Geopoetics News – 17 June 2013

Greetings to all new subscribers and members. Here’s the latest news about our forthcoming events and resources.

On Friday 28 June at 6.30 pm at the Scottish Poetry Library Christian McEwen will give a reading and lead a discussion on Creativity and Slowing Down.

Her World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down, was first published in September 2011, and has already gone into its fourth printing. Carla Carlisle: “Her prose is poetry, as clear as snow melt. If you think you’re too busy to read this book, this is the book for you.” The American poet Edward Hirsch described it as “a quiet feast, a daydreamer’s manual… which teaches us to slow down and see the world anew.”
Book £7/£5 concessions & SPL friends at www.cmcewen.eventbrite.co.uk/# or tel. 0131 557 2876.

On Saturday 29 June from 10 am to 4 pm Christian McEwen In Praise of Walking: Centre for Stewardship, Falkland, Fife

She was someone who could not be rushed. This seems like a small thing. But it is actually a very amazing quality, a very ancient oneÖ She went about her business as if she could live forever, and forever was very very long. Alice Walker.

Almost everything we care deeply about, we do with some nimbus of slowness around it, whether that be writing a poem, digging a garden, or baking a birthday cake for a beloved child. ìThe greatest assassin of life is haste,î said the poet Theodore Roethke. And yet more than a third of us say we ìalways feel rushed.î This day-long session is intended as an antidote to that frantic sense of urgency. Over the course of our time together, we will focus on very ordinary, everyday activities — walking, talking, writing, drawing, telling stories — exploring them both as a source of pleasure in themselves, and as a pathway to our own creative work.

In Praise of Walking is intended as a hands-on workshop, combining stories and discussion with a special focus on reading, writing, walking, and drawing. Come dressed for the weather and wear walking boots. Bring a packed lunch. Booking: £12/£10 unwaged/ Friday night attenders at www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6156348805?ref=elink#. This is a rare opportunity to attend an inspiring workshop at a very reasonable cost.

Christian’s new booklet Music Hiding in the Air: A Memoir of Rory McEwen (1932-1982) to coincide with his exhibition at Kew is from Bauhan Publishing and distributed by UPNE (University Press of New England) and the Eurospan group. Copies will be available for sale at the Friday night reading.

These two events are not to be missed. Places are limited, so book now to be sure of a place.

Our recent AGM and talk by David Francis As I Roved Out: a folk musician and geopoetics went very well and you can now read his outstanding essay on our website at www.geopoetics.org.uk/2013/05/as-i-roved-out-a-folk-musician-and-geopoetics-a-talk-by-david-francis/.

The theme of geopoetics and community, which was part of a healthy discussion after his talk, will be revisited at a further session in Edinburgh in October 2013. Watch this space.

The recent walks by our southern branch in the Lea Valley and South Downs were very successful and bode well for future activities. If you’d like more information about what’s next in the London area contact Gordon Peters at gordonpeters18@hotmail.co.uk.

Resources:

The Kenneth White lecture and poetry reading at the University of Aberdeen May Festival were packed out and the University of Aberdeen Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies has now published Ideas of Order at Cape Wrath, a collection of essays on cultural politics, and Latitudes & Longitudes, a new poetry collection. The Winds of Vancouver which charts White’s travels in British Columbia and Alaska will be launched at the International Conference of Irish-Scottish Studies ‘On the Edge’ in Vancouver in June. These books can be obtained from the RIISS here: www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/publications.shtm.

White’s The Island Road sequence of new poems with work by the artist Will Maclean are in the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition at The Mound, Edinburgh until 2 July. Other new poems are also exhibited in its various gallery rooms. Free entry: donations. www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=394
Until now many of his works, including his exposition of geopoetics Le Plateau de l’albatros have appeared only in French, but all of them will now be made available in English in a new Collected Works to be published by the RIISS at the University of Aberdeen. Each volume will have a new introduction by White himself. Further information can be obtained from Professor Cairns Craig, cairns.craig@abdn.ac.uk.

Stravaig issue 2 on the theme Coast to Coast is available online with essays by Georgina Coburn on island artists Steve Dilworth and Mhairi Killin, Gordon Peters on Stevenson in Samoa, Elizabeth Rimmer on Dark Mountain and Bill Stephens on kayaking in the Scilly Isles and Shetland, poems by Mavis Gulliver, Nancy Campbell, Susan Richardson, Michael McKimm, Bridget Khursheed and Tessa Ransford, images by Nat Hall and Douglas Robertson. It’s a great read and well worth dipping into. www.geopoetics.org.uk/online-journal-stravaig/stravaig-issue-2/

Your feedback on any of its contents would be appreciated. We are already discussing exciting plans for Stravaig#3 and will announce these in our next Newsletter.

We now have a brand new Facebook page Geopoetics Scottish Centre at https://www.facebook.com/ScottishGeopoetics. Please Like and invite your Facebook friends to Like too. We also have a Twitter account @SCGeopoetics. Please follow and retweet our posts. Thank you for spreading the word.

Other Resources

The Fife Psychogeographical Collective
Occasional despatches from the Fife Psychogeographical Collective. Field trips and wanderings in liminal spaces Ö mapping the interstices of past, present and possible “From the Kingdom and beyond” fifepsychogeography.com/about/.

The EarthLines Review is an online news and review-focused supplement to EARTHLINES Magazine, a quarterly full-colour publication for writing about nature, place & the environment. earthlinesreview.org/.

Other events

Ongoing: We Are Northern Lights a feature documentary about life past, present and future in Scotland is well worth catching. Itís a hilarious, moving, beautiful kaleidoscope of life drawn from all parts of Scotland.
community.wearenorthernlights.com/screenings.

The Filmpoem Festival 2013 will take place on the 3rd and 4th August 2013 in Dunbar Town House, Dunbar, Scotland. www.filmpoem.com.

From 10-17 August: International Poetry Week – a week of poetry workshops & discussions with Geraldine Green on the Isle of Arran. Contact http://geraldinegreensaltroad.blogspot.co.uk/

From 15-19 August the Dark Mountain Uncivilisation Festival in Hampshire offers three days of music, art, literature, performance, debate, storytelling, demonstrations and conversations. http://uncivilisation.co.uk/.

From 23 – 25 August: “Sense and Place” Poetry Course with tutors: Dr. Geraldine Green and New York Poet and Writer-in-Residence at Walt Whitman Birthplace, Prof. George Wallace – contact through Brantwood <enquiries@brantwood.org.uk >.

Membership

We will soon be announcing a new package of benefits for members and a financial appeal to help us to extend our work of raising awareness of geopoetics. Meantime, please join or renew your annual membership (£10/£5 unwaged) by sending a completed application form from our website and cheque made out to the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics to our new Secretary Elizabeth Rimmer at 18 North Street, Cambuskenneth, Stirling FK9 5NB. You can also pay online by PayPal at https://www.geopoetics.org.uk/online-store/.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Bill Taylor for all the work he has done as our Secretary over many years.

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