Demonstration Room

Hugely celebrated and acclaimed poet, Don Paterson, has released a new collection: ‘The Arctic’ is an apocalyptic, savage, and elegiac work, and is now ready to be shared with Push the Boat Out’s audience. But there’s a beautiful twist to the performance. Musician Graeme Stephen joins Paterson for this exceptional and provoking event. A guitarist

In Leyla Josephine‘s debut poetry collection, ‘In Public/In Private’, Josephine questions her urge to share her inner life publicly. A poet, and award-winning film and theatre-maker, Josephine has often used her own life experiences as the foundations of her art: generously sharing her personal stories with audiences and making those private moments public. In this

Sunny Govan’s Writers Group takes to the stage in this eclectic mix of the written word. Led by award-winning performance poet and community arts worker, Victoria McNulty, the group have worked together to hone their poetic skills and are ready to share their craft with Push the Boat Out in this special, resplendent takeover event.

Open Book Reading organise and run creative writing groups in community settings across Scotland, in languages including English, Gaelic, Scots and Arabic. Push the Boat Out are delighted to partner with Open Book for a second community showcase, following on from the sold-out success of last year’s event! This showcase performance features poetry written by

In this panel event, poets Ifor ap Glyn, Juana Adcock, and Peter Mackay discuss exactly what it says on the tin: is it time to reject English? Why, when we have so much bilingualism amongst us, do UK-based poets automatically revert to writing in this colonising language, rather than celebrating the written word in other

The UK’s poetry criticism landscape is often rife with rifts, challenges, and, of course, criticism. Who can forget the divisive and notorious article, ‘The Cult of the Noble Amateur,’ written by Rebecca Watts in the PN Review, 2018, where Watts begins by asking ‘Why is the poetry world pretending that poetry is not an art

Join Scotland’s leading literary magazine for an hour of poetry and writing with their friends from Scotland’s tenant union: Living Rent. Some of Scotland’s most exciting writers will share work that explores the poetry and politics of landlordism and leaky flats, and how where we live shapes our lives. Featuring Raman Mundair, Joey Simons, Oliver

If Jay-Z can confidently say that rap is poetry, then why can’t everyone? The line between the two has been steadily greying in contemporary times, as writers and critics begin to understand the artform that is rap. Slowly, we are acknowledging great writing where great writing takes place, no matter if it’s on the page

Poets Denise Riley and Tom Pow have both enjoyed hugely successful careers which span decades of poetry, writings, and other arts-related projects. From Riley’s first collection ‘Marxism for Infants’, published in 1977, to Pow’s ‘The Village and the Road’, shown at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, each poet continues to publish and create new and unparalleled

‘Truth Prevails’: Does this Czech motto still apply in our post-truth era? Do art and poetry speak truth to power and what truth would that be in a time of societal polarisation and political turmoil across Europe? Three Czech poets and three poets from Scotland discuss their perspectives and experiences as they meet face-to-face for

From exposing the power of big tech companies, to debates around machine learning, artistic authenticity and the politics of digital communication, Dr. Pip Thornton uses poetry as a tool to examine the big questions of today’s increasingly digital society.

Tighten your VR goggles, stabilize your dimensional tracker and prepare for a poetic voyage through Virtual and Other Realities. With poetry readings from Stephen Sexton, Rachel Plummer, Elspeth Wilson and Jeda Pearl. Hosted by Russell Jones, deputy and poetry editor of sci-fi magazine, Shoreline of Infinity.

The planet is on fire and in flood, as ever more alarming reports detail the impacts of climate change and species extinction, soil erosion and air pollution. How on earth should we respond to this ever-expanding checklist of loss? In their own inimitable ways, three astonishing poets shape their work as exercises in environmental attention.

This event brings together some of the sizzling talents published by Stewed Rhubarb in recent years. In a quick-fire hour of poetry, you can expect appearances from Colin Bramwell, Ellen Renton, Tracey S. Rosenberg, Bibi June, Henry Bell and Ross McCleary. Together, we will abolish prisons, take our Highland Citizenship tests, and spend every minute of the hour endorsing poetry in its purest Stewed Rhubarb form.

The Forwards are the UK and Ireland’s foremost poetry prizes, celebrating the very best of contemporary poetry published in the British Isles. A week ahead of the much-anticipated announcement of this year’s winners, we hear from poets on the 2021 shortlist.

Scottish BAME Writer’s Network (SBWN) is an advocacy and professional development group for writers who identify as BAME, mixed-race or POC with a connection to Scotland. In this session curated for Push the Boat Out, the team present an hour of Healing and Recovery through film, poetry and prose from esteemed writers Bee Asha, Bhavika Govil, Nichelle Santagata and Zebib K. Abraham, hosted by SBWN Co-director and award-winning author Dean Atta.

Of all the literary artforms, poetry has perhaps suffered most from the perception of elitism, in terms of both who writes it and who reads it. But has this always been the case? How does Scotland fit into this rubric, both historically and contemporarily?

This takeover examining eco-politics and the climate crisis is hosted by Katy Hastie and Calum Rodger of Gutter Magazine. Gutter is an award-winning print journal for fiction and poetry from writers born or living in Scotland, and featuring literature from around the world.

The world of poetry criticism is often a turbulent place. Who is reviewed, who does the reviewing, the role of prizes and what constitutes ‘quality’, the role of the critic, who is being excluded or amplified – we’ve come a long way from ‘but does it rhyme…’ Naush Sabah (Poetry Birmingham), Gerry Cambridge (Scottish Letters), Colin Herd (University of Glasgow).