Blue Black Permanent, Film & Poetry

A rare opportunity to see Margaret Tait's feature film, Blue Black Permanent on the big screen tomorrow night.

Westside Cinema
Stromness Town Hall
7.30 pm
Thursday 11 April

Not only is it a rare opportunity to see the film, but there is a unique chance to see its star, Gerda Stevenson, in conversation, after the screening with Sarah Neely and Sarah Forrest, the first recipient of the Margaret Tait Residency.

Sarah Forrest's short film that now, made as part of her residency, will be shown alongside Blue Black Permanent.

On Friday night Dr Sarah Neely will deliver the George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture.

GMB Memorial Lecture
Margaret Tait: filmmaker & writer
Pier Arts Centre
7.00 pm
Friday 12 April 

Sarah's lecture will be illustrated with some of the films of Margaret Tait along with readings of some of her poetry.

Margaret Tait: Film Poet, commissioned by Glasgow Women's Library and made by Marissa Keating and Michael Thomas Jones will be shown in the Pier Arts Centre after the lecture. 

Margaret Tait: Film Poet
Pier Arts Centre
Friday 12 April
After the GMB Lecture

Three Readers in Residence

Emily Dodd, Alison Miller, Magi Gibson

On Thursday last week I travelled to Glasgow to meet Magi Gibson and join her for a session at Glasgow Women's Library's new home in Bridgeton.

Adele Patrick of Glasgow Women's Library introduced us. It was a momentous moment - one of the first events GWL hosted in their new premises.


Bare at the moment, after the relocation of Bridgeton Library across the road to the new Olympia building.

Sue John, Adele Patrick and others from GWL

And it was all the more special because Emily Dodd, Reader in Residence at Leith Library happened to be in Glasgow and came to join us. Check out Emily's regular blog from Leith Library.

Magi asked me first of all to tell the audience the story of my foundling Granny, abandoned yards away from the GWL's new home. (See my blog of 22 January 2013 for the story) And it's strange the way things work out because long before anyone knew that GWL would end up in Bridgeton, I had sponsored a shelf in memory of my granny, Polly Johnston, who will now be 'coming home' to Bridgeton. The Women on the Shelf scheme allows you to commemorate a woman of your choice, while helping GWL raise vital funds.

We moved on then to talk about 'books that changed our lives'. I had been floundering in a sea of titles I could have chosen, so was grateful to Magi for narrowing it down to one each of non-fiction, fiction and poetry for us both.


And Wendy Kirk, GWL's Librarian, had brought along a selection of titles that linked to the books we'd chosen. 

Magi's choices - non-fiction: Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a clear influence on Magi's writing: Her last book of poetry is called, Wild Women of a Certain Age.


For fiction, Magi chose Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic first wave feminist novella, The Yellow Wallpaper.

                                         

And her poetry choice was 

Anna Swir: Fat Like the Sun

My choices were:

• The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
• Ariel by Sylvia Plath

It was funny looking back on these books. I read the two prose books only once and find myself scared to re-read them in case I break the spell they cast on me the first time round. I know I'm unlikely to agree with everything in The Female Eunuch. I didn't even in my teens. But it was the first feminist book I ever read and therefore had the most impact.

My memories of Woman on the Edge of Time are of a finely realised utopian future, matched with an equally well drawn and horrific dystopian future.

It was also - I think - the first feminist novel to have as its main character a woman who was poor, mentally ill, uneducated and Mexican, rather than white, middle class, educated.

But interestingly, Magi's choice of The Yellow Wallpaper chimed in with mine in terms of the mental illness in the female protagonists that was central to both books.

And Sylvia Plath of course also struggled to hold onto her mental health and finally lost the fight fifty years ago when she committed suicide.

Magi and I will be coming up with three different books when we do the same session in Orkney Book Festival on the 13 April. She's blogged about this event too!

Aileen Robertson, Me, Ali Macdonald   

Two friends, Aileen Robertson and Ali Macdonald came to the event. We were all in the same book group many years ago and Woman on the Edge of Time was one of the books we read!

Reeling & Writhing with Orkney Reader

Alice with the Mock Turtle & the Gryphon

It's turned out a busy week for yours truly. Reeling and Writhing seems to describe it fairly accurately. As the Mock Turtle said to Alice, when she asked what he learned at school: 

'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with ... and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'

I know how he feels! 

A busy week, but all good things, I hasten to add.

Alice in Wonderland came to mind because I've been asked to take part in an event on Thursday with Glasgow Women's Library in their soon-to-be premises in Bridgeton, Glasgow, to talk along with Magi Gibson, their Reader in Residence, and Wendy Kirk, their Librarian, about books that changed our lives. 

Alice in Wonderland is one I have loved since before I could read - not perhaps for the best of reasons: I thought the book was called Alison Wonderland and was about a fellow Alison! It was influential for me though, when I eventually did read it, because it showed me how much I could identify with a character in a book; how much I could go through Alice's experiences with her, worry when she worried, feel sad when she was sad, happy and defiant when she found the courage to stand up to the strange, unsettling creatures she found around her and survive her unnerving adventures intact.

Magi and I will be speaking about one work of fiction, one of poetry and one non-fiction that have resonated strongly with us at different points in our lives.

