath (Salt, 2013) and David Harsent’s notoriously dark “fictions” from his new collection Fire Songs (Faber and Faber, 2014) – by William Bonar.
ON THE EDGE – by Margaret Callaghan. Kate Tough’s Head For the Edge, Keep Walking – A review of Tough’s first novel about relationships, babies, random strangers on buses, and friendship.
EIBF 2014: KATE TOUGH – Tough read from her debut novel and makes a walk home from the cancer clinic both hilarious and heartbreaking – by Karyn Dougan.
EIBF 2014: MICHAEL LONGLEY – ‘War, Ice-Cream and Wild Flowers’; Longley reads from his new collection, his tenth, The Stairwell (Cape, 2014), interspersed by others from A Hundred Doors, The Weather in Japan (Cape, 2000) and Snow Water (Cape, 2004). – by William Bonar.
EIBF 2014: DONAL McLAUGHLIN AND ANDRÉS NEUMAN – Two seemingly unlikely writers talk about translation, voice and rhythm, belonging and short fiction through their latest publications, McLaughlin’s short story collection Beheading the Virgin Mary, and Other Stories (University Press Group, 2014) and Neuman’s short novel Talking to Ourselves (Pushkin Press, 2014) – by Rebecca DeWald.
EIBF 2014: PAUL FARLEY AND ROBERT CRAWFORD – ‘Cool Licks and Politics’; each poet showcased a new book. Farley read mainly from his Selected Poems (Picador, 2014); while Crawford aired his latest collection, Testament (Cape, 2014) – by William Bonar.
EIBF 2014: JACKIE KAY – ‘Inside a Woman’s Mind’; Jackie Kay reads from her short story collection Reality, Reality (Picador, 2012) poetry collection Fiere (Picador, 2011) – by Stephanie Green.
EIBF 2014: DOROTHEA SMARTT, A. A. GRAHAM, SASENARINE PERSAUD, and MALIKA BOOKER – ‘Sweet Potato and Callaloo’ brought Commonwealth poets together (collected in the book Yonder Awa and launched as part of the Empire Cafe) to read and talk through the legacies of the Empire and it’s slave trade – by Stephanie Green.
EIBF 2014: CAROL ANN DUFFY – The Poet Laureate on the occasion of the exhibition “Poetry for the Palace: Poet Laureate’s from Dryden to Duffy” at the Queen’s Gallery at Holyroodhouse. Accompanied by musician John Sampson – by Michael O’Brien.
EIBF 2014: ROWAN WILLIAMS – Launch of Williams’ new collection The Other Mountain (Carcanet) – by Samuel Tongue.
EIBF 2014: XIAOLU GUO – Preview of Guo reading from her new novel I Am China – by Rebecca DeWald.
CANNED BEANS: Sally Evans’ Poetic Adventures in Scotland with Seventy Poems – a review of Poetry Scotland editor Sally Evans’ new collection/memoir – by William Bonar.
July 2014
GOT MILK? Marianna Simnett’s Short Film ‘The Udder’ – by Sam Solnick. An ecocritical reading of The Udder, which was exhibited at the Jerwood Space, London, between the 12th of March and 27th of April, and the CCA, Glasgow, between the 4th of April and the 21st of April, as part of the Glasgow International Festival.
BEYOND GREEN, BEYOND THE WORLD: Jeffrey J. Cohen’s Prismatic Ecology and Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects – by Tom White. This is the first review in a thread on Ecocriticism Now, giving an overview of the theoretical debates at the moment. The thread includes reviews of theoretical texts, art, poetry and a photo essay.
June 2014
THE QUALITY OF THE GREAT BOXERS: The Battle of the Benns in Michael Hofmann and David Paisey’s translations – by Henry King. A review of two near-simultaneous publications of the poetry of German Expressionist Gottfried Benn.
ARGENTINA’S CRÓNICAS: Rodolfo Walsh’s Operation Massacre and Patricio Pron’s My Fathers’ Ghost is Climbing in the Rain – by Rebecca DeWald. Translated by Daniella Gitlin and Mara Faye Lethem, respectively. This piece on Argentine politics is the third installment in a thread of travel accounts about Argentina, literature and translation.
May 2014
HOMECOMING & EXILE: Charles Bambach thinks the Poetic Measure of Justice – by Tom Betteridge. A review of Charles Bambach’s analysis of the poetic measure of justice, a “justice beyond our ken”, in the works of Friedrich Hölderlin, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Celan.
MONSIEUR SIMENON HAS LOCKED HIMSELF IN – by Graeme Macrae Burnet. A review of the other, non-Maigret side of Simenon.
April 2014
MAKING OUR DREAMS COME TRUE – by Tom Coles. A review of a new book arguing the radical case for Scottish independence.
THIS IS ALT LIT – by Calum Rodger. “Anomie in the age of social networks”: a review of three works from the American alt lit scene.
March 2014
THE CUP HALF FULL: Stewart Conn’s The Touch of Time – by Richie McCaffery. A review of the Edinburgh Makar’s New & Selected Poems to accompany the expansive interview with the modest poet.
FINDING BORGES – by Rebecca DeWald. First piece of a thread of travel accounts about Argentina, literature and translation.
JETZTZEIT ARCHIVE – by Amy Bromley. An interview with artists Janice Galloway and Shauna McMullan about their contributions to Glasgow Women’s Library’s 21 Revolutions.
February 2014
AN ELIZABETHAN POETICS – by Matthew Blaiden. A review of a newly rediscovered treatise on poetry by William Scott.
CORPOREALITY IN THE CLASSROOM – by A.W. Strouse. A review of a new “survival manual for the liberal arts” from “para-academic” publishers Punctum Books.
January 2014
EXTRA TIME – by Joe Kennedy. Capitalism, football and the aftershocks of modernism in David Peace’s Red or Dead.
MYTH AND METAPHYSICS – by Calum Gardner. On new translations of Hesiod by C.S. Morrissey.
THE MOST ANONYMOUS AND ANGRY OF PROFESSIONS – by Rebecca DeWald. On In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means, edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky.