Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Nothing But The Poem - RS Thomas

The famous Welsh poet RS Thomas is the subject of this month's Nothing But The Poem podcast.
Anne Stevenson of the Listener describes Thomas as a religious poet who 'sees tragedy, not pathos, in the human condition' ... 'He is one of the rare poets writing today who never asks for pity.'
'Like the Welsh countryside he writes about, Thomas's poetry is often harsh and austere, written in plain, somber language, with a meditative quality.' - The Poetry Foundation 
Our resident podcast host Sam Tongue took an immersive dive into two RS Thomas poems: From The Farm  and Reservoirs. Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - took from these poems in this Nothing But The Poem podcast.

From the Archive: Chrys Salt.April 2015

Poet Chrys Salt talks about who has the right to write about certain subjects, about writing war poetry when you have a son who is a soldier, and how poetry can benefit from a good performance.
Thanks to James Iremonger for the music in this podcast.

From the Archive: Brian Johnstone. August 2010

Brian Johnstone (1950 - 2021) was a poet and former director of the StAnza poetry festival. In this archive podcast he discusses the highlights of his StAnza career, what he thinks makes a good poetry festival, his own work and his creative improvisations as part of jazz-poetry combo Trio Verso. Featuring the tracks ‘Storm Chaser’ and ‘The Sound of Breaking Glass’.
Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Incidental music by Ewen Maclean.

From the Archive: Alexander Hutchison. March 2014

Alexander Hutchison (1942-2015) was a poet and translator in Scots and English. His first book Deep-Tap Tree (University of Massachusetts Press, 1978) is still in print. Other collections include The Moon Calf (Galliard, 1990) and Carbon Atom (Link-Light, 2006). Melodic Cells, an interview with Hutchison conducted by Andrew Duncan appears in Don’t Start Me Talking: Interviews with Contemporary Poets (Salt: Cambridge, 2006). Salt also published Scales Dog: New and Selected Poems in 2007. In this podcast former SPL Programme Manager Jennifer Williams talks to Alexander about his then most recent collection, Bones & Breath (Salt), tardigrades, ancient spears, the poet’s voice and much more!

Nothing But The Poem - Niall Campbell

Niall Campbell is the subject of this month's Nothing But The Poem podcast. The South Uist poet has had three collections of poetry published, has won many major poetry prizes, and is currently poetry editor of Poetry London.
​‘Noctuary is a homage to night-time, to "that midnight thrill of being alive", to the small, stray moments that make up a life. It is also a passionately tender examination of what it means to have and care for a small child.’ – Suzannah V. Evans, Times Literary Supplement
'The poems in the book place his Hebridean homeland in an ever-shifting mosaic of tidal gifts, memories, folklore, conversations and people. Always there is an awareness of the sea that surrounds, that change is constant, and that there is no going back.’ – The Scotsman, Poem of the Week, on The Island in the Sound
Our resident podcast host Sam Tongue took an immersive dive into two Niallcampbel poems. The Night Watch from his second collection 'Noctuary' (2019, Bloodaxe) and Apprenticeship from his third collection 'The Island in the Sound' (2024, Bloodaxe). Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - took from these poems in this Nothing But The Poem podcast.

From the Archive: Walking With Poets. November 2013

Walking With Poets was an SPL project that looked at an old subject, nature, using new media. We put four poets – Sue Butler, Mandy Haggith, Jean Atkin and Gerry Loose – into Scotland’s botanic gardens. For this special podcast, we interviewed each of the poets in their garden.

From the Archive: John Burnside and Allison Funk.November 2012

Possessing a friendship that spanned the Atlantic, Scotland’s John Burnside (1955-2024) and America’s Allison Funk were captured in conversation, speaking about what they enjoy about each other’s countries, from poetry and music to the mutability of the landscape and people.
Allison Funk is the author of four volumes of verse, including The Tumbling Box (2009). John Burnside’s Black Cat Bone (2011), is one of only two titles to have won both the Forward Prize and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry.
In a conversation that runs from delta blues to Virginia Woolf, Funk and Burnside explain the way in which they’ve influenced each other’s work while still being ‘opposite sides of the same coin’.

