We recently received a request from someone who is keen to attend Kirkcudbright Book Week events and is particularly interested in poetry. Did we have any poetry events being staged during Book Week, came the question? Do we have poetry? Boy, do we have poetry!
Events include:
Monday March 4 John Keats and Me with Hugh McMillan The Garret Hotel & Restaurant 116 High Street Kirkcudbright 7pm Tickets £7
Accompanied by his friend Charles Armitage Brown, and on a tight budget, John Keats arrived in Dumfries on 1 July 1818. The friends tramped furiously across Dumfriesshire and Galloway, recording their feelings in poems, letters and journals. A great lover of Burns, Keats loathed the cult already blooming after the poet’s death, almost coming to blows with the newly appointed curator of his birthplace. The next three years saw the greatest flowering of Keats’ poetry.
Hugh McMillan takes us on a journey to examine the role Galloway played in that, as he attempts to retrace their route, responding with humour and respect via his own poetry and his own experiences in the great man’s footsteps.
Wednesday March 6 Cross Atlantic Collaboration The Kirkcudbright Galleries, St Mary Street 11am Tickets £6
Dumfries-based artist and publisher Hugh Bryden talks about his twenty years of publishing poetry pamphlets and artists’ books through his imprint Roncadora Press, and a forthcoming Trans-Atlantic collaborative project linking poets, artists and musicians.
Wednesday March 6 Selkirk Arms High Street 2pm Launch of a new collection of the work of William Neill, the famed Galloway poet Free event but booking recommended
Collected Poems has been editedby Tom Hubbard and Ian Spring and published by Rymour. The editors will be joined by poets and friends to read from, and discuss, the work of the poet.
Wednesday March 6 Kirkcudbright Poetry Group Kirkcudbright Dark Space Planetarium The Johnston, St Mary Street Date 3pm Free event but booking is recommended
Members of Kirkcudbright Poetry Group offer their view of the world through their writing.
Friday March 8 Meet Kenneth Steven Dark Art Distillery, The Johnston, St Mary Street 2pm Tickets £5 Supported by Scottish Book Trust through its Live Literature programme
Over the past 20 years, Kenneth Steven, from Argyll, has become one of Scotland’s most popular poets, drawing on a love of wild Scotland. He is also a broadcaster, who features regularly on national radio. His BBC Radio 4 documentary on the island of St Kilda won him a Sony Award. This talk focuses on his new collection of poems entitled Seeing the Light, published by Canterbury Press, which sees him working particularly with the sonnet.
How to acquire tickets
Kirkcudbright Book Week runs between March 4-10 and tickets, including for free events which require them, can be acquired via Eventbrite at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk or you can follow the link from this website, which can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/kirkcudbright-book-week-2024-2757849 We love poetry at Kirkcudbright Book Week and there will be plenty on offer for fellow verse enthusiasts this time around.
The week runs between March 4 and 10 and you can find out about the poetry events at https://kirkcudbrightbookweek.org/2024/01/04/a-treat-for-poetry-fans/
Kirkcudbright Book Week 