PIG UPDATE #37
19th of July 2026
Has the hot weather been sparking new bursts of sun-fuelled energy for you? Or has the heat left you in an exhausted, sweaty heap? Whatever the case may be, I might just have the right kind of poetic tonic to soothe and reinvigorate, and maybe inspire you to get out again (no matter the weather). There are some absolutely brilliant local events coming up and a night of poetic delights might be exactly what you need when the whole world is shouting about sports.
Events (20 July to 2 August 2026)
The fortnight opens on Monday (20 July) with a double bill. The Poetry Society's Poetry Review Reading Group for the Summer issue is back on Zoom from 6:30pm. Led by poet Julia Bird, this welcoming and relaxed session invites you to dive into the new issue of The Poetry Review, share your thoughts and explore the diverse voices shaping contemporary poetry. Ross Wilcock's monthly Curler's Cosy Corner open mic is also back at Curler's Rest from 7pm. As always, you get a lovely supportive atmosphere and the chance to test drive your latest work. Just sign up to read on the night.
The weekly Poet's Corner is on at Hillhead Bookclub on Tuesday (21 July). This week's theme is 'Soup' - if you were a soup, what kind would you be?! Slots are 5–10 minutes and you just show up to sign up. The same evening, Seahorse Publications is throwing the Glasgow launch of the Bute Book at Avant Garde on King Street in Merchant city. Linda Jaxson has put together a brilliant line-up with readings from Keeks MC and many others, alongside photographs, music and chat. Entry is free.
Cheltenham Poetry Festival's online workshop series continues on Wednesday (22 July) with Crafting Titles, led by poet and CPF founder Anna Saunders. The session explores how to give your poems titles with real heft and power, drawing on the work of Safia Elhillo, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Terrance Hayes and others. Tickets are £25.
On Thursday (23 July), Arvon and Obsidian's Obsidian Black Poetry Lectures continue online with Session 3: Caribbean Poetry with Lorna Goodison, from 1pm to 2:15pm. The series offers a deep dive into the Black poetry canon. Tickets are £10 and include access to the event recordings - in case a midday session is a bit tricky for you.
Saturday (25 July) is a stand-out day for poetry in Glasgow. CMN Unity presents the Connected Voices Poetry Showcase at Stereo on Renfield Lane from 5pm. This multidisciplinary evening explores poetry as a platform for liberation, combining spoken word with dance, music and visual art. Featured performers include Jj Fadaka, ACE V!S!ON, Christabel, Cecelia Isoghene, Flora Weideger and O'kanoyinsola. Tickets are £10 - though no one will be turned away for lack of funds, so get in touch if cost is a barrier. Meanwhile over on the Southside, Neuk Collective is staging Neuk Presents: Made in Glasgow: a full day of events at The Glad Cafe celebrating the work of neurodivergent and disabled Glasgow artists. The day runs from 11am to 10pm and includes an artist market (11am–2pm), a sensory-friendly relaxed afternoon performance featuring spoken word from Tem Rae Wilder, Sarah Heitler, Alasdair Watson and Ocean Teal (ticketed, 4-6pm), and a late-night cabaret of drag, spoken word and performance art - including a set from 2023 Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion RJ Hunter (ticketed, 8-10pm). And what's best: the whole day is completely free!
The weekly Poet's Corner is back at Hillhead Bookclub on Monday (28 July). Slot are 5-10 minute and as always make sure to check the organisers' Instagram ahead of time to find out what this week's theme is.
Wednesday (29 July) sees Ross Wilcock's monthly Poetry Experiment open mic return to The Alchemy Experiment on Byres Road. Doors are at 7pm and the show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are £5 and performers get a free drink - just sign up on the night.
On Thursday (30 July) Glasgow Zine Library is hosting the first session of Ellen Renton's new Different Ways of Seeing: a Creative Writing Workshop Series. Drawing on her own artistic practice and lived experience of visual impairment, Ellen guides participants through gentle writing tasks that challenge our cultural and personal relationship with sight. Sadly, tickets are already sold out, but you can still join the waiting list. Also on Thursday night, Not A Salon! is back in the backroom of Rufus T Firefly on Hope Street. The monthly open stage is open to writers of all genres, styles and experience levels - poetry, prose, short theatrical monologues, you name it. Slots are 5 minutes and it's free to attend.
