This is my second Creative Friends blog post, the series where I spotlight friends whose art inspires me. This week’s featured artist is (wait for it!) a writer, photographer, illustrator, editor, publisher AND small business owner. She also makes a mean cup of coffee. Have you guessed it yet? It’s none other than the mega-talented Lydia Cruz.

Lydia and I met at the University of St Andrews when she studied abroad there during her third year from Sarah Lawrence. We quickly bonded over our shared loves of books, kale chips, caffeinated beverages and doing too many projects at once. Eventually, she went on to collaborate with me on my first poetry chapbook, Grown Up Poetry Needs to Leave Me Alone, which she published through her indie publishing house (which she founded last year!): Knockingdoor Press.

She has exhibited work in Colorado, Scotland and New York and she’s currently working on a series of creative nonfiction essays. She’s also the current Artist in Residence at Bindle Coffee in Fort Collins, Colorado where you can see some of her work including a recent series of watercolor paintings: the girl learning about joy. Here’s Part I of my chat with Lydia:

You chronicle the world around you through various mediums (writing, drawing, photography…). Are there subjects (or themes) you would prefer to draw rather than write about? Or write about rather than draw?

That’s interesting. It’s hard to say, I suppose, but maybe only because I’ve only been drawing for a few years and fell into my portrait niche of street photographed people right away. I suppose my drawings have never felt particularly personal, where my writing is very personal. These new watercolor paintings were the first time I had ever drawn something I felt exposed by.

It was a bit unsettling, actually, especially since I did all four paintings within a week and a half—two in one day—which is something I never do. I tend to move very slowly, in both writing and drawing. I would say that both mediums fall under wanting to see and write/draw what I see. And it’s interesting how, just as a good personal essay is both very specific and universal, so many people have recognized people they know in my portraits of specific strangers. So it’s really all the same thing, I think.

I love your pen drawings (I’m the proud owner of one!) and I know you’ve been experimenting with watercolors recently. What are your favorite materials to use?

You’re so nice 😉 I still mostly use pen, jumping into watercolor whenever I feel that particular itch. I keep all my paints, brushes, and waterjars handy so I’m always about thirty seconds away from beginning if I feel a sudden pull, but I default to pen. I love drawing on a lot of different materials and prefer brown paper or other found paper/board. I had the opportunity when I was in Scotland to take possession of a whole stack of slate roof tiles, but it was right before I was flying home and I had no way to transport them. Drawing on slate really sounds like such a dream. Chalk is fun for weird typographical endeavors. I’ve also enjoyed doing some embroidered portraits in the past and am really interested in doing more with that.

A lot of your creative non-fiction essays I’ve read deal with your experience of living abroad and searching for your role in a new physical landscape amongst new people. Do you think this exploration of being a stranger in a strange land will continue throughout the collection of essays you’re working on?

Probably haha. I’ve been a bit of a stranger in a strange land since I graduated high school—moving from Laramie, Wyoming to New York, then to Scotland, then back to a very different experience of New York, and then to Greeley, Colorado, where I was born but haven’t lived since I was five. So even though I haven’t been in the UK in a few years, I have been thinking about and experiencing a lot of the same things in new ways. Which has been interesting in terms of how I approach the essays because they are all written in such immediate present tense scenes I’ve had to think about Well, was I really thinking about all of these things in that moment or am I thinking about them now and is inserting them into the piece affecting the integrity of the experience? I felt particularly strongly when I was in school about those kinds of Insertions being ultimately untrue. And there is a line. Somewhere, I suppose. Though I remember my mentor describing the process of writing personal essays being the narrativization of an experience, not a transcript. This is the door through which we could walk into discussing accuracy versus truth in memory and writing which is a bit of a minefield, so I may stop here. But yes, I think the rest of the essays will follow a similar track. They’re all kind of generally about those things, but each one (I hope) narrows down into a more specific aspect. And actually, a friend recently pointed out to me that almost all of the essays so far have taken place near the time I was going to return to the US and so, right now, the collection also seems to be about saying goodbye, which is an interesting thing to think about.

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Next week, I’ll be posting Part II of my interview with Lydia…

Creative Friends is a new series of blog posts I’ll be doing, spotlighting friends whose creative work inspires me.

