As an artist/poet, Julie Laing has always been interested in spaces where environmental elements, politics and human experience intersect in unexpected ways. This is highlighted throughout our selection from her work – including two new pieces from her pamphlet ‘The Edge of Rhizome’, published here for the first time.

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Two poems from The Edge of Rhizome

The Edge of Rhizome was inspired by a recent reading of A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The pamphlet comprises 15 poems which reference the contents section of the book and the style and tone of its chapter summaries. The work also draws on journal entries and news stories about the impacts of the climate crisis. Numbering is intentionally non-sequential in keeping with the central concept of rhizomatic nonlinear networks.

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Calving

Calving was the 2022 winning entry to the Wigtown Poetry Prize and was first published on the Prize website, then later in print in Southlight Magazine. 

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Hemisphere

A version of Hemisphere has appeared on the website of The Edwin Morgan Trust. Julie Laing was a Clydebuilt 13 mentee – a poetry mentorship programme delivered by St Mungo’s Mirrorball in partnership with the Trust.

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About our contributor

Julie Laing is a Glasgow-based writer, artist and educator. She is the winner of the Wigtown Poetry Prize 2022 and was recently mentored through the St Mungo Mirrorball’s Clydebuilt Verse Apprenticeship Scheme. She has been published in New Writing Scotland, Gutter magazine, Studies in Photography, The Edwin Morgan Centenary Collection and elsewhere.