Autumn Geopoetics News
‘An oasis of calm in the midst of Festival mayhem.’ ‘A joyful presence who offered real insight into how to overcome being drawn into frantic living and become truly creative.’ ‘A primer on geopoetics as a way of perceiving and living creatively in the world.’
These are just some of the reactions to Christian McEwen’s recent packed out reading and conversation in Edinburgh based on her book World Enough & Time: on Creativity and Slowing Down. We hope to host a further event with her next June.
The Wild Walk through Two London Boroughs in September was London as I’d never seen it before. From Highgate Old Wood to the Islington Ecology Centre it was a vivid experience of trees, paths and rivers, tales of crocodile and shark fossils, soprano pipistrelles and ring-necked parakeets, a spriggan whose cobweb beard grew out of graffiti which proclaimed ‘this is for all the lost loved ones’, and, afterwards, a fruitful discussion about how to respect and express this otherness.
It was good to be part of the launch of a geopoetics network in southern England. Many thanks to Richard Meyers and Gordon Peters for organising and hosting it.
A fuller account is available here: writtenintherocks.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/a-walk-in-the-woods
Contact Gordon at gordon_peters18@hotmail.co.uk if you’d like information about future events in southern England.
Reminder: Stravaig issue 2
Submissions of essays, poems, artwork, reviews and films on the theme Coast to Coast (which can be freely interpreted) should be sent to Elizabeth Rimmer at burnedthumb@gmail.com not later than Thursday 1 November 2012.
To give you a flavour of what we’re looking for, Issue 1 on the legacy of HD Thoreau can still be read here.
Tuesday 16 October at 6 pm in the McDonald Road Library, Leith Walk, Edinburgh The launch of Gordon Peters’ poetry collection By Leaves Entwined.
This new collection with illustrations by Sandra de Matos contains lyric poems, haikus, and performance poems set in Scotland, London, Europe and Asia always with a sense of ‘poetry crosses boundaries’. Copies £5 available from Gordon at the above e-mail address. gordonpeterspoetry.blogspot.co.uk
Friday – Sunday 28 October Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Hawick, Scottish Borders
Alchemy screens work that in some way relates to the natural world, to landscape and to mankind’s relationship with natural forces. The Festival has a focus on high quality artistic projects and experimental short film, but also aims to mix this with thematically related feature length screenings. Creative Director Richard Ashrowan has assembled an innovative programme that includes work by Ben Rivers, Andrew Kotting and Robert Cahen, projects by Pat Law and Claire Pençak, and themes like Traversing the Wild and Wilder Moves.
Full details: www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk
Throughout October: River Crossings: An Exploration of River Ecology & The River Inside exhibition at the Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington.
This project focuses on the ecology of the River Tyne and includes performances by Colin Will, Rafael Torrubia and Wounded Knee. Colin Will’s collaboration with a ceramic artist involves writing and shaping haiku from a river walk, and laser-etching the results on to stones and ceramics for geo-caching.
See the gallery website here or the gallery’s own Facebook page here.
Thursday 15 November at 7.30pm at Toynbee Studios 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6AB Adrift:
Join David Buckland, Tom Chivers, Rachel Lichtenstein and Michael McKimm to consider climate change, the environment and the city in a special evening of readings and discussion. writtenintherocks.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/event-in-london-adrift/
Monday 19th November at 7pm in the Rutherford/McCowan Building, Crichton University Campus, Dumfries
The launch of Entanglements, a new anthology of environmental poetry.
The anthology includes new poems by many outstanding poets and a cover design by Douglas Robertson: www.gla.ac.uk/media and earthlinesmagazine.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/ecopoetry-anthology-lineup-to-date/.
Friday 30 November is the deadline for the EarthLines essay competition for a piece of creative prose writing that explores the relationship between people and the natural world. www.earthlines.org.uk
Other Resources:
The Dark Mountain Project third book is now out.
arcadiaproject.net/the-woods-the-technology/ The Arcadia is a nearly 600-page North American Postmodern Pastoral Anthology bringing together seminal work in the genre of the pastoral as it has evolved into the 21st century.
Foundation for Deep Ecology is a voice for wild nature which supports efforts to protect wilderness and wildlife, promote ecological agriculture, and oppose destructive mega-technologies that are accelerating the extinction crisis.
Crossing the Threshold: explorations into our relationship with the natural world including reflections on Buddhism, eco-psychology etc.
Suggestions for other resources that may be relevant to geopoetics are most welcome, as are your thoughts on any of this Newsletter.
Membership
To develop our work of raising awareness of geopoetics we need new members and existing members to renew their annual membership (£10/£5 unwaged). If you value what we do, please send a cheque made out to the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics to Bill Taylor 7 Wellpark Terrace West, Newport-on-Tay DD6 8HU. You can also pay online by PayPal here
