Two poems in Birdbook I

Very exciting news! Got my contributor copy of Birdbook I: Towns, Parks and Gardens in the post and it is AMAZING.

I'm very impressed! It's got a lovely embossed cover and colored endpages and is brimming with pairs of poems and art pieces on specific birds (of town, parks and gardens).

Dr Fulminaire says about it: "My most ambitious project yet, now come to full and bountious fruition! Over 50 British species of bird commemorated in word and image by such an array of talent as has rarely been gathered in one tightly confined space."

I have two poems in the book, for the Hedge Sparrow/Dunnock and the Buzzard. But my pieces sit alongside poems and illustrations by many other brilliant folk including:

Rachael Allen, Rowyda Amin, Hannah Bagshaw, Becky Barnicoat, Simon Barraclough, Julia Bird, Niall Campbell, Michael Chance, Tom Chivers, Hanna Terese Christiansson, Monika Cilmi, John Clegg, Dave Coates, Phil Cooper, Lois Cordelia, Lorna Crabbe, Caroline Crew, Nia Davies, Lizzy Denning, Isobel Dixon, Philip Elbourne, Dai George, Matthew Gregory, Cliff Hammett, Emily Hasler, Holly Hopkins, Nicholas Hughes, i-lib, Kirsten Irving, Andrew Jamison, Amy Key, Judith Lal, Alexandra Lazar, Natalie Lazarus, Katherine Leedale, Roddy Lumsden, Edward Mackay, Marion McCready, Siofra McSherry, Matt Merritt, Kate Parkinson, Saroj Patel, Kate Potts, Richard Price, Fiona Purves, Declan Ryan, Bethany Settle, Jon Stone, Jennie Webber, James Wilkes and Chrissy Williams.

You can see more samples of work and buy your copy for a mere £10 + p&p from the Sidekick Books website. Please do support this brilliant small publisher on their first 'macro-anthology' or full-length/size publication. It really is lovely and I can't wait to see the other 3 books in the series in due time!

Roll on 2011!

Things moseying along round here as usual. Flat hunting (to buy!) and wedding planning (venue sorted!). Still laying low as I get more life-admin sorted.

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Firstly, I'd forgotten to mention I was featured in the Scottish Poetry Library newsletter, talking about what it's like to be a volunteer at the SPL and how I got involved. It's a great, friendly place to volunteer. You get to learn the basics about being a library assistant, plus all you can drink tea and the pick of the library to read while you spend the afternoon amongst the poems.  Read more by picking up your free copy of the newsletter (before they run out!) from the SPL.

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Next up - a huge thanks to lovely photographer-to-the-stars Chris Scott for including me in his Author Portraits Scotland project! He snapped my fancy author photo at the Botanics in Edinburgh. Please go check out his work and the other lovely portraits he's been taking of Edinburgh's literati.

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Lastly, I've been lucky enough to have work included in an excellent project, Poetry Beyond Text, which will be exhibiting at the Scottish Poetry Library (5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT) starting 13th May. The exhibition will feature work from the Poetry Whispers (which I have a couple pieces in), although they haven't finalised which pieces will be on display.

The opening of the exhibition at the Scottish Poetry Library will be from 5-7pm on the 13th May. Please RSVP at reception@spl.org.uk

Info from the SPL newsletter:

POETRY BEYOND TEXT
14.05.11 – 15.07.11
An exhibition of visual-poetic artworks, showing the results of a two-year research project exploring our aesthetic and cognitive responses to concrete poetry, artists’ books, poetic prints, poem photography, text film, and digital poetry.

Also there will be a special event for the Poetry Whispers (which I shall be attending!):

POETRY WHISPERS
6pm Wednesday 15.06.11
Poetry Whispers is a creative experiment, run over the last two years, in which local artists and poets have responded to each other’s work, creating imaginative reiterations in their own medium.  The works that have resulted shed light on the relationship between visual and textual reception and creativity, and form fascinating documents of how ideas, subjects and moods can be interpreted and transmitted. Join us to see and experience these works, and hear the artists and poets discuss the process of working across media.

Hope to see you there! Thanks for reading!

Oh wait! Lastly and not publication/project-related, I've been taking the most BRILLIANT bookbinding class with Isabelle Ting at Owl&Lion. I HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone interested in bookbinding. The beginners class I'm on is in 5 sessions (5 weeks); I'm in the middle of it just now and we've already completed two lovely, beautiful hand-sewn hand-bound hardback books with the prospect of making 6 more books in the next couple weeks! It's low-key and relaxed, with 8 or so people in the class, so you get a lot of individual attention as well as time to work on your projects.  It just feels so good to learn a new skill and make something with my hands during the week, and to have an actual finished product to take away at the end of a lesson. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended it. Great value for money.
More info on future classes (filling up fast!) at Owl&Lion website: http://www.owlandliongallery.com/collections/workshops