First up…one of my best friends: the poet, journalist and all-around superstar Laala Kashef Alghata! Laala has just released a new poetry collection entitled Cupid’s Rage. I helped to edit the collection and I was so excited to read the final version. Laala’s poems blend raw emotionality with tightly controlled verse, playfully subverting romantic tropes (roses, stars, even Cupid himself) in ways that are intriguing and sometimes haunting. The poems mostly deal with romantic love but there are also some beautiful ekphrastic poems and poems exploring loneliness, family and hope.

Laala took some time out of her schedule interviewing dignitaries and travelling around the world (you know, the usual), to answer some questions about Cupid’s Rage and how it came to be.

CB: For some people, ‘Cupid’ might conjure up images of a cute, benevolent baby cherub. Why this title – Cupid’s Rage?

LKA: Cupid has never struck me as particularly benevolent, but that’s compounded when you think about classical mythology. Cupid isn’t the little cherub we’re presented with by Hallmark cards – Cupid is a god. We seem to forget that and see him as a messenger, but he’s powerful. I also find it interesting that in contemporary dialogue we rarely discuss that Cupid carries two kinds of arrows – one to inspire uncontrollable desire and the other to create aversion and the desire to flee. With that in mind, he’s a god I’d really rather not anger. The title, which comes from the title of a poem in the collection, really touches upon how we could make Cupid angry by “fall[ing] for the wrong one” and thus either ruining his plans or simply making him work harder to ‘right’ situations. That said: is he a god who would want people to live happy lives, or does he have a sadistic streak?

This is your second poetry collection and it was put together between 2008 and 2011, both in Bahrain and Scotland. Can you tell us a little more about how this collection came together?

It’s been quite a gap between my first poetry collection, Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart and Cupid’s Rage – nine years. I hadn’t stopped writing in that time, although it my once-prolific nature dwindled while I was completing my university degree. I realised I had quite a large archive of poems I had never collated, so I started working earlier this year on sifting through them. I think I went through about 400 poems to choose the 26 poems that make up this collection. I had about 50 at first, but through the editing process I ended up whittling it down pretty ruthlessly. It’s been quite a labour of love in that regard. The most difficult aspect was editing the poems to a state I was happy with, without editing out my younger voice.

Stars and stargazing are a recurrent motif in Cupid’s Rage. Sometimes the stars look down from afar with judgment, as in ‘Regard Me Sadly’, other times they are close at hand, as in ‘Neighbors’. What drew you to writing about the stars?

I’ve always really loved the stars. I’m afraid it’s not a particularly profound answer. Stars have always had the ability to enslave me. Growing up in Bahrain, I never saw starry nights unless I was away from home. We barely see any constellations. I can still remember the first time I saw the sky lit up with stars. I fell in love. In St Andrews, when I would be at the very outskirts of town, the light pollution would be so low that it was almost nonexistent. I’ve never seen such a gorgeous starry night. The memory of that lived with me for a long time, and most of the poems written about stars were written about my experiences while living in Scotland.

There are many references to painting and painters in the collection, as well. Your poem ‘The Painters and I’ imagines how famous painters would paint your portrait and ‘I Want to Feel Van Gogh’s Night’ vividly evokes a Van Gogh painting. Do you have a background in visual art and how does it inspire your poetry?

I both do and don’t. I do in the sense that I was very interested and very involved in visual arts as a teenager, creating many small- and large-scale paintings ranging from oil paints to acrylics, pastels and various mixed media, including sculpture. It was something I enjoyed very much and was an essential part of my life. That said, it’s not actively part of my life now except through photography, so it feels a little fraudulent to continue to say I’m also a visual artist, although I do hope to return to it.

 Finally, do you have a favorite poem or lines from the collection?

Oh, that’s not a particularly easy question to answer. Cupid’s Rage is definitely a favourite, considering I named the collection after the poem. There was something about the moment straight after writing the line ‘a modern pair of star-fucked lovers’ that has meant it’s stayed a favourite for a long time. I’m also very partial to Regard Me Sadly, Roadside Flowers and Green Fields.