Nothing But The Poem - Victoria Chang

Victoria Chang is the subject of this month's Nothing But The Poem podcast. The Taiwanese-American poet has had seven collections of poetry published, her most recent - With My Back To The World (2024) - winning the Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection.
​'Chang has liberated the Ekphrastic form to new lyric heights and depths. Inventive, meditative, audacious, strange and soulful ... that engages the eye and mind as much as the ear and heart' ​- Raymond Antrobus
'Chang invites readers to query depression, grief, and the purpose of art. There are no answers here, only an ongoing conversation.' - Emily Pèrez
Our resident podcast host Sam Tongue took an immersive dive into two Victoria Chang poems Mr Darcy and Edward Hopper's Office at Night. Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - took from these poems in our Nothing But The Poem podcast.

Celebrating 30 years of Dream State with its editor Donny O'Rourke

In this extended version of Nothing But The Poem Kevin Williamson interviews Donny O'Rourke, editor of Dream State - The New Scottish Poets which was published in 1994 and remains the gold standard of poetry anthologies, and, arguably, the most visionary poetry anthology ever published in Scotland.
Dream State's contributors were all aged under 40 at the time and were assembled by fellow poet and broadcaster Donny O'Rourke. Only 6 of these poets - John Burnside, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, W N Herbert and Robert Crawford had appeared in The New Poetry - Bloodaxe's high profile generational anthology - the year before.
Donny O'Rourke had his finely tuned ear to the ground, and, as well as the 6 poets listed above, he brought together another 19 Scottish poets under the age of 40, all overlooked by the Bloodaxe anthology. These included Don Paterson, David Kinloch, Meg Bateman, Richard Price, Graham Fulton, Robert Alan Jamieson, Maud Sulter, Alan Riach, and a 28 yer old - and as yet bookless poet - Roddy Lumsden.
Donny O'Rourke was no ordinary editor. He was a visionary with an agenda who not only hoped to achieve a "gathering of forces' but wanted an anthology with zero fillers and, crucially, for the anthology to be a vital energetic snapshot of all aspects of Scottish life at a time the country had entered a tumultuous phase in its history. Dream State's ambition was huge: poetry as "news that stays news" as Ezra Pound once wrote. Popular culture, street smart wit, political tensions, scientific discoveries and radical re-imaginings infuse every page.
O'Rourke was no narrow nationalist, as is stated in the introduction, but drew upon Edwin Morgan as the anthology's outward looking internationalist and hyper curious guiding spirit. Dream State was egalitarian in its sense of purpose from the outset. From Alasdair Gray came the inclusive definition of Scots as anyone who lived in Scotland, or who was from Scotland and left. Dream State was relatively balanced gender-wise too (for the 1990s). 15 male poets and 10 female poets. The New Poetry, despite its vitality and excellence, on the other hand had just 17 women poets out of its 55 contributors. We also hear the words of many working class poets in Dream State, perhaps abandoned by much of the politics of the time, making their voices heard.
In this podcast Donny O'Rourke sits down in the Scottish Poetry Library with Kevin Williamson (who was publishing and editing Rebel Inc magazine at the same time) to revisit the creative riot that was the early 1990s. They discuss Dream State and the time and place which gave birth to it.
Dream State The New Scottish Books was published by Polygon.

Nothing But The Poem - Gboyega Odubanjo

The poetry community was shocked and saddened when the much-loved young poet Gboyega Odubanjo died last year. Since then a full length collection of his poetry titled Adam has been published posthumously by Faber; and the Gboyega Odubanjo Foundation for low-income Black writers has been established to honour his legacy.
His poetry hit many raw nerves among readers. Fellow poet Luke Kennard praised his work as 'Deep, funny, thought provoking - a powerful evocation of culture and family with the most assured phrasing and imagery and confident formal innovation.'
Our usual podcast host Samuel Tongue - via an online meet up of the Friends of the SPL group - discussed in depth two of Gboyega's poems: Brother and The Garden