It's been a busy week at the PIG headquarters - mostly, because on Thursday we relaunched the PIG website! The process has been weeks in the making, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of the amazing Frodo Podschwadek from The Mechanical Butterfly web development who has graciously donated his time and expertise free of charge. At first glance, you will probably not see much of a difference between the old and the new website. But the user experience on mobile should be a little smoother now which will good news for most of you, I am sure. The biggest part of the update has however been on the backend side where a completely new database is now making it a lot easier for me to add all the lovely events and opportunities. You can read all about all the changes we made in this post - and rest assured: more improvements for users will follow. Do get in touch if you have suggestions or spot a bug.

But enough of that: let's get to the good part!

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Events (31 March to 13 April 2025)

We are easing into the new week with Poet's Corner at Hillhead Bookclub on Monday (31 March).

On Tuesday (1 April), Glasgow's own Kathrine Sowerby is running her Open Book creative writing workshop at Glasgow Women's Library. This month's session is already booked up, but the next dates are already in the calendar, so get booking, folks. The sessions are free.

Also on Tuesday, is the official start of the new weekly open mic at Nice 'n' Sleazy: Sleazy SpeakEasy. What I saw from the launch event was absolutely fabulous, so if you have a free Tuesday night, go check it out.

A special, poetry-adjacent event is happening on Wednesday (2 April) at the Stand Comedy Club. Marginalia is a new cultural showcase of Scottish talent. In the first edition, the line-up includes former Edinburgh Makar Hannah Lavery. There are also performances by Mhairi Black and Stuart McPherson as well as a reading by Callum McSorley. Tickets are £10.

Monday, 7 April is packed with poetry! Candlelight Poetry is back at The Old Toll Bar in Govan with their monthly open mic. As usual, book your 5min slot ahead of time via Instagram. The same night, you can also take to the stage at Milk at the Words and Music open mic - and naturally, Poet's Corner at Hillhead Bookclub is on as well. But that's not all. You are also cordially invited to a night of readings from three new poetry books by Colin Bramwell, Patrick Romero McCafferty and Charles Lang at Good Press in Merchant City.

Sleazy SpeakEasy open mic is naturally back on Tuesday, 8 April. But you can also pop over to the Inn Deep to join their monthly open mic.

More open mic opportunities are coming your way on Wednesday (9 April). Take your pick: is it going to be Crisp Packet Poetry at Third Eye Bar? Or the monthly Open Mic at Glasgow Zine Library? Flourish Open Mic at McChuills Bar seems to have moved to the second Wednesday of the month as well, so you could also check out that one.

On Thursday, 11 April, the The Poetry Review is celebrating its Spring issue with an online reading. The line-up includes Rashed Aqrabawi, Tiffany Atkinson, Joe Carrick-Varty and Inua Ellams, and tickets are free.

Friday night (12 April) you can join the celebrations for the publication of the second issue of Big Red Cat Zine. The team behind the little magazine are throwing a party with performances, music and a mini makers market at Film City Glasgow in Govan.

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Opportunities

After the submissions window frenzy of March, April is looking a tat slower. Here's today's picks of current opportunities:

Swim Press, a literary journal combining writing and poetry are still open for submissions until 15 April. Their current call has the theme 'motion'.

You have until the end of the month to submit to Dragon Bone Journal. Dragon Bone Publishing is an American small press with a focus on fantasy and Sci-Fi. Their magazine offers a mix of fiction, non-fiction and poetry with a taste for the fantastical.

Also closing on 30 April is the submission window for Gypsophila, a magazine combining art and literature. Their current call has the theme 'Untitled Digression(s)'.

The small independent press Fragmented Voices is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Prague, in the Czech Republic. In addition to their poetry volumes, they also have an online magazine which is currently accepting submissions. The deadline is 31 May.

The annual reading window for the print journal Rhino Poetry opened in early March. Submissions are accepted until the end of June. However, the team has a monthly cap for submissions, so it's recommended to try and get your work in early in the month.

This is only a selection of the current opportunities. Pop over to the PIG website to see the full list and remember: new entries are added several times a week.

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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.

My pick today is inspired by a presentation I saw at the Jerome Rothenberg Symposium at Glasgow Uni in mid-March. As part of the smashing line-up of performances and talks, Calum Rodger's shared his latest (ongoing) poetry experiment: the Stanzafier. Calum describes it as a 'groovebox for text'. For those of us, not as well versed in electronic music production: it is a digital tool that can help you create poetry in the same way a musician might create a song on a synthesiser. It allows you to import and 'remix' a source text of your own choosing - maybe your own poem or a newspaper article - and then gives you a selection of fun tools to fool around with this text. In essence, it combines aleatory processes with a bunch of standard tools like a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary. The Stanzafier is free to use via Calum's website. Admittedly, it does take a while to get the hang of its different functions. Maybe we can talk Calum into recording a YouTube tutorial for it soon.

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PIG's Poetry Pick

I am currently reading Maggie Nelson's Bluets and absolutely adore it. Sadly, her poems are hard to come by free online. So I settled for an excerpted section from Something Bright, then Holes (2007) which is published via Bomb Magazine. A brilliant reading of Bluets is available to listen to via PennSound and highly recommended!

Something Bright, The Holes

by Maggie Nelson

I used to do this, the self I was
used to do this

the selves I no longer am
nor understand.

Something bright, then holes
is how a girl, newly-sighted, once

described a hand. I reread
your letters, and remember

correctly: you wanted to eat
through me. Then fall asleep

with your tongue against
an organ, quiet enough

to hear it kick. Learn everything
there is to know

about loving someone
then walk away, coolly

I’m not ashamed
Love is large and monstrous

Never again will I be so blind, so ungenerous
O bright snatches of flesh, blue

and pink, then four dark furrows, four
funnels, leading into an infinite ditch

The heart, too, is porous;
I lost the water you poured into it

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That's it from me today. See you in two weeks!

Love,
Annie

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