In Edinburgh, Push the Boat Out Festival is about to kick-off four days of readings, talks, workshops, performances and so much more. While I will definitely be hopping on the train to the capital, there are also a few online events you can join from the comfort of your Glasgow home. But PTBO isn't the only big event on the horizon. Rutherglen is celebrating its 900th birthday with its own book festival which offers some fantastic poetry events. That's on top of a host of regular open mic nights, online writing workshops and local book launch events. In a word: there's plenty to cover, so let's get right to it!

Events (9 to 22 November 2026)

The fortnight opens on Monday (9 November) with a bang. SpeakEasy is bringing award-winning poet and performer Bradley Taylor & Friends to Adrian's Bar on Victoria Road from 7:30pm. Bradley Taylor, a former Roundhouse Champion, headlines with support from fellow Roundhouse Champ Aditya Narayan and Sarah Grant. Tickets are £14.79 and this one is well worth grabbing in advance.

On Tuesday, 10 November you can take your pick between three events. The weekly Poet's Corner open mic is back at Hillhead Bookclub from 8pm. As always, slots are 5-10 minutes and you just show up to sign up. Do check the organisers' Instagram beforehand though to confirm this week's theme. Glasgow Zine Library's monthly Poetry Open Mic is also on that same evening from 6:30pm. If you'd prefer something from the comfort of your sofa, Cheltenham Poetry Festival is running an online reading with Sue Johns and Suzanna Fitzpatrick from 7pm. Both poets are superb performers. The event also includes an open mic section. Tickets are pay-what-you-want with a suggested price of £5.

Thursday, 12 November offers a couple of excellent reasons to head out. First, the Rutherglen Book Festival presents Tawkin Goonie in Rutherglen with Michael Mullen at Rutherglen Library from 6pm. Michael Mullen is an award-winning queer poet who writes in both Scots and English and grew up in Rutherglen. He will be reading from his acclaimed collection Goonie. The event is free but ticketed. Meanwhile, Glyph Lit Mag is celebrating the launch of Issue 6: Hope at Inn Deep on Great Western Road from 7pm. Expect a cosy evening of readings from new voices featured in the issue, drinks, and a sneak peek at the journal's next theme. Entry is free.

The online programme of this year's Push the Boat Out Festival kicks off on Saturday, 14 November with the workshop Ekphrasis: The Secret Rewards of Larceny with legendary poet Kwame Dawes from 2pm. Dawes will lead participants to explore the value of the ekphrasis in pushing poetics in new directions. Tickets are £27. That same evening, the Tentacles Collective are launching their debut anthology We Are A Gentle, Angry People from 6:30pm. The event is offered in a hybrid format, so you can join online. The anthology features work by d/Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill writers, and the evening will include readings from contributors alongside a headline performance by Jhalak Prize-nominated writer Tara Singh. Tickets are on a donation basis.

Sunday, 15 November is stacked with poetic delights - mostly thanks to Push the Boat Out! The festival's online programme continues with Penelope's Craft - an Online Reading from 2pm. This is your chance to see acclaimed German poet Ulrike Draesner and prize-winning translator Karen Leeder share a preview of penelope's cra()ft: a post-epic, an as-yet-unpublished English translation in which Penelope takes to the sea with one hundred women from Ithaca. Tickets are pay-what-you-can. Then, from 4:15pm, the Obsidian Foundation Online Showcase hosted by Nick Makoha brings together four Obsidian alumni for a conversation about community, mentorship and creative practice. On the bill are Gemma Bedeau, Aphra Le Levier-Bennett, Ed Mabrey and Maureen Onwunali. From 6pm, the workshop Celebrating the Troublemaker gives you an opportunity to work with Annemarie Ní Churreáin. Drawing on her 2025 collection Hymn to All the Restless Girls, Ní Churreáin helps writers explore the challenges of writing hidden and obscured histories, with folklore and the Otherworld as guides. Tickets are £27. But naturally, PTBO isn't the only game in town! Back in Dear Green, at the Old Hairdresser's, Art Riot Press is staging the launch of The First Bit by EmmaClaire Brightlyn from 6pm. The debut pamphlet is an emotional, often funny reflection on early motherhood, and the launch promises a spectacular evening of performances from Donna Matthew, freshly minted Forward Prize winner Biff Smith, Keeks Mc and Spencer Mason. Tickets are £5, redeemable against a book purchase on the night.

