@ Aye Write! Festival, Glasgow, Thur 17 Mar 2016
One of the most interesting strands of the Aye Write! Festival is the Introducing section. Here audiences gets the chance to experience new writers discuss their work and read from their books. Poetry is not left out of this section and this evening Helen Mort and Rebecca Perry are in attendance at the Blythswood Room in the Mitchell Library. The audience appears to be made up of aspiring poets and this leads to an informative and interesting discussion.
Glasgow poet Jim Carruth is hosting the event in jovial style. First to read is Rebecca Perry who Carruth describes as “an important new voice in poetry”. Not long into the reading and this bold claim becomes very evident. Perry opens with a forlorn and melancholy poem about the character Millhouse from the popular television show The Simpsons. It is entitled Lemon of Troy where Millhouse declares his love for Lisa Simpson. The visceral and delightful imagination of the writer continues as she reads from her collection Beauty, Beauty. Rebecca has a fantastic way with words and expresses passion and a sense of ease that draws the audience in. Engaging poems entitled My Favourite Dinosaur, Windows and an old poem called Other Clouds showcase the versatility of the writer.
Helen Mort is also a versatile writer. She has so many nominations and awards to her name it would be impossible to list them all here. This fact is not lost on Jim Carruth and he emphatically introduces Helen, proclaiming that she has “an impressive gift for capturing the moment perfectly”. From her first reading on-wards there is no arguing with this fact. Helen Mort is an interesting and confident writer. She opens with a humorous and touching poem entitled The Complete Works of Anonymous. This sets the tone for the remainder of her short but entertaining reading. The audience is lucky enough to experience some new poetry which will be included in the writersvnew collection. The theme of this book focusses on the history of Woman’s mountaineering. A poem called An Ode to Bob suggests that this book will grab the reader in the same way her previous collection Division Street did.
The poetry events continue into the final weekend of the Aye Write! Festival at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Helen Mort and Rebecca Perry were a great pairing this evening so the other events have a lot to live up to.
Aye Write! is @ The Mitchell Library, Glasgow from Thu 10 Mar to Sun 20 Mar 2016