Books Events
Events
Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least ten days before publication to suzanne.black@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Suzanne Black.
Thursday 4
Edinburgh ✽✽ Ruth Thomas The Edinburgh Bookshop, 181 Bruntsfield Place,
229 9207. 7.30pm. £5 (redeemable against purchase). A reading from the author of novel Things to Make and Mend and short story collection Super Girl.
Friday 5
Glasgow Reading the Leaves Tchai Ovna, 42 Otago Lane, 357 4524. 7.30pm. £2. Poetry and storytelling evening. Saturday 6
Edinburgh FREE Rodrigue: Drawing for Comics Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8206. 2–3pm. Learn how to turn a few lines into an action packed scene with French comic book illustrator Michel Rodrigue. The Old Town Poetry Trail Royal Mile, 2.30pm. £5 (£3). Poet Ken Cockburn leads a winding path through Edinburgh’s historic Old Town from the Canongate (meet outside the Scottish Storytelling Centre) to the Scottish Parliament, passing places of poetical interest in courtyards, kirkyards and vennels. Email
events@cityofliterature.com to book. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign. FREE Carry a Poem Reading Group Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road North, 557 2876. 6.30pm. Reader in Residence Ryan Van Winkle leads a poetry- reading session. Feel free to bring your favourite, must-have verse along to join in. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign.
Sunday 7
Edinburgh FREE Tom Leonard Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road North, 529 5549. 2.30–3.30pm. Get acquainted with the work of the politicised Glaswegian poet. FREE Robin Yassin-Kassab Word Power Bookshop, 43 West Nicolson Street, 662 9112. 3.30pm. Robin Yassin- Kassab questions faith and meaningfulness in his 2008 novel, The Road from Damascus, which he reads from this afternoon. Is this Poetry? The Jazz Bar, 1 Chambers Street, 220 4298. 8.30pm. £4 (£3). The new spoken word/performance poetry night from Jenny Lindsay launches with a slam contest.
Monday 8 Edinburgh FREE Discovering Family History at NLS National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, 623 3845. 2–3.30pm. Look for family secrets or royal blood in a practical workshop. FREE Blackwell Book Group Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8206. 6pm. A monthly group who aim to peruse a wide range of fiction and non- fiction titles. The first is Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
To join email your name and address to events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk
✽✽ An Evening with Mark Kermode Cameo, 38 Home Street,
0871 704 2052. 7.30pm. £10. Kermode steps from behind the critic’s pen to talk about autobiography It’s Only a Movie.
Tuesday 9
Glasgow ✽✽ An Evening with Mark Kermode Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. 7.30pm. £10 (£8). See Mon 8.
Edinburgh Getting into Poetry Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6.30–8pm. £10 (£6). Two sessions introducing poetry and how to approach it for maximum reward. Please book in advance as spaces are limited. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign. FREE Karen Loukes Institut Français d’Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, 225 5366. 6.30pm. An introduction to Karen Loukes’ new English translation of Le Rayon Vert, followed by an illustrated talk on Jules Verne’s time in Scotland by Professor Ian Thompson. Love in a Cold Climate The One Below, Rutland Hotel, 1–3 Rutland Street, 447 1917. 7pm. £5 including wine. A literary speed dating event to weed out the Darcys from the intellectual Quasimodos based on your mutual reading habits.
Wednesday 10 Glasgow FREE Don’t Eat the Mic Tchai Ovna, 42 Otago Lane, 357 4524. 8pm. An evening of poetry performance.
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Edinburgh ✽✽ FREE Dan Rhodes and Louise Welsh Blackwell, 53–59 South
Bridge, 622 8206. 6pm. Rhodes publicises Little Hands Clapping while Welsh follows a researcher on the dangerous trail of a mysterious dead writer in Naming the Bones.
Thursday 11
Glasgow ✽✽ FREE Louise Welsh Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 548
2558. 5.15pm. The Scottish writer, author of The Cutting Room and Tamburlaine Must Die, reads new work.
Edinburgh FREE Getting Started at NLS National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, 623 3918. 10–11.30am. Find out how to register, seek out specific books and peek inside the Reading Rooms, then enjoy a lifetime of reading books for free.
Friday 12
Glasgow FREE Reading Allowed Tchai Ovna, 42 Otago Lane, 357 4524. 8pm. A monthly event of storytelling and poetry reading.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Sevenses with John Hegley Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 7.30pm. £5 (£3). Poetry, guitar playing from Martin Rensner and a nice cup of tea. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign.
Monday 15 Edinburgh FREE Poems Aloud Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 3–4pm. Read aloud your favourite verse or listen to the choices of others. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign. New Books Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6–7.30pm. £5 (£3). Lilias Fraser introduces the library’s newest acquisitions. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign.
Tuesday 16
Edinburgh FREE Poetry Pub Quiz Waverley Bar, 1 St Mary’s Street, 557 1050. 8pm. Know your sesta rima from your spondees? Compete in teams of up to six players to prove your metrical mettle. Part of the Carry a Poem Campaign. Wednesday 17
Edinburgh Rab Wilson Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 7.30pm. £5 (£3; PAS members free). The Poetry Association of Scotland presents the poet, filmmaker, playwright, translator and singer.
✽✽ FREE The Golden Hour Forest Café, 3 Bristo Place, 220 4538.
8pm. A special literary cabaret for the Edinburgh City of Literature One Book / One City campaign, which this year is ‘Carry a Poem’. Readings come from Claire Askew, Ewan Morrison and Tom Pow, with Gary Stewart, Diddley Squat and Robin Grey Band providing the music.
The Golden Hour The Forest Café’s glorious, shambolic and boozy literary cabaret night, hosted as ever by the utterly affable Ryan Van Winkle, gets in on the Edinburgh City of
Thursday 18
Literature One Book / One City campaign. The theme this year is ‘Carry a Poem’, and readers Claire Askew, Ewan Swung Morrison (pictured) and Tom Pow will be showing us how they do just that, with musical accompaniment from Diddley Squat and the Robin Grey Band. The Carry a Poem campaign aims to show Scots how much poetry they carry with them (in our heads, presumably) without even knowing it. Look out for pocket poetry cards and sample booklets being distributed across Edinburgh, and doubtlessly a few at the Golden Hour. For more info on the whole thing, take a look at www.carryapoem.com ■ Forest Café, Edinburgh, Wed 17 Feb. Edinburgh FREE Ruth Tittensor Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8206. 6.15pm. From Peatbog to Conifer Forrest is an oral history of the Whitelee Plateau just south of Glasgow, a moorland which was converted to forest and is now the site of Europe’s largest onshore windfarm.
36 THE LIST 4–18 Feb 2010