Everybody knows, autumn is the best time for poetry. Who doesn't enjoy cosying up at home with a cup of tea, scribbling down ideas in an elegant notebook while staring moodily out into the rain? But did you also know that it's a busy time for poetry? Boy, do I have a load to report on. So let's dive straight in!

Events (12 to 25 October 2026)

The new week brings the return of the UofG's Creative Conversations series. The team at the university's Creative Writing department have put together a brilliant schedule of talks with some very exciting guests. The first lunchtime conversation is going to be on Monday (12 October) and will feature poet, writer and artist Jennifer Lee Tsai. Tsai's first book-length collection, Melete, was published by Bloodaxe earlier this year and longlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection. As always, the event is free and starts at 1pm. You can join either online via Microsoft Teams or in person at the University Chapel.

Tuesday, 13 October is pleasingly packed. City of Poets and SP SQUARE CIC continue their spooky October tutorial series with Petrified Poetry online from 7pm. Led by award-winning poet and City of Poets chairperson Spencer Mason, the hour-long session is a gentle but generative introduction to the concrete poem - one of the most ubiquitous and misunderstood forms in poetry. Tickets are £15. If that doesn't appeal, Cheltenham Poetry Festival is also running an online workshop that same evening: Making Metaphors with Anna Saunders from 7pm. The two-hour session dives into the components of metaphor - tenor, vehicle, tension - and gives you time to write, receive feedback and come away with poems that fizz with figurative language. Tickets are £25. And of course, the weekly Poet's Corner open mic is back at Hillhead Bookclub from 7:45pm. As usual, slots are 5-10 minutes and you just show up to sign up. Check the organisers' Instagram beforehand for this week's theme.

On Wednesday, 14 October, SpeakEasy is back at Adrian's Bar on Victoria Road with a very special headliner: Len Pennie. Len writes in both Scots and English and her collections poyums and poyums annaw were instant Sunday Times bestsellers. In addition to her reading, there are the usual open mic slots. Entry is free but if you want to read on the night, make sure to sign up ahead of time. Also on Wednesday evening, Glasgow Zine Library is hosting its monthly Poetry Open Mic from 6:30pm. The organiser's are always keen to welcome performers of all experience levels, so if you are looking for an inclusive and welcoming space to test drive your work, sign up for a slot.

Good Press is hosting a triple-bill book launch on Thursday, 15 October. The Glasgow launch of A Portrait of a Woman and a Still Life of Her Burger by Candi Saenz Valiente, published by Cutt Press, gets under way from 6:30pm. Candi's sharp and funny debut is a Gen X critique of love in the contemporary social landscape, set in 2022 Berlin. Reading alongside her are Kirsty Dunlop and Elle Nash. Entry is free.

Friday, 16 October offers two excellent reasons to head out. Flos Collective is hosting a Panel Talk and Open Mic as part of the Tired of Waiting Weekender at The Glad Cafe from 6pm. The event brings together neurodivergent and disabled artists - including Hannah Low, Daisy Mulholland, Daniel Leckerman and Sophie Cotton for an honest panel conversation about access, creativity and visibility. The discussion is followed by an open mic. Tickets are £7. Meanwhile, Ross Wilcock is marking a milestone with a special edition of Curler's Cosy Corner at Curler's Rest on Byres Road from 7pm. In place of the usual open mic, this anniversary edition will be an evening of curated readings and community networking including yours truly. Entry is free so if you can make it, come and join us!

Sunday, 18 October brings a couple of online launches to enjoy from home. DykeHouse Press is hosting the online launch of The Rush from 7pm. The anthology launched in Glasgow earlier this month to great acclaim, so this online celebration is a unique opportunity to hear from international contributors. Readers will include Briana Armson, Parel Joy, Mark Ward, Luke Worthy and many more. Entry is free. Also on Sunday, City of Poets kick off their Making PIES six-week poetry course at Kinning Park Complex from 11am. PIES stands for Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual and the course is aimed at anyone who wants to develop their poetic craft. It runs on consecutive Sundays until 22 November. The fee for the full course is £180, and only a few places remain, so get in touch quickly.

On Monday, 19 October, Cheltenham Poetry Festival is hosting an online reading with Corinna Board & Daniel Hinds Plus Open Mic from 7pm. Corinna Board's nature-focused pamphlets have been gathering significant attention, while Daniel Hinds' debut collection New Famous Phrases won the UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award. Tickets are pay-what-you-want with a suggested price of £5 and if you want to also read as part of the open mic, you just sign up when you buy your ticket. Also online that evening, the Poetry Society is running its Online Poetry Review Reading Group on Zoom from 6:30pm. Led by poet Julia Bird, the session dives into the Autumn 2026 issue of The Poetry Review. Tickets are £5, with a combined ticket-and-magazine option also available.

