Close Encounters

Kate Clanchy

Tuesday 10 February, 2009

7.30pm

Kate Clanchy's poetry, in Slattern, Samarkand and Newborn, is astonishingly clear and direct. These collections and her recent prose book What is She Doing Here?, which tells the story of the Kosovan woman Antigona who works as her cleaner, demonstrate that the clarity of her writing goes hand in hand with the ability to listen and observe. Kate Clanchy was born in Scotland, and lives in Oxford, combining her own writing with teaching Creative Writing for the Arvon Foundation and writing for print and broadcast media.

• At the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh

Benjamin Markovits

Tuesday 9 December, 2008

The first two books of Benjamin Markovits' three Byron novels, Imposture and A Quiet Adjustment, are published by Faber. The characters revolve around the mesmeric figure of one of the world's most recognisable poets - whose work, in unique manuscript form, is central in the archive of publishers John Murray, a new treasure trove acquired by the NLS. Benjamin Markovits talked about extracts from 'Hints from Horace' and 'Childe Harold'.

• Read Benjamin Markovits' comments on 'Horace and Harold'

Kathleen Jamie

Thursday 27 November, 2008

Kathleen Jamie called this evening 'touch me' - and appropriately enough for a Close Encounter, she'll be thinking 'about absence and presence in our own lives'. She'll talk about 'Touch Me' by Stanley Kunitz, and her own poem 'Glamourie'

• Read about Kathleen Jamie's Close Encounter

John Burnside

Wednesday 15 October, 2008

For this Close Encounter, John Burnside explored the National Library of Scotland's holdings on W S Graham, including unique manuscript items and notebooks. John Burnside's own poetry and prose fiction has won him awards including most recently the Forward Poetry Prize 2007 for the poetry collection Gift Songs, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Devil's Footprints.

• Read John Burnside's Close Encounter with W S Graham