Poetry events in Scotland this month

Lorna Goodison in conversation with Louise Welsh

Bute Hall, University of Glasgow, 14 March, 6pm, free event A rare opportunity to share an evening with Lorna Goodison, Poet Laureate of Jamaica and one of the most distinguished writers of her generation. The late Derek Walcott said of Goodison’s poetry that it possessed “a rare quality that has gone out of poetry … joy.” The author of 12 collections of poetry, three collections of short stories, an awardwinning memoir and a collection of essays, her work has been included in major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry published in the United States, Europe and the West Indies over the past 30 years.

Carcanet and Seren Triple Launch: Nina Bogin, Beverley Bie Brahic and Eoghan Walls

Scottish Poetry Library, 21 March, 7pm, £3 With Carcanet poets Nina Bogin and Beverley Bie Brahic launching Thousandfold and The Hotel Eden, plus Seren’s Eoghan Walls launching Pigeon Songs, this event is not one to miss. Bogin’s Thousandfold is a journey through seasons and landscapes. Brahic’s The Hotel Eden encapsulates the spirit of a flâneur, going about her daily life alert to the variety and mystery of human experience. Walls’ Pigeon Songs deals with fatherhood, migration and pigeons.

Forty Voices Strong

Scottish Poetry Library, 28 March, 7pm, free event “O wad some Power the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us!” Scottish poetry has been given this gift thanks to a new book, Forty Voices Strong: An Anthology of Contemporary Scottish Poetry, edited by Professor Patrick Moran of the University of Wisconsin-whitewater. Inspired by spells of living and teaching in Scotland, Moran put the anthology together after observing that the few anthologies of Scottish Poetry available in the United States are often limited to Robert Burns and Hugh Macdiarmid. The line-up will include contemporary poets featured in the book. ■