Tuesday, 20 October is another busy one. City of Poets and SP SQUARE CIC are back with the third instalment of their October tutorial series: Graverobbing with Spencer Mason online from 7pm. This week's session looks at the 'after' poem - a piece written in homage to or in conversation with another poet or work - and explores the ethics as well as the creative possibilities of the form. Tickets are £15. Meanwhile, the weekly Poet's Corner open mic is back at Hillhead Bookclub from 7:45pm.

You have plenty of poetic options on Wednesday, 21 October. Glasgow Zine Library is hosting a Parent & Baby Poetry Reading with Saskia McCracken and Annie Muir from noon. The double launch celebrates McCracken's Let Me Carry That For You - a collection exploring maternity, family history and intergenerational memory - alongside Muir's Middle Child, a sharp and funny collection about surveillance, the self and borrowed scripts. Parents, babies and everyone else welcome. Entry is free. In the evening, StoryTree is launching Issue 5 of the magazine at The Bungalow in Paisley, with performances from contributors. Entry is free and doors are at 7pm. Also on Wednesday evening, City of Poets and SP SQUARE CIC are hosting an in-person edition of their Graverobbing workshop - Graverobbing with Spencer Mason, After Poems, After Dark - at Swamp in Pollok from 6pm. This free session is part of a wider series of spooky-season creative workshops at the SWAMP venue. But that's not all. The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival is taking over The Alchemy Experiment on Byres road for Been There, Done That, Washed the T-shirt with Chik Duncan. Chik takes you through forty years of anecdotes and poyums, making the case that OCD isn't just about washing your hands and turning your tins to face the same way. Entry is free.

On Thursday, 22 October, Glasgow Women's Library is offering a special edition of their regular Story Café with Grey Hen Press from 1pm. Grey Hen Press specialises in celebrating the wit and wisdom of older women poets, and this session features readings from Red Hens: Heroines of the Left, a celebration of courageous women who have fought for liberty and equality. The event is free and targeted at women. In the evening, Good Press is hosting the Glasgow launch of Let Me Carry That For You by Saskia McCracken from 6:30pm. Following the lunchtime double launch earlier in the week, this is your second chance to hear Saskia read. There will be a guest reading by Samual Tongue and a Q&A. Entry is free. Meanwhile on High Street at Through the House Cafe, Blethering Bliss is launching a new event series called Through the Word. There will be a mix of poetry and music with readings by Bureau o’ Broadcast and Lynnda Wardle, alongside music from Jamie Dargie and The Folk Drama. If you are struggling to get out of the house, why not join the Poetry Society's online writing workshop It's Personal - Constructing the Self with Ralf Webb from 6:30pm. The two-hour cross-genre session explores how the 'I' is constructed in both the lyric poem and the personal essay, drawing on the work of Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, Fanny Howe, Frank O'Hara and Emily Berry. Tickets are £27.

Category Is Books on the Southside is hosting a pop-up afternoon poetry reading as part of the Trans History Festival on Sunday, 25 October. The reading features Roz Kaveney a poet, critic, novelist and activist recognised for her pioneering transgender advocacy. Her recent publications include the novel Revelations and a poetic memoir The Great Good Time. The event is free but ticketed - book your place in advance.

Speaking of booking tickets - I thought I'd add a quick note about several exciting events on the horizon including AFK#12 on 26 October and Ross Wilcock's Second Chance Fringe sessions on 26, 27 and 31 October. Tickets are on sale for all of them, so make sure to book before they are sold out!

---

Opportunities

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

The Scottish digital journal Sacred Land Reflections is accepting submissions for its Samhain edition, 'Annwn - the Otherside'. The publication explores the Celtic wheel of the year and welcomes poetry engaging with themes of ancestral wisdom, death as teacher, the creative power of darkness, and working with the unknown. The deadline is 13 October.

Closing on 15 October is Flat Dinners Zine. Flat Dinners is an artist collective based across Edinburgh and Glasgow. The collective is now putting together their first collaborative zine which will be themed around mess, procrastination, clutter and incomplete projects. They are particularly looking for unfinished work, first drafts, scribbled notes and abandoned ideas, alongside poems and stories in response to the theme.

An opportunity specifically for young poets is offered by the UK-based, youth-run, indie literature magazine Tea-Stained Literary. Submissions are currently open for the fourth issue of the magazine which is dedicated to the topic 'metamorphosis' and will focus on pieces on the nature of evolution and growth. To qualify, you have to be under the age of 26. The deadline is 20 October.

Coincidentally, we also have an opportunity for older poets! The Luminate Older Artists' Bursaries offer up to £1,000 to creatives aged 50 or over who are in the early stages of a new artistic career. The programme is open to all artforms and media. Applications must be made until 22 October.

You still have until the 25 October to submit to issue nine of the Scottish magazine Wet Grain. The publication has a focus on poetry and essays on matters of land-use, provenance, and ownership. You can submit up to five poems and selected work is renumerated with £50 per poem.

