PIG UPDATE #5
13th of April 2025
There's plenty to cover, so let's dive right in!
Events (14 to 27 April 2025)
A reliable start to the new week is offered by the weekly Poet's Corner open mic at Hillhead Bookclub on Monday, 14 April. But this week's got a special Monday treat in store as well: The Lock-In Poetry Slam. Come down to Ryan's Bar on the Southside to see poets competing in three themed rounds of three minutes. The winner takes home a £50 cash prize. Tickets are £5.
Tuesday (15 April) is Sleazy SpeakEasy night at Nice'N'Sleazy. The regular open mic starts at 9pm and includes backing by the house band. Alternatively, head to the Rum Shack on the Southside to witness the Resurrection of Helen Adam. You can look forward to a line-up of contemporary lyrical artists and trad musicians brought together by What Happens Next, an experimental night that brings together artists from wildly different practices. This event dedicated to the Glasgow-born bardic matriarch Helen Adam should be an interesting one!
Get your final local poetry fix before the Easter weekend on Wednesday (16 April) at Time for One Poem open mic at Sweeney's. As always, you can count on a diverse line-up and a friendly audience. The Mount Florida Books Writing Group is meeting that same night. Tickets to join this cosy little writing session are sold out already, but you can still join the waiting list in case someone drops out.
Something slightly different is on offer at the online event 'Discover Poetry'. The event on Thursday, 17 April, is run by Wordsworth Grasmere. Each month, participants are invited to share their thoughts and ideas about a selection of classic and contemporary poems inspired by the changing seasons and current events. The sessions are delivered via Zoom and free to attend.
Let poetry help you recover from the mountain of chocolate and hot cross buns you have likely devoured on the Easter weekend: on Monday (21 April), Curler's Cosy Corner is back and Ross Wilcock has a (delayed) easter egg for us: in addition to the normal open mic slots, Mike Yuill will be reading from his new collection 'Spiral Heart', and there will be additional special guests, too. Naturally, Hillhead Bookclub is throwing open their doors again for the weekly Poet's Corner, as well.
The poetry-packed week continues with Sleazy SpeakEasy night at Nice'N'Sleazy on Tuesday (22 April).
Wednesday (23 April) is giving you a tough choice. Option A: The long-awaited Big Gay Cabaret is coming to Poetry Club at SWG3. For only £11.25 you get a fantastic line-up of poetry, music and comedy including Lyric Avra, Rosie J Hunter, Ria Smart and Anna Secret Poet. Option B: Inside Voices! Pop down to King Tut's for a special night curated by Spam Press including readings by Vik Shirley, Karólína Rós Ólafsdóttir, Kirsty Dunlop and Maria Sledmere. Told you, it's going to be tough.
Paisley Book Festival is starting on 25 April. In addition to a lovely mix of workshops and author talks, this year's festival includes a dedicated lunch-time 'Poet's Corner' featuring three Scottish poets each day. On Friday (25 April), the Poet's Corner theme is 'Coming of Age'. Come to Paisley Town Hall to see readings by Andrés N. Ordorica, Charles Lang and Lorna Callery-Sithole. Tickets are £5. Later the same day, you can take your pick between joining Ross Wilcock and Claire Reynolds for the first UofG MLitt and DFA Creative Writing reading party at Curler's Rest, or a night of readings at Good Press in Merchant City. Toby Üpson is celebrating the launch of his new zine 'A Month of Sundays' and invited Aly Gear, Beth Emsden, Aglaé D. Mouriaux and Eilidh Akilade to join him for a diverse night of readings. And if that's not enough for you yet, you might consider popping by Queer Theory at Nice'N'Sleazy. The regular queer showcase this month includes a performance by the stunning Sara Mostafa.
Saturday (26 April) brings together Theresa Muñoz, Laura T Fyfe and Mohammed Salihu at Paisley Town Hall for a lunch-time reading under the heading 'Freedom to Roam'. It starts at 1pm, tickets are £5.