The new week starts with loads of poetry on Monday, 16 November. The UofG's Creative Conversations lunchtime series returns with poet Jay Gao in conversation from 1pm. Gao's debut collection Imperium won the 2023 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, an Eric Gregory Award and a Somerset Maugham Award, and his second collection is forthcoming from Nightboat Books and Carcanet. As always, the event is free and available both in person at the University Chapel and online via Microsoft Teams. In the evening, Mount Florida Books is hosting a discussion of Pig Data with Anne Vegter, Astrid Alben & Sophie Collins from 7pm. Pig Data is a ground-breaking collection by former Dutch Poet Laureate Anne Vegter that orchestrates a mythic collision between the South African poet Ingrid Jonker, the mythical witch Medea, and a 'scorned woman' poetic I, to interrogate the male gaze and female rage - brought to life through Astrid Alben's virtuosic translation. Sophie Collins, acclaimed translator of Lieke Marsman, joins the conversation. A stand-out event if you are interested in poetry and translation. Ross Wilcock's monthly Curler's Cosy Corner open mic is also on that evening at Curler's Rest on Byres Road from 7pm. As always, entry is free and you can just show up if you want to read. And if that weren't enough, myndstate is performing his debut show deep breath at The Corset Club in Merchant City from 7:30pm. Blending hard-hitting, vulnerable poetry with wit and humour, the show traces his journey from growing up closeted to navigating life as an openly gay man. Tickets are £16.39.

On Tuesday, 17 November, myndstate returns to The Corset Club for a second night of deep breath from 7:30pm. There are also two open mic events: the weekly Poet's Corner at Hillhead Bookclub and From the Page to the Stage at Project Ability on Trongate. The latter brings together work created during Ross Wilcock's poetry workshop earlier in the month alongside new and experienced performers sharing spoken word in a supportive, accessible setting. Tickets are £11.55. But there is also an opportunity to get creative yourself: Fire is Racing Under Skin is a generative online workshop on erotic poetry with Robert Hamberger, facilitated by The Writing School from 11am. Drawing on Sappho and contemporary erotic poems by Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds and James L. White, the session opens up 'portals' for writing your own erotic love poems. Tickets are £25.

StoryTree is celebrating its first birthday with a Birthday Party Poetry Show at The Bungalow in Paisley on Wednesday, 18 November from 7pm. Hosted by Georgia Francis and Erin Hephzibah, the evening features performances from India de Bono, Beth Rose, Molly Void, Serah Verity Miles, Cat Cochrane, Angela Yausheva, Sarah Heitler, TJ Poetry and Georgia Francis herself, plus a music set from Hangdog. Entry is free with the option to donate, with all donations going to the performers. Happy birthday, StoryTree! StAnza and Open Book are also hosting the online Well Versed with Rachael Boast from 3pm to 4pm. Boast, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature whose debut won both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize, will read from her recent collection Volvelle and take questions. The event is free and on Zoom.

The Rutherglen Book Festival continues on Thursday, 19 November with Place and Poetry: Nalini Paul at Rutherglen Library from 6pm. Doune-based poet and nature-lover Nalini Paul leads a one-hour poetry workshop, using guided writing exercises to explore connections to place, memory and landscape. As with all Rutherglen Book Festival events, entry is free but ticketed.

On Friday, 20 November Shawland's neighbourhood focacceria, Partenope Cafe, is hosting a delightful cosy autumn evening of poetry and art. You are invited to listen to poetry by Linda Jackson, Christie Williamson, Lesley O'Brien, Biff Smith and Mafalda surrounded by an exhibition of wooden dolls by Agata Pietrusz. There will also be a performance of brush calligraphy by Oana Stan, plus a chance to browse a Tiny Poetry Market.