---

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.

Our spotlight today is on Push the Boat Out Festival in Edinburgh. The organisers have now officially released the full programme and let me tell you, it's got everything - big international names, intimate readings, rousing slams, inspiring workshops and so much more. Over the four festival days from 12 to 15 November, the organisers are bringing together over 120 artists across 75 events. This year's theme is "The Space Between". The idea of liminal and transitional spaces surfaces throughout the programme: from borderlands and dream states to shorelines threatened by the climate crisis. Highlights include a pre-festival warm-up aboard the iconic floating Fingal Hotel with former Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, an explosive opening night cabaret featuring Luke Wright, and the annual Saturday Night Gig with Anthony Joseph's hypnotic fusion of spoken word, jazz, and Afrobeat. But there are so many brilliant poetic gems. I am particularly looking forward to the Art Riot Takeover with Julie Laing, Aditya Narayan, and Emma Claire Brightlyn as well as the Poetry Jam with Anoraq. There is also the opportunity to cheer on Scotland’s emerging spoken word talent as the shortlisted poets for the Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Awards in the Spoken Word category perform in front of a live audience and the expert jury.
For the first time, the festival also includes a dedicated children and families programme with former Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho, while poets can access valuable career advice via theprofessional development programme.

You can buy tickets for each event individually or make use of the limited number of Festival Passes. The programme includes 11 free events as well as 13 events with Pay-What-You-Can tickets that are priced between £0 and £15. The Festival Pass is £55 and gives you access to the majority of the programme. It also includes the option to buy discounted tickets for workshops and food and drink events.

While I definitely recommend hopping on the train to be there in person, the festival also offers several online events you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. The online events include:

Event	Date & Time	Price
Festival Reading Group	29 Oct & 5 Nov, 16:00–17:00	Pay What You Can
Translating into Different Places (Lorna Goodison)	13 Nov, 14:00–15:30	£21.62–£26.92
Marjorie's Table	14 & 15 Nov, 08:30–09:00	Free (ticketed)
Ekphrasis: The Secret Rewards of Larceny (Kwame Dawes)	14 Nov, 14:00–15:30	£21.62–£26.92
Roundtable With Fady Joudah	14 Nov, 17:00–18:00	Pay What You Can
Penelope's Craft: an Online Reading	15 Nov, 14:00–15:00	Pay What You Can
Obsidian Foundation Online Showcase	15 Nov, 16:15–17:15	Pay What You Can
Celebrating the Troublemaker (Annemarie Ní Churreáin)	15 Nov, 18:00–19:30	£21.62–£26.92

Have a look at the full programme and get your tickets.

---

PIG's Poetry Pick

To celebrate all the great poets who made the Longlist of the Saltires this year, I thought I'd pick a poem from among the hopefuls. It was a tough choice to make...

The Respiratory System

by Vicky Husband

Breathe in: through conducting zones of allotments and back
greens, botanic gardens, cricket grounds, and pause, before
breathing out through cemeteries, bowling greens, Cross park
and Cowlairs park, and pause, before breathing in: through
Drumchapel park, Drumry wood, Garscadden burn, Kelvindale
glen, pause, and exhale through Maryhill park and Milton park,
Kelvingrove and Knightswood park, and pause, inhale: through
Possil marsh and Ruchill park, Sighthill park, and Victoria
park, pause, and breathe out through blue space, canal side,
riverside and roadside verge. Inhale through your nose, to boost
nitric oxide, into the bottom of your lungs, so your diaphragm
pushes your belly out, pause, then a deep exhale through pursed
lips, and pause, keep going through two million trees, through
ash, hawthorn, alder, birch, through goat willow and sycamore,
poplar and oak, breathe in: through forty percent of the city,
thru public green space. Listen, for the soft fascination of
canaries singing in Dawsholm woods.

Breathe in: ambient air irritants, coarse and fine particulates,
and the usual suspects of chemicals. Breathe in: through main
roads, busy roads, rush hours and moderate alerts from Air
Quality Monitors. And breathe: through inhaler, nebuliser,
oxygen tubing, nasal cannula, mask. Breathe: the best air
quality since the industrial revolution. Breathe in: ozone,
nitrogen, sulphur and carbons – monoxide, dioxide. Breathe: 20
000 litres of air daily. Breathe in: particulates measured by
aerodynamic diameter, how deep they travel into your lungs.
Breathe in: power station and factory emissions from a hundred
miles downwind. Breathe in: micropollutants with no safe
threshold level. Breathe in: toxins from across Europe, dust
from the Sahara. Breathe in: domestic combustion, vehicle
emissions, particulates of soil, sea salt, the fall out of
construction work, slough from tyre rubber. And breathe:
airborne pathogens, bacteria and virus, in laboured breaths,
short breaths, on exertion or at rest. The trick is just to keep
breathing.

via Anthropocene.

---

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

Love,
Annie

Back