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Laala Kashef Alghata (b. 1990) is an Iraqi-Bahraini poet. She graduated from the University of St Andrews, having studied English Literature and Psychology. She currently works as a journalist in Bahrain. Her debut, a middle-grade novel called Friendship in Knots, made her the first Bahraini to publish a book in English and, at 13, the youngest (at the time) to publish a book. Her second book, a poetry and prose collection, Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart, was published in 2006. Cupid’s Rage, a new collection of poems, is out now. You can get a copy here.

Website: http://laala.co

Twitter: @itslaala

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been shortlisted for Bold Types: Scottish Women’s Creative Writing Competition, which is an annual writing contest run through Glasgow Women’s Library. This event is part of Book Week Scotland 2015, a week-long celebration of books and reading that takes place 23rd-29th November.

Tuesday November 24th (aka TONIGHT!), the shortlisted writers from prose and poetry categories (my category is prose) will be reading their stories aloud in front of an audience, GWL staff and judges at the Competition Showcase. After that, the winners will be announced. Anyone is welcome to come along to the event!

Bold Types Writing Competition Showcase

Where: Glasgow Women’s Library (23 Landressy Street, Glasgow G40 1BP

When: 5:30-7:30 pm

Price: 4£/Free (GWL offers free subsidised places for students, people on a low income, unemployed or those in receipt of benefit and Friends of GWL).

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be joining the Scottish Poetry Library team as part of their brand new Ambassadors program. The poet Katie Ailes  and I will be sharing information about the library on social media and also bringing you news about poetry events happening all over Scotland. You can follow us on Twitter at @SPL_Ambassadors and follow the Poetry Library at @ByLeavesWeLive.

What is the Scottish Poetry Library, you ask?? Well, it’s a pretty great place…

The SPL is an awesome national resource and an advocate for the art of poetry. It is one of three poetry libraries in the UK and their mission is to bring the pleasures and benefits of poetry to as wide an audience as possible. They do this in lots of different ways including:

• Housing an extensive lending library (from books to CDS to literary journals)
• Podcast interviews with poets
• Events at the library (featuring local poets and those from across the world)
• Reading groups
• Engaging in interesting projects (such as Tools of the Trade, a pocket-sized anthology of poems edited by and for doctors).
• Any poetry-related inquiries you have (such as tracking down a ‘lost poem’, if you can only remember a few lines of it, or helping you chose a poem for a special occasion like a wedding!)

In short, the library is much more than a physical space. It’s an important organization that shares poetry with everybody.

I’ve also had a chance to get a sneak peak inside the newly renovated library building in Edinburgh and y’all, it’s beautiful! The space is bright and airy and I could happily have spent hours getting lost amongst the shelves.

So come visit or get in touch. See you at the Scottish Poetry Library!

At the start of this year, I set myself a task. I was going to read 50 books in 2015. Perhaps that doesn’t seem like a lot to you but, for me, that’s considerably more than normal. Despite the fact that I read pretty constantly, I’m not a fast reader and my course often demands a lot of time reading and commenting on other students’ work.

Right now, I’m about mid-way through my goal, according to Goodreads. Thus far, my little task really has inspired me to read more and, most importantly, to finish books, not just stack them up and balance mugs of tea on them! Here are three of my favorites I read this summer. If you know me, the chances are I’ve probably recommended one (or all) of these three books to you already. It’s because they’re beautiful. And I love them.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Look, it even has the word ‘beautiful’ in the title! This is magical realism, so fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez rejoice. I absolutely adored this family saga about a girl in Seattle, Washington who is born with wings.

It’s full of evocative descriptions of the rain-soaked Seattle landscape, a trio of strong and complicated heroines and, my personal favorite, lots of descriptions of food! One of the characters owns a bakery and I pretty much wanted bread every time I read this. For fans of magical realism, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s a haunting story about how love shapes, breaks and ultimately saves our lives.

 The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

If you’ve been into a UK bookstore in the last year, chances are you’ve seen The Miniaturist. I thought I’d see what the hype was about and I must say I wasn’t disappointed. This is historical fiction, set in 17^th century Amsterdam about a new bride who starts to receive strange gifts from a mysterious miniaturist (miniaturist = person who builds tiny things), gifts that seem to oddly mirror her reality…

It’s an interesting premise and this one was one hell of a page-turner! Like a Victorian sensation novel, it’s packed with secrets behind every nook and cranny. Obviously I won’t tell you what any of them are but I will tell you that I was moved to tears on multiple occasions when reading this book. The era is vividly evoked (once again, lots of great descriptions of food!) and it’s a compelling feminist tale. I think it’s rare for a book to be this well written AND this page turn-y (yes, that’s a phrase now). Highly recommended.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I have no words for how much I adore this book. Usually when I try to describe it to people, just strange, garbled syllables of joy come out.

