"It's why you came here" "It's why you came here"
diehard Poetry in Landscape - long poem with illustrations by Scottish artist Reinhard Behrens. £6.50 plus £1 postage ( UK).
cheques should be made out to diehard publishers
Windfall Chapbooks.
Rody already had a diehard book, and several by
other publishers, while Rob is our fourth Gaelic
book author and this is his first book. Ian Blake's
first diehard book, Aultgrishan, had quickly sold
500 copies. Sally had a book ready so hers was
fourth: PS poets Morelle Smith and Margaret
Gillies Brown will be the next two, early in 2008.
W1 Ian Blake. Waiting for Ginger Rogers at Loch Oich.
Already praised for its lyrical qualities, this book's
title poem is about a dancing chaffinch. There are
many engaging personal subjects, and one of Ian
Blake's well known longer poetic narratives about the
2nd world war holocaust. Many readers had been
clamouring for another book by Ian, and with a month's
gain on the other titles it is a bestseller already.
W2 Rob Mac Ille Chiar: Aiteachadh [all Gaelic].
Rob Mac Ille Chiar's Gaelic is lyrical and resonant.
His poems are personal and simple, owing something to
the poetry of his friend Rody Gorman and something to
that of his Canadian wife Loren Cruden. There are
sequences of haiku, contemporary takes on traditional
subjects (Aiteachadh means 'fields') and, written
with Loren Cruden, their famous depiction of today's
Celtic poets as animals (Rody Gorman is a crow).
W3 Rody Gorman: Eadar Fiaradh is Balbh na h-Oidhche
[all Gaelic]
Rody's versatile and virtuoso poetry is also well
known and there is genuine relief at diehard that we
didnt lose him through the delay, though we did lose
his original intended title, Taaadhaaal (Heeeeeelp).
He races between the comic and the deeply insightful
in this characteristically packed book. His second
diehard book.
W4 Sally Evans: The Great North Road.
Sally's collection is based on the geography of
Britain. Starting on Skye and at Aultbea, and
slithering down through the Pennines to Yorkshire, to
London, to Wales, she covers her usual subjects of
countryside, poetry and art, including The Shrine, a
prose sequence about the woods in spring, and ending
appropriately enough with two translations, one from
Gaelic, one from Greek.
These four Windfall chapbooks are £3 each plus 50 p
postage.
Colin Will: Sushi & Chips
0946230811 2006 paperback £5.20
This collection contains poems written between 2000 and 2005, and includes
a short sequence from a Japan trip.
Colin writes: I've really enjoyed the process of working with Sally and Ian in
assembling this collection - it's been a joy.
The poems span Scotland, criss-cross Europe, and then vault a frozen Siberia
to land in Japan. They’re about people, places, nature, art, history, and the
importance of chicken soup. They spring from a passionate desire to communicate,
to share thoughts, experiences and feelings through the medium of a precise
yet poetic language. Link to Colin's Homepage
Jayne Wilding: In the Moon's Pantry
0946230803 2005 £7.90
Jayne writes: I was born in Stafford in England. My family moved to
Glasgow when I was 6 years old. I later moved through to Edinburgh when I was
17 years old to study Hispanic Studies and Psychology at Edinburgh University.
As a full-time writer and poet I have been leading writing workshops in arts centres,
community centres and 'out in the elements'. I have also been involved with the Renga
Platform events, both as a participant and working as a Master. I have also taught
Creative Writing for organizations like Artlink and Survivor's Poetry Scotland. I can't
give you an exact date of when I began writing poetry, but probably around the early
1990's. I'm inspired by travel, the natural world, wild places and the connection
between mind and body. I am currently living in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.
Photo by David Thery
"This collection will draw you down to the tiniest scale then open your eyes. As the poet says in Small Times,
It is in the small times
that we find the greatest moments."
James Roderick Burns, Haiku Scotland
Maurice Lindsay : Looking Up Where Heaven Isn’t
new January 2006
Maurice Lindsay’s book is a selection by James Aitchison from Maurice’s work
since his last book, Worlds Apart (diehard). Increasingly retrospective, the
poems have all the gaiety and satisfaction we have come to expect of this
author, as he remembers events and incidents in his life, predominantly in
Glasgow, through his eighty-seven years.
Maurice Lindsay was the founder and editor of the first Poetry Scotland
series beginning in the late 1940’s. He has written many books on Scotland
and Glasgow, and in 2005, with Lesley Duncan, he edited the Edinburgh Book
of Twentieth Century Scottish Poetry.