Sails made of Salt. New Scottish Writing this Friday, 9th May, Hamburg.

I'm going to be doing this event – 'Sails Made of Salt' – this Friday in Hamburg: all about new Scottish poetry, prose and song on the eve of (possible) independence. It's going to be a multilingual evening, with readings of the English and Scots original texts, and the High German and North German translations. I'll be reading reciting together with my Writers' Room colleague Andreas Greve, who the Hamburger Abendblatt dubbed "The Everyday Poet from Altona" – Andreas remains coy as to whether that bit of praise really pleased him or not.

We'll be reading poems and prose by Tom Leonard, Iain Crichton Smith, Lewis Grassic Gibbons: and of course things that Andreas and I have written ourselves.

Come along! There are bound to be some other ex-pats hanging around, looking for the free drinks.... Place: Alte Dosenfabrik, Stresemannstraße 374, 2nd Floor, Haus B, Hamburg.
Time: this Friday, 9th May, 7 pm
Entrance: €7 (€5 concessions).

Clemens Meyer at Harbour Front: Go hear this man, quickly!

 

(Clemens Meyer at the Leipzig Book Festival, 2010)

I had got it wrong, quite, quite wrong. I'd read Katy (Derbyshire) hyping, pushing, gushing about & explaining this man on her Love German Books, but I wasn't able to trust her backing Meyer. I thought self-interest was at play, that she's only praising this guy to the heavens cause she's already had her translation of one of Meyer's books published, & maybe more are in the pipeline. (Why, actually, are you guys hanging round reading this, when you could be reading literature? -  Katy's translation of 'All the Lights' by Clemens Meyer is purchasable here.) But thank God I did read Katy communicating Meyer, even if I mis-read her. That misreading was enough to make me get a ticket to hear and see Meyer reading on the old trans-atlantic ferry boat, The Cap San Diego, two nights ago as part of the Harbour Front Festival.