The fortnight closes with a unique event on Sunday (2 August). As part of Govanhill International Festival, David Stakes performs Swimming With Social Workers: A Celebration of Life at the Community Culture & Art Association on Bowman Street. This intimate solo show combines drama, spoken word and soundscapes to explore children's rights, relationships, marginalisation and the joy of recovery, drawing on life and social work on Glasgow's Southside. Tickets are on a sliding scale of £2–£10.
Opportunities
Today's pick from among the long list of opportunities currently on the PIG website:
Glyph Magazine is seeking submissions for its next issue on the theme of 'Hope'. After the last issue which was all about horror, this time, the editors are looking for inspiration, encouragement and stories of a better future. The deadline is 31 July.
Also open until 31 July is Tiny Spoon Lit Mag, which is seeking experimental and boundary-pushing work for Issue 15 on the theme 'Weathering'. The US-based pocket-sized publication welcomes poetry, flash fiction and hybrid forms up to 1,000 words.
I am very excited about the current Plastic Language x Good Press call. The project brings together NTS Radio show Plastic Language and Glasgow's hottest indie bookshop and workers cooperative Good Press. The call is seeking sound poems, jazz poems, dub poems, text-sound experiments and everything in between to feature in a November broadcast. Submit via the online form before 6pm on 1 August.
Also closing on 1 August, is The Menu, a new online space for flash fiction, prose poetry and hybrid work from Glasgow-based Action Research Group Durty Beanz. The Menu is interested in funny-things-that-become-sad, sad-things-that-become-funny: writing that surprises itself.
Finally, a rolling opportunity worth keeping on your radar: SNACK Magazine - Scotland's free national arts and culture magazine. Snack features a short-form writing showcase on its very last page every month. Poetry and flash fiction up to 400 words are both welcome, on any subject and in any style. The selected submission receives £25. There is no official deadline for this one.
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.
This fortnight's spotlight is on the Forward Prizes for Poetry - and more specifically the shortlists, which were announced earlier this month.
The Forward Prizes are among the most prestigious poetry awards in the UK, celebrating the best poetry published in a given year. There are four categories: the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000), the Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000), and two Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000) in the categories Written and Performed. The prizes have been running since 1992, with the performance category added in 2023, and they have helped launch many a poetry career over the years.
I was particularly excited to see Glasgow's own Biff Smith being on the shortlist for best single poem (performed). Obviously, we are all keeping our finger's crossed for him! Meanwhile, you can watch all the performances of the shortlisted poems in this category via the Forward Arts Foundation's website.
I also recommend browsing the different collections in this year's shortlist. There are some genuinely exciting picks in the mix. The website offers a bit of a teaser alongside a convenient link directly to Bookshop.org if you want to pick up a copy. But all collections on the shortlist are also available to borrow online via the National Poetry Library.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London in September.
PIG's Poetry Pick
Today's pick is one of the poem's from the Forward Prizes shortlist.
Absence has a grammar
Fiona Larkin
I am learning to use the abessive
case as if I were Finnish,
to indicate that what I miss
is so much a part of me
that its loss is structural.
The suffix -tta turns a word
into a shadow of itself.
Emptied of substance,
light blows through it.
I think of moonshine,
of a bottle of Koskenkorva,
the Finns’ national liquor,
renamed Koskenkorvatta
when there’s none left.
Koskenkorvatta, I howl.
Itkin syyttä means
‘I cried without reason,’
but when a child is away
there is reason enough.
Tonight itkin syyttä.
If I join -tta to son
it impels me to write this –
not a sonata, nor sonnet,
but still, of course,
a little song of longing.
Via the National Poetry Competition (2024) where you can also watch Fiona Larkin talk a little bit about the poem before she performs it.
That's it from me today. See you in two weeks!
Love,
Annie