Congratulations to @brambrella.bsky.social whose collection Fower Pessoas has been longlisted for the 2025 Highland Book Prize!🎉
This annual award celebrates literature that comes from the rich landscape and culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Well done to Colin!🎉
Beyond with Colin Bramwell and Gerda Stevenson
17 June, online – pay what you can
@brambrella.bsky.social & Gerda Stevenson will read and discuss poems from BEYOND, the second & last English-language poetry collection by the late Aonghas MacNeacail
www.moniackmhor.org.uk/courses/2594...
Out now - a special Irish Pages on Scotland. Why Irish? Why have we no such journal of our own? 10 years since the referendum, we take stock. Cultural memory and (thanks be) new poets. irishpages.org/product/vol-...
Celebrating the 2024 Highland Book Prize Longlist
14 May, Toppings & Co. Booksellers, St Andrews
£10/£8, redeemable against featured books
3 poets – @brambrella.bsky.social, @niallpoetry.bsky.social, & Gerda Stevenson – celebrate 2 exceptional collections
www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/st-an...
Some very kind words on Fower Pessoas from Paul Malgrati.
Finally took the time to read Colin Bramwell´s brilliant Scots translation of the great Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. Stuart Kelly called it a ‘modern Scots language masterpiece’ in The Scotsman: this isn’t an exaggeration.
(1/3)
Blown away by this review of Fower Pessoas from Stuart Kelly.
Heartening to see the general reaction to this poem from my latest: thanks to The Scotsman for selecting it as their poem of the week.
What's all that about the cruellest month?! We don't think so! April kicks off with a brilliant poetry launch party in #Edinburgh this Friday feat. three exceptional poets: Colin Bramwell @brambrella.bsky.social, Patrick Romero McCafferty & Charles Lang! Join us!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-braw-p...
Couldn't make it to one of our launches of The Oasis in March? We've got you covered! Charles will be on tour across Scotland and Ireland in April. Join us in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Galway, Cork or Paisley for festival events, readings, conversations and more —see you there! 📙 #books #poetry
The Night Ferry John Burnside Had I been less prepared, I would have left in springtime, when the plum tree in the yard was still in bloom, the windows open after months of snow, one magpie in the road and then another. I could have slipped away, late afternoon, while everyone was busy somewhere else, the fish van at the corner, children dawdling home from school in twos and threes, a porch light lit against the dusk on Tollbooth Wynd. Give me these years again and I will spend them wisely. Done with the compass; done, now, with the chart. The ferry at the dock, lit stern to prow, the next life like a footfall in my heart.
Had I been less prepared, I would have left
in springtime, when the plum tree in the yard
was still in bloom,
the windows open after months of snow,
one magpie in the road
and then another…
—John Burnside, “The Night Ferry”
published in the @lrb.co.uk, December 2020
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The Good Neighbour John Burnside Somewhere along this street, unknown to me, behind a maze of apple trees and stars, he rises in the small hours, finds a book and settles at a window or a desk to see the morning in, alone for once, unnamed, unburdened, happy in himself. I don’t know who he is; I’ve never met him walking to the fish-house, or the bank, and yet I think of him, on nights like these, waking alone in my own house, my other neighbours quiet in their beds, like drowsing flies. He watches what I watch, tastes what I taste: on winter nights, the snow; in summer, sky. He listens for the bird lines in the clouds and, like that ghost companion in the old explorers’ tales, that phantom in the sleet, fifth in a party of four, he’s not quite there, but not quite inexistent, nonetheless; and when he lays his book down, checks the hour and fills a kettle, something hooded stops as cell by cell, a heartbeat at a time, my one good neighbour sets himself aside, and alters into someone I have known: a passing stranger on the road to grief, husband and father; rich man; poor man; thief.
Somewhere along this street, unknown to me,
behind a maze of apple trees and stars,
he rises in the small hours, finds a book…
—John Burnside, “The Good Neighbour”
THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR (Cape, 2005)
Hear John Burnside read this poem on @thepoetryarchive.bsky.social
poetryarchive.org/poem/good-ne...
Musician Grace Stewart-Skinner recorded interviews with residents of Avoch in the Black Isle & combined these with her own musical compositions to create Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie. The Avochie dialect combines elements of Scots & Gaelic.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
“I wanted to honour Scots in a dramatic, vocal context… I’ve tried to bring Pessoa to life in that new context – to embolden his characters, reimagining them a century later, dislocating them to a context more personal to me.”
—Colin Bramwell on FOWER PESSOAS
themadridreview.com/f/fower-pess...
Stoked to see ‘New Shoes’ by Charles Lang, from his brilliant #poetry collection The Oasis, featured as Poem of the Week in today’s @scotsman.com! 👟🩶
“The Oasis is the real deal”, you heard it here first! 🤫 Pick up a copy of the paper for the full poem or treat yourself to a new book today! 📚
A preview of a new post against a green background.
New post 📰
Lesley Harrison writes about the launch of 'Fower Pessoas' by Colin Bramwell @brambrella.bsky.social
northseapoets.substack.com/p/at-the-lau...
#NorthSeaPoets #Poetry
Many thanks to Lesley Harrison of @northseapoets.bsky.social for her generous response to my Fower Pessoas. Great to see one more stack in the north sea. Theirs is well worth subscribing to - open.substack.com/pub/northsea...
New post! @kathleenjamie.bsky.social explores the place of lyric poetry in a post-lyric world ✍️
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetryCommunity
And there’s also a big bunch of spoken word stuff that I produced with @strongmisgiving.bsky.social and featuring @brambrella.bsky.social, @ryanvance.bsky.social, @smaychel.bsky.social, @tyronelewis22.bsky.social and @seanwaikeung.bsky.social among others
On Wednesday 5th March at 7pm, please join us online to celebrate the launch of Fower Pessoas by Colin Bramwell. The event will be hosted by Scottish Makar Peter Mackay and will feature readings, discussion & audience Q&A.
Book your ticket here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nCHoh...
Tonight's the night folks! Fower Pessoas Zoom launch, 7pm. I'll be reading from the book, and in conversation with Scotland's Makar, Peter Mackay. See you there!
www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/even...
Live online launch of @brambrella.bsky.social new book, hosted by Peter Mackay, organised by @carcanet.bsky.social Info: www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/even... #online #launch #poetry
'Pessoa’s approach is either the last word in selfishness or the opposite - generous to a fault.'
@brambrella.bsky.social interviewed about his new book Fower Pessoas, for The Madrid Review: themadridreview.com/f/fower-pess...
Image announcing the launch of North Sea Poets Features a sunset photo of a beach, a logo with blue waves, and the names of poets Kathleen Jamie, Niall Campbell, Karen Solie, Don Paterson, John Glenday, Lisa Brockwell, and Lesley Harrison.
North Sea Poets is live! We offer online masterclasses, webinars, workshops for poets everywhere (novice or adept) and readers, because poems sing in the dark times. Hope you'll join us. Pls see website. Do share.
northseapoets.com 🌊
@northseapoets.bsky.social
Posted before but time to post it again:
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
Thanks for reading. Love to all. Colin x
Finally, the good people at The Madrid Review have interviewed me about it here. themadridreview.com/f/fower-pess...
If you haven't got the book yet, it's now available from all good (and evil) bookstores everywhere. Or DM me and I'll happily sell you a signed copy.