PIG UPDATE #9
8th of June 2025
Some exciting things have been happening behind the scenes at PIG. Thanks to the programming wizardry of Frodo Podschwadek, it is now possible to directly submit an event listing for the PIG website and the fortnightly PIG Update. So, if you are organising a poetry event in Glasgow (or spotted an event that's missing and should totally be featured), you can now send me the details via a simple online form. I review the submissions and get them uploaded as soon as possible. Obviously, it is still possible to contact PIG via social media or email as well. The form might just help to get things on more quickly.
Today's delicious teaser image is by Eugene Golovesov via Pexels. It is inspired by today's PIG Spotlight (see below). But before I get carried away: let's have a look what's on in Glasgow this week and next.
Events (9 to 22 June 2025)
Just like every week, Poet's Corner Open Mic at Hillhead Bookclub is ready to ease you into another week of poetry. This week's theme is 'biscuits'. Sounds delicious. Also happening on Monday (9 June), is an online workshop by the Poetry Society on the topic of facilitating poetry. The two-hour workshop is run by prize-winning poet Vicky Morris and might be interesting for anyone looking to support other writers in their poetic journeys. Tickets are £27, unless you are a Poetry Society member.
Nice'n'Sleazy is calling your name on Tuesday, 10 June. Grab your poems (and your courage) and take the opportunity to perform your work with musical backing at the weekly Sleazy Speakeasy Open Mic. Sign-up from 8:30pm for performances between 9 and 11pm.
On Wednesday (11 June), Crisp Packet Poetry is celebrating its birthday! Join the party at Third Eye Bar from 7pm for a brilliant line-up of poets. A little earlier on the same night, Good Press in Merchant City is opening their doors again for a poetry reading. This time, the experimental zine Brackish is marking its official launch with readings by Liv Aldridge, Endija Lukstina and Sophie Collins. Also back this month is the monthly Open Mic at Glasgow Zine Library on the Southside.
A true poetry summit is taking place on Thursday, 12 June, as Waterwings and AFK join forces for a special reading at A_Place Gallery on Bath Street. At this exciting New-York-meets-Glasgow event, you get to enjoy readings by Alan Gilbert, Jane Hartshorn, Colin Herd, Karla Kelsey and Lisette May Monroe.
On Friday, 13 June (oh no, scary!), Bulb spoken word in the garden are making sure the day is going to be far from unlucky. Readers for this afternoon event are still to be confirmed, so make sure to check the Bulb Instagram for details closer to the date. In the evening, head to the Glad Café on the Southside for the return of Acid Cabaret! Glasgow’s premiere utopian variety night brings you a weird and wonderful genre-mix including poetry, subterranean dream-pop, political hip-hop and open mic slots. Tickets are on a sliding scale between £5 and £20. If that's not enough to make this Friday the 13th a lucky one, here's one more: in the run up to the Open the Door Calm Slam Competition by Glasgow Women's Library, the poet Giovanna MacKenna is running a free online writing workshop from 12 to 2pm.
You get the weekend to recuperate. But your poetry schedule starts back up on Monday, 16 June. Ross Wilcocks' Curler's Cosy Corner open mic is offering a Pride special, so dust off your gayest poems, bring your feather boa and join this fabulous night of spoken word and prose on Byres Road. Naturally, the Monday open mic at Hillhead Bookclub is on as well.
More chances to channel your queer (poetic) diva are available at Sleazy Speakeasy on Tuesday (17 June). This edition of the weekly open mic is actually the last one for this month, as the team around Rosie J Hunter are taking a quick summer break. The same night, the team behind 'From Glasgow to Saturn' are celebrating the launch of the magazine's newest issue at the Alchemy Experiment. There will be readings by many contributors, plus live music and a house bar.
Time for One Poem returns to Sweeney's on the Southside on Wednesday (18 June). Regular readers will know the drill: sign-up for your own 5-minute slot from 7pm, bring a pal, make new friends. First-timers are particularly encouraged. Also happening on Wednesday, is a slightly different kind of writing workshop. The Alasdair Gray Archive are running a two-hour lunch-time workshop on intertextual writing which is led by Niamh Gordon and Sorcha Dallas.
Discover Poetry, the monthly online poetry reading group hosted by Polly Atkin for Wordsworth Grasmere is back on Thursday, 19 June. Each session focuses on a selection of classic and contemporary poems and invites you to share your own thoughts and ideas.
Poet, storyteller and singer Lesley O’Brien is offering an in-person writing workshop at Glasgow Women's Library on Friday, 20 June. The workshop is part of the programme around the Open the Door Calm Slam Competition, and it's free, too.
Opportunities
Today's pick from among the long list of opportunities currently on the PIG website:
You have a few more days to submit to the New Writers Hopeful Haiku Competition 2025. The competition is run by New Writers, a UK-based organisation working to promote creative writing. The deadline is 17 June, and the author of the best haiku receives £50.
A special opportunity particularly for trans poets is now available in the form of a brand new anthology entitled 'Trans Poetica'. The project is supported by three small presses: Punk Dust Poetry, Written Off Publishing and Allographica. Submissions are open until 23 June.
The Calm Slam by Glasgow Women's Library that I mentioned above is a special kind of poetry competition. It invites women who might not be confident enough to enter a normal slam to submit their work in video format. The theme for the 2025 competition is 'music'. Submissions are accepted until 11 July.
The international literary magazine Reverie is currently open for submissions for their issue V. There's no particular theme, so make sure to check their website to get a feel for the kind of work they are looking for. The deadline is 1 August.
Open until 8 August is the Royal Society of Literature's Literature Matters Award. The £20,000 prize is given to projects that help connect with audiences or topics outside the usual reach of literature. It also recognises projects that help generate public discussion about why literature matters. Not the usual PIG fare, but I thought I'd include it, nonetheless.
PIG Spotlight
This section is designed to shine a spotlight on a particular website, organisation or feature. For each Update, I'll pick something new - either because it is plain awesome or because it's new or really topical.
Today's pick is Glasgow's newest poetry-related podcast 'Let Them Eat Books'. The show is hosted by Claire Frances Reynolds and Colin Herd (both are also running the Bulb reading series) and has had two episodes out so far. The premise is pretty straightforward: each month, the team picks a particular food and takes listeners along on a little literary journey through poems (and other texts) reflecting on this food. The first episode was dedicated to berries and included delightful stories about berry-picking, sexy fruit, Philip Hobsbaum's dog, and poetry by Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heanley. Check it out for yourselves. You can follow Claire and Colin on Instagram here and subscribe to listen wherever you access podcasts. Beware though: this podcast is likely to make you hungry (for both food and poetry)!
PIG's Poetry Pick
After listening to 'Let Them Eat Books' I went down a rabbit hole of food-related poetry and discovered this delightful collection of poems all about food on the Poetry Foundation website. It also includes the two poems mentioned in the podcast episode. I decided to pick the below poem by Bernadette Meyer, because it weaves together poetry and food so perfectly.
We Eat Out Together
by Bernadette Meyer
My heart is a fancy place
Where giant reddish-purple cauliflowers
& white ones in French & English are outside
Waiting to welcome you to a boat
Over the low black river for a big dinner
There's alot of choice among the foods
Even a tortured lamb served in pieces
En croute on a plate so hot as a rack
Of clouds blown over the cold filthy river
We are entitled to see anytime while we
Use the tablecovers to love each other
Publicly dishing out imitative luxuries
To show off poetry's extreme generosity
Then home in the heart of a big limousine
Via the Poetry Foundation.
That's it from me today. See you in two weeks!
Love,
Annie