Welcome to the newest edition of the PIG Update - you might have spied the latest changes already. Instead of picking some rather lame stock images to go with the updates, I decided to instead feature the work of local visual artists. Today's image was created by Douglas Anderson. It is a double exposure, 2-tone screen print using images of Glasgow's botanic gardens. Hope you like it as much as I do. You can find more of his work via his Deviant Art account.

And now: on to poetry!

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Events (28 April to 11 May 2025)

Monday is Poet's Corner day. And Monday, 28 April is no exception. Head to Hillhead Bookclub for your weekly open mic fix. Each night has a different theme. Make sure to check the organiser's Instagram to see what the week's focus is.

Just as reliable is Sleazy SpeakEasy at Nice'N'Sleazy. The weekly open mic with backing band is back on Tuesday 29 April from 8:30pm.

On Wednesday (30 April), you are invited to the Alchemy Experiment on Byres Road for Ross Wilcock's Poetry Experiment open mic. The space is quite small and it can get fairly busy, so make sure to book ahead for both reading and listening.

St Mungo's Mirrorball, Glasgow's network of poets is back after a bit of a hiatus with a brand new showcase on Thursday, 1 May. Come down to Waterstones on Sauchiehall for readings by Romalyn Ante, Juana Adcock, Iona Lee, Lesley Benzie, Donna Campbell and Linda Jackson. Tickets are £7.

Another exciting relaunch is happening on Friday (2 May): Bulb! is back. The 'readings in the garden' at UofG's Lilybank Gardens are run by Claire Frances Reynolds and Colin Herd and promise us the joy of the unexpected. This week, there will be readings by Keira Brown, Chisom Okoronkwo, Albrin Junior and Robbie McLean. But beware: it's a daytime affair. Start at 2:30pm.

The new week starts with not one, not two, but three (3!) open mic opportunities, so grab your notebook (or, let's be real, your smartphone) and get out there. Your options on Monday, 5 May are: Poet's Corner at Hillheadbook Club, Words and Music at Milk in Govanhill, or Candlelight Poetry at the Old Toll Bar in Govan. With so many option, you really have no excuse. 😉

On Tuesday (6 May), Sleazy SpeakEasy at Nice'N'Sleazy keeps the open mic spirit going. But if you are still struggling with your material, poet Katherine Sowerby is running her monthly Open Book creative writing sessions at Glasgow Women's Library. Each session focuses on a different theme and uses poetry and short stories as writing prompts. The sessions are for seasoned writers and beginners alike.

Wednesday, 7 May is World Maternal Mental Health Day. To raise awareness (and money for good causes), Kirsty Crawford is organising an open mic night titled 'Postpartum Poems' at Daddy Marmalades in Merchant City. There will be poetry, pizza, cocktails and prizes to win, so sign up!

The week ends with Bulb! The afternoon readings at UofG's Lilybank Gardens on Friday (9 May) start at 2:30pm. Readers are still to be confirmed, so keep an eye on Bulb's Instagram.

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Opportunities

Today's pick from among the long list of opportunities currently on the PIG website:

An exciting opportunity to highlight this week is the mentoring programme by St Mungo's Mirrorball: Clydebuild. The programme is open to emerging poets who have not yet published a full-length collection. Up to four poets are selected in each round. Applications are now open until 26 June.

You still have until Thursday (1 May), to get your submissions in for Spellbinder Magazine. The Durham-based international, non-profit magazine publishes art and writing. They are particularly keen on experimental work or unusual themes.

Another upcoming deadline is for the online literary magazine Apricot Press. Their next edition will be dedicated to the topic of 'transformation.' The deadline for submissions is 4 May.

Closing on the same day is the joint issue of math poetry journal Hyperbolic Review with Moss Puppy Magazine. Their special issue will be math-themed, think: infinity, ancient Greek aesthetics, lyrical quantities... And don't worry, if your math poetry isn't quite finished by the deadline, the Hyperbolic Review also has a separate submission window open at the moment, which doesn't close until 1 June.

The Scottish Book Trust is currently running their annual 'Scotland's Stories' writing project. The programme invites people to share their stories and experiences in any form - including poetry. This year's edition is dedicated to the topic 'friendship'. You can submit your contribution until 6 June.

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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 the tetrad of UPenn resources: the Electronic Poetry Centre (EPC), Jacket2, UbuWeb and PennSound. All four sites are hosted by the University of Pennsylvania in the US and each one of them is a literal treasure trove of poetry. While they could all use an interface update, they offer invaluable free access to thousands of poems, sound recordings and background information on poetry and poetics. We shouldn't take these amazing resources for granted - particularly in the current political climate in the US. So while they exist: make use of them. Listen to William Carlos William or John Ashberry. Browse old issues of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E journal, enjoy the poetry of Sappho as translated by Thomas McEvilley, or read the full length of Leslie Scalapino's 'The Woman Who Could Read the Minds of Dogs'. It's all at your fingertips.

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PIG's Poetry Pick

I am currently reading Claudia Rankine's Citizen. It is an extraordinary book, sad and powerful and full of anger. I love it but including a mere fragment here didn't feel right, so I settled for another poem by her.

What If

by Claudia Rankine

i

What does it mean to want an age-old call
for change
not to change

and yet, also,
to feel bullied
by the call to change?

How is a call to change named shame,
named penance, named chastisement?

How does one say

what if

without reproach? The root

of chastise is to make pure.
The impossibility of that—is that
what repels and not

the call for change?

ii

There is resignation in my voice when I say I feel
myself slowing down, gauging like a machine
the levels of my response. I remain within
so sore I think there is no other way than release—

so I ask questions like I know how
in the loneliness of my questioning.
What’s still is true; there isn’t even a tremor
when one is this historied out.

I could build a container to carry this being,
a container to hold all, though we were never
about completeness; we were never to be whole.

I stand in your considered thoughts also broken,
also unknown, extending
one sentence—here, I am here.
As I’ve known you, as I’ll never know you,

I am here. Whatever is
being expressed, what if,
I am here awaiting, waiting for you

in the what if, in the questions,
in the conditionals,
in the imperatives—what if.

iii

What if over tea, what if on our walks, what if
in the long yawn of the fog, what if in the long middle
of the wait, what if in the passage, in the what if
that carries us each day into seasons, what if
in the renewed resilience, what if in the endlessness,
what if in a lifetime of conversations, what if
in the clarity of consciousness, what if nothing changes?

iv

What if you are responsible to saving more than to changing?

What if you’re the destruction coursing beneath
your language of savior? Is that, too, not fucked up?

You say, if other white people had not . . . or if it seemed like
not enough . . . I would have . . .

What if—the repetitive call of what if—is only considered repetitive
when what if leaves my lips, when what if is uttered
by the unheard, and what if

what if is the cement of insistence
when you insist what if

this is.

v

What is it we want to keep conscious, to stay known, even as we
say, each in our own way, I so love I know I shrink I’m asked
I’m also I react I smell I feel I think I’ve been told I remember I
see I didn’t I thought I felt I failed I suspect I was doing I’m sure
I read I needed I wouldn’t I was I should’ve I felt I could’ve I
never I’m sure I ask . . .

You say and I say but what
is it we are telling, what is it

we are wanting to know about here?

vi

What if what I want from you is new, newly made
a new sentence in response to all my questions,

a swerve in our relation and the words that carry us,
the care that carries. I am here, without the shrug,
attempting to understand how what I want
and what I want from you run parallel—

justice and the openings for just us.

Via: the Poetry Foundation.

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

Love,
Annie

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