This is a historical epic, the likes of which I’ve not encountered since I read Les Misérables (one of my favorite books ever – even if Victor Hugo does spend an absurd amount of time telling you about the Parisian sewer system).

It’s set during WWII and centers on two children: Marie-Laure, the blind daughter of a renowned Parisian locksmith, and Werner, a German orphan, whose remarkable intelligence brings him to the attention of the Hitler Youth.

Told in gorgeous vignettes, what I loved about this book wasn’t just its vivid, visual writing style but its celebration of learning and education. I also adored the noble, flawed, brave and clever characters at its center: Marie-Laure and Werner. It’s often compared to The Book Thief, another of my favorite books, but while the WWII setting and plots have a few similarities, tonally they’re very distinct.

This book really is something special. If I had to pick a favorite that I’ve read this whole year, it’s gotta be this one. Oh yeah, it also won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction so one or two other people seem to agree with me.

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What were your favorite books this summer? You’ve seen how I love magical realism and historical fiction, so any recommendations within those genres would be extra appreciated!

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been over for a few days now and I’ve been reflecting on last month’s adventures. I’ve also been sleeping forever, cleaning flyers out of my bag and eating ALL THE VEGETABLES.

Before this summer, I’d been to the Fringe as an actor, a punter and a guest performer at last year’s Loud Poets show. However this is the first year that I’ve been really, REALLY involved in that manic, overwhelming, inspiring medley of theatre, music, comedy and more that overtakes Edinburgh once a year. I joined the Loud Poets for eight nights of their festival run at the Storytelling Center and I had the pleasure of writing for Broadway Baby magazine, the largest reviewing publication at the Fringe. Balancing the two jobs wasn’t always easy, but I enjoyed my different roles, both on and off the stage.

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The Loud Poets Fringe show was so slick, so smooth, so energetic and so much fun to be a part of. Not only did we receive great feedback from audiences each night after the show, we also got awesome reviews, standing ovations and even won a new fan in Phill Jupitus, who went out drinking with us after one of the shows! I had a great time goofing off with the other poets backstage and getting to know them better. Who knew that the poet Catherine Wilson was as fervent a fan of The Great British Bake-Off as I am?

Another cool thing that happened was that my poem, 50 Shades, a poetic response to 50 Shades of Grey by E.L James, was actually nominated for Best Poem at the Edinburgh Festivals. I joined the likes of Don Patterson and a few fellow Loud Poets. In the end, the award went to my friend Kevin McLean, one of the Loud Poets, for his raw, moving poem ‘Evelyn’ which he wrote in the aftermath of his mother’s death. I was really proud of him; it’s a beautiful piece.

Overall my favorite aspect of performing was chatting with audience members after the show. One girl I met told me that her sister didn’t like poetry at all before seeing my 50 Shades poem and that poem changed her mind. Wow! I started tearing up when she told me that. I’m glad that our show has helped to demonstrate that poetry is as diverse as any other art form. I hope it encouraged people to go forth, to seek out more poetry and to write it themselves.

Being part of a poetry collective was lovely because these guys really support each other. When I was ill one evening, someone happily stepped in. When someone else was upset after a gig that didn’t go as well as they wanted, we rallied behind them. It was a really great experience that I’m sure stage actors can relate to. To share the stage with people fosters something special: a unique blend of camaraderie, playfulness, support and trust.

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When I wasn’t on stage ranting about E.L James, I was writing feature articles for Broadway Baby as their Poetry Correspondent. I only wrote features (no reviewing for me!), so I had the opportunity to chat with many diverse artists about their shows. It was interesting noticing trends in some of the interviews. For example, a lot of these artists were responding to the recent re-election of a conservative government in the UK. I also noticed an emphasis on creative collaboration in many of my interviews: see Jenny Lindsay’s discussion of working on a team with SHIFT and how Jemima Foxtrot and Paula Varjack worked with directors to develop their solo shows. The more I chatted with these artists, the more I understood that there’s no such thing as a ‘solo show’.