Yesterday, Monday the 11th March, I appeared on BBC Radio Scotland's Book Cafe to talk about my involvement with Glasgow Women's Library's 21 Revolutions with authors Louise Welsh and Denise Mina. Still haven't heard it myself, but I believe it is on again on Sunday 17 March at 3.02 pm.

Louise Welsh

Denise Mina

Tomorrow we have the second meetings of the two new poetry reading groups:

The Poem's the Thing 

The afternoon one meets in Kirkwall Library from 1.00-2.00 pm and the evening one in Stromness Library from 6.00-7.00 pm.

Last month, it being the eve of Valentine's Day, we read Carol Ann Duffy's poem, Valentine; and because it was near the anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath, we read Mad Girl's Love Song, which is also the title of the latest biography of Plath. And we read The Overhaul, the title poem of Kathleen Jamie's new collection, winner of the Costa poetry prize and shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize. You can download a PDF of it and two other poems from the collection by clicking the link in the line above.

Kathleen Jamie

Tomorrow we'll read - ah, well, come along and see!  As a clue, let me quote Winston Churchill:

'I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.'

(Just noticed that 'equals' is an anagram of 'squeal'!)

Orkney Book Festival 11-14 April 2013

I've had a great time being involved in the planning for Orkney Book Festival with the George Mackay Brown Fellowship.

Orkney Book Festival 

11-14 April 

I mentioned all the Margaret Tait events in yesterday's blog. Today I'll tell you about some of the other stars of the festival.

Magi Gibson

Magi Gibson, as well as presenting Glasgow Women's Library's film, Margaret Tait: Film Poet, will be playing several other roles in the festival. She will be reading her work, running a workshop for school children, judging the finalists and presenting the prize to the winner of the Children's Writing Competition. She will also be appearing with me, her fellow Reader in Residence, in a joint session, yet to be devised!

In 2009, Magi became Stirling's first Makar for 500 years. Her poetry collection, Wild Women of a Certain Age, attracted critical acclaim and enthusiastic reader appreciation, a magical combination not always enjoyed by poets.

With another hat on - and another 'g' in her name - Mag(g)i Gibson has written a successful series of children's books featuring Sassy Wilde - her name says it all - called Seriously Sassy. Check it out by clicking the link left.

Like me, since October last year, Magi has been one of Scotland's five Readers in Residence. While I am based in Orkney, Magi's residency is at Glasgow Women's Library. Also like me, she has been writing a regular blog. Have a look, but remember to come back here!

Ian McPherson

Ian MacPherson is a writer and comedian of note - who nevertheless didn't buy himself a goat! Instead he's written several funny books and has been awarded the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship which allowed him to be flaneur-in-residence in Grez-sur-Loing in France - lucky fella!

He is currently dining out on the stories from The Autobiography of Ireland's Greatest Living Genius which may or may not be about himself.

In the Orkney Book Festival he will be reading from his own work and teaching local writers how to coax a chuckle out of their writing in a Comedy Writing Workshop. He will also be playing host to a cabaret style event where he and the budding comics - and maybe some others - will have a chance to read their work.

And rumour has it that Magi and Ian are an item. If this photo's anything to go by, I think the rumour may be true!

Poetry, Film, Stories, Music, Comedy

an Extravaganza of Delights 

at the Orkney Book Festival

11-14 April 

Don't miss it!

More about the Festival anon. Next time - the John Rae connection.

  



   

Time for Reflection

Two blog-free weeks and I feel I've lost the knack! It's not easy to live your life AND write about it. When I'm busy it seems like there's no time for reflection. 

And then there's what to write about? There's a lot going on now: groups set up and running as part of the residency; input into Orkney Book Festival which will happen in April; the ongoing work of promoting services; the eventual relaunch of a service in the library aimed at using books as ways of helping readers out of the doldrums. And much 
more!

There has been a couple of weeks of absolutely glorious weather. The photograph above is of Stromness harbour at sunset on the 17 February. I was there to join the George Mackay Brown Fellowship Group to discuss the upcoming Orkney Book Festival. Much of the festival is being run in collaboration with other groups - the Pier Arts Centre, Westside Cinema, Glasgow Women's Library. 

There are several strands to it: Margaret Tait, the Orkney film maker and poet will be featured through her films and her poetry. I will publish the full programme nearer the Festival, but meantime, here is a taste of what's to come:

Margaret Tait

There will be a screening of Blue Black Permanent, Margaret Tait's only feature length film, introduced by Sarah Neely and Gerda Stevenson, who stars in the film and knew Margaret Tait well.

Gerda Stevenson

The George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture will be about Margaret Tait and will be delivered by Dr Sarah Neely of Stirling University.

Sarah Neely

Sarah also edited a book of Margaret Tait's poetry and other writings and there will be screenings of some of Tait's shorter films as well as readings of her poetry.







And another treat in store is Glasgow Women's Library's film: Margaret Tait: Film Poet by Marissa Keating, Michael Thomas Jones and Laura Dolan.

If you click on the link in the film title above, you'll see a fabulous trailer for it. It attracted four star reviews at its recent outing in the Glasgow Film Festival.

The film is being brought up to Orkney by Magi Gibson, Glasgow Women's Library's Reader in Residence. Magi will be playing a big part in the festival along with Ian MacPherson, Canadian novelist Struan Sinclair and many more!

See the blogs in the next few days to read more about the visiting writers and the organisations collaborating to bring you the festival.