Fear not, the week is far from over. Sunday (27 April) comes with another triple-dose of poetry! The final Poet's Corner in Paisley features Samuel Tongue, Nuala Watt, and Taylor Strickland. The theme is 'The Small Hours: Poems on Parenting'. In the evening, you are cordially invited To AFK2. The second iteration of the Spam Press reading series at the Doublet includes readings by Ruthie Kennedy, Eilidh Akilade, Myles Westman, Titilayo Rarukuoye and Richard Price. And it's free! If this can't tempt you, I have one more: the online press Discount Guillotine is hosting a showcase at the House Art Collective in Woodlands. For a suggested donation of £5 you get readings by Caconrad, Sean Wai Keung, Lucille Mona Ling, Chris Timmins and Cameron Wilson. Sounds pretty good, no?
Opportunities
Today's pick from among the long list of opportunities currently on the PIG website:
You have until Wednesday (16 April) to still submit your work to the first issue of the Glasgow Zine Library Press zine. The theme of the zine is Tuning: tuning in, tuning out, to yourself, to others, to politics, to nature, to the world. Submissions are made via email. Make sure to check the guidelines on their Instagram.
Another upcoming deadline is for Fruitslice Issue 7. The next issue of the LGBTQA+ magazine will be dedicated to the topic of 'home'. Submissions close on 20 April.
Also currently open is the Discount Guillotine Online Journal. There is no official deadline, but I'd recommend getting your work in soon as this window has been open since October. There are also whispers that the press will be accepting submissions for full-length collections this month, so watch this space.
The Irish poetry press Madrigal is currently accepting submissions for their issue number 10. The topic is 'Discursion'. As a special feature of this issue, poems can also be accompanied by an essay or creative non-fiction piece that creates a kind of dialogue between the two pieces. Sounds interesting? You have until 1 May to submit.
The final pick for today is something completely different: Glasgow is celebrating it's 850th anniversary this year. To make the big 8-5-0 a special one, the city and it's poet laureate are inviting all of Glasgow to help write a 'Great Big Glasgow Poem'. Contributions must complete the line 'My Glasgow is...'. Foreign language submissions are also accepted. And don't worry, you have plenty of time to contemplate your contribution. The deadline is not until the end of September.
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.
PIG Spotlight
It's NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month)! There's been plenty of chatter about it on social media, obviously. But my favourites have been the daily prompts by the Poetry Society. The Poetry Society has been championing poetry in the UK since 1909, running everything from major competitions to fun community events that get people excited about poems. They publish the well-respected Poetry Review, organise the yearly National Poetry Competition, and bring poetry into schools across Britain with their education programmes. PIG will occasionally feature some of their online events. I definitely recommend having a look around their website for poetry-related information and resources - and following them on social media for NaPoWriMo, naturally.
PIG's Poetry Pick
The idea of a Great Big Glasgow Poem immediately reminded me of Sean Wai Keung's brilliant 2021 collection 'Sikfan Glaschu' which takes the reader on a trip around Glasgow and its food. I absolutely adored the little book and if you don't know it, I cannot recommend it enough. So my thought was to include some of Sean's work here. Sadly, I wasn't able to hunt down anything suitable online. Instead, I ended up browsing the excellent edition of Magma magazine: 86 (Food), he edited together with Ella Frears. I picked one of the poems of this volume instead:
Things That Taste Chickeny
by Nina Parmenter
Mornings, before coffee,
mornings, after coffee,
the skin round my nail beds.
Frogs’ legs.
My bottom lip, bitten,
my top lip, bitten,
Confrontations that fail.
Quail.
My spleen firing warnings,
my guts, firing neurons,
my feet, running scared.
Brown hare.
A heart, heading mouthwards,
a tongue, heading teethwards,
Words, swallowed for later.
Alligator.
Sizzling and stewing,
Thinking, but not doing,
Sundays, and quitting.
Chicken.
From Magma 86: Food.
That's it from me today. See you in two weeks!
Love,
Annie