Other miscellaneous lessons that I learned during the festival:

-Everything will be more expensive in Edinburgh. Even some of your favorite cafes or bars that aren’t directly affiliated with the festival.

-Word of mouth is a powerful thing. If you like something, recommend it! Share it on social media. It’s a great tool when people are wading through so many thousands of shows.

-Always carry around a bit of toilet roll or tissues in your bag. Is it just me or were all the toilet cubicles always out?!!

-Last, but not least, don’t beat yourself up about not seeing everything you wanted to see. For me, there were SO MANY things I wanted to see but didn’t have a chance to. I think that’s normal? In the end, I did catch a lot of shows and, hey, there’s always next year!

For a full list of the articles I wrote for Broadway Baby, see here.

You can also listen to an interview with me, Doug Garry and Catherine Wilson on Radio Saltire about Loud Poets.

We’re over halfway through the Edinburgh Fringe, how is everyone holding up? I know that I’ve been having a wonderful time: interviewing incredible performance poets, performing myself with the Loud Poets at the Storytelling Center and generally just filling my brain with all kinds of great comedy, theatre and more!

Tomorrow (Thursday August 20th) I’ve got an event coming up as part of the Edinburgh Book Fringe, which welcomes writers and activists from around the world for readings and discussions! I’ll be performing some pieces from my chapbook, Grown Up Poetry Needs to Leave Me Alone, alongside the poet MACGILLVRAY. According to her bio, Macgillvray has: ‘walked in a straight line with a dead wolf on her shoulders through the back streets of Vegas into the Nevada desert, eaten broken chandelier glass in a derelict East German shopping mall’. So this is gonna be fun!!

Edinburgh Book Fringe, 2015

Thursday 20 August 2015 at 1.00pm

Venue:
Word Power Books
43-45 West Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
EH8 9DB
Scotland

FREE EVENT. 

For more info., check out the Word Power website.

 

Hope that everyone is as excited as I am about the upcoming Edinburgh Fringe Festival! I’ll be involved in the festival in a variety of ways and ONE of those is performing with the fantastic poetry collective, Loud Poets, at their show at the Storytelling Center!

LOUD POETS deliver slam-style, make some noise, fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry. Featuring the best spoken word artists from Scotland and beyond. Performing with a live band, meaning an exciting, different show every night. I’ll be joining them for eight nights in total.

‘the most talented and engaging poetry collective to grace the Fringe in a long time.’ ★★★★★ (TVBomb)

‘High-octane, high-volume: hijacks attention and slams boredom.’ ★★★★★ (ninemorethannone.com)

Loud Poets at the Edinburgh Fringe

August 6-31st (If you’d like to see me perform, I’ll be there on August 8th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 25-26th and 28-29th), 9-10 pm, Scottish Storytelling Center on the Royal Mile (43-45 High Street), Edinburgh

Full Price – £10.00
Concession £8.00
Reduced price Preview on Thu 6 Aug
2for1 on Mon 10 & Tue 11

Grab yer tickets here and check out the Facebook event here. 

 

Hi everyone! I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be joining a brilliant line-up of musicians and poets and more tomorrow for The High Flight zine First Anniversary party! They’re also releasing the twelfth issue of The High Flight fanzine which is FREE and awesome.

Come on down to Nice N Sleazy’s to celebrate with us!

The High Flight Live Birthday

7:30 pm on Wednesday July 29th, 2015 at Nice N Sleazy (421 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow) 

Tickets: 5 pounds at the door

More details on their Facebook event.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be writing for Broadway Baby this summer during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! I’ll be joining the Features team as their Poetry Correspondent, covering spoken word events specifically and interviewing the performers behind these fabulous shows.

For those who don’t know Broadway Baby, they are the largest reviewing magazine at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I’m so excited to be writing for this wonderful magazine that prides itself in high journalistic quality.

If you’d like to read my first feature interview, with European Slam Champion MiKo Berry, you can find it here.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful and invigorating time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

PS You can also catch me performing at the festival with Loud Poets at the Storytelling Center. More information here.