Saturday, 21 November has got some amazing poetic gems on offer. The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is hosting A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle: Centenary Conference, a one-day public conference marking the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid's epic poem, presented by Sally Magnusson and featuring historians, writers and performers including Sir Tom Devine, Murray Pittock, Gerda Stevenson, Pat Kane, Patrick Crotty and Deirdre Grieve, with readings of the poem by Maureen Beattie and W.N. Herbert. The conference runs all day from 9am until 4:30pm. A light lunch is included in the ticket price of £29.50. In the afternoon, the Rutherglen Book Festival and the Edwin Morgan Trust are hosting a Collage Poetry Workshop with Greg Thomas at Rutherglen Library from 3pm. Greg Thomas, one of the editors of A Home in Space, leads a workshop inspired by Edwin Morgan's concrete poetry, inviting participants to discover their inner visual poet. In the evening, Mount Florida Books is rounding off the week with the launch of I don't have things to tell you x Centrefolding from 7pm. The event celebrates the collaborative epistolary collection by Mau Baiocco and Maria Sledmere - written as letters to one another between 2022-25 and published by Strange Region - alongside the second edition of Kirsty Dunlop's debut novella Centrefolding. There will be readings from all three authors and a conversation between Mau and Maria. Tickets are free.

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Opportunities

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

SpeakEasy are hosting a new SlamEasy this year and you still have until 12 November to sign up. Like last year, 10 slammers are challenged to respond and adapt to the music from the SpeakEasy house band in a three-round competition. The slam will take place on 9 December at The Rum Shack on the Southside and the top three poets will bag cash prizes of up to £50 and a future paid Speakeasy headline slot.

Tension Literary is accepting submissions for its issue VI until 15 November. The issue will be dedicated to the topic 'Winter Blues'. The editors are particularly keen on work that stirs, shocks, or surprises.

The online triannual journal Mudroom Magazine is open for submissions for issue 23. There is no particular theme for the issue and contributors are paid $15. The deadline for this issue is 25 November.

A slightly different opportunity is currently open for submissions via the 'A Poet in Every Port' project: The Word Exchange Competition is looking for short poems that celebrate the words, sayings, languages, accents and dialects from across the UK. Submissions include a video recording of the poem which is posted on Instagram or TikTok alongside an application form. The deadline is 30 November.

Also still open until 30 November is Channel, issue 16. Channel is an Irish journal dedicated to work grounded in ecological entanglement. Submissions are welcome from anywhere in the world, in English or Irish, and accepted submissions receive a fee of €60.

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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.

Today's spotlight is on Perverse, a free newsletter-based poetry magazine for (as the editor put it) “deliberate, obstinate, unreasonable or unacceptable poems, contrary to the expected practice”. Once a week, Perverse' editor Chrissy selects five poems by five different poets - frequently connected by a common theme or sentiment. In addition to the poems and short bios of the contributors, each selected poet also shares a favourite poem of theirs. I personally love the short and to-the-point format and I always enjoy (re)discovering older poems via the contributor's picks. Subscriptions highly recommended!

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PIG's Poetry Pick

Following the news that Guyanese poet Grace Nichols has won the 2026 Pioneer Prize by the Royal Society of Literature, I decided that today's pick will have to be a poem of hers. The award celebrates pioneering British women writers who have been trailblazers in their field, especially in the past when it was more difficult for women to have successful careers as writers - and Nichols fits that bill perfectly. Ever since her 1983 collection I is a Long-Memoried Woman, her work has carved a path for future generations of poets from the Caribbean diaspora to follow. My pick is from the Poetry Archive, which offers a lovely selection of Nichols work in writing and audio.

Sugar Cane

by Grace Nichols

1

There is something
about sugarcane

He isn’t what
he seem –

indifferent hard
and sheathed in blades

his waving arms
is a sign for help

his skin thick
only to protect
the juice inside
himself

2

His colour
is the aura
of jaundice
when he ripe

he shiver
like ague
when it rain

he suffer
from bellywork
burning fever
and delirium

just before
the hurricane
strike
smashing him to pieces.

3

Growing up
is an art

he don’t have
any control of

it is us
who groom and
weed him

who stick him
in the earth
in the first place

and when he
growing tall

with the help
of the sun
and rain

we feel the
need to strangle
the life

out of him
but either way he can’t survive.

4

Slowly
painfully

Sugar Cane pushes
his knotted joints
upward from the earth

slowly
painfully

he comes to learn
the truth about himself
the crimes committed in his name.

5

He casts his shadow
to the earth

the wind is
his only mistress

I hear them
moving
in rustling tones

she shakes
his hard reserve

smoothing
stroking
caressing
all his length
shamelessly

I crouch
below them
quietly.

via The Poetry Archive.

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

Love,
Annie

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