Tuesday 3rd June

ELOISE BIRTWHISTLE, GENTIAN MEIKLEHAM & PATRICK ROMERO MCCAFFERTY

Join us for the launch of Eloise Birtwhistle's poetry pamphlet, 'Splenectomy' (published by Stewed rhubarb Press), with support readings from Gentian Meikleham and Patrick Romero McCafferty.

Eloise Birtwhistle’s debut puts the body and its histories under a scrutinizing lens in a study of our physical and mental agency.  Using wonder, precision, and a distinct intimacy, this extended poem weaves ancient with modern; clinical with natural; human with non-human; deep sea with air.

“In Splenectomy, language glides as effortlessly as a body into salt waves. Eloise Birtwhistle crafts scenes that glimmer hypnotically from the depths of the sea to the anaesthetic fuzz of a hospital bed. The poems in this pamphlet are expansive and iridescent, full of bright breath and evocative gestures.” (Alycia Pirmohamed)

“From hospital ward to Sulu Sea; from Hippocrates to Joni Mitchell, Splenectomy is a deep dive into what it is to be cared for as a patient and what is required to care for our planet and its peoples. Eloise Birtwhistle is a young poet of considerable potential and remarkable vision.” (John Glenday)

Eloise Birtwhistle’s poetry has been published in journals including Gutter, SPAM Zine and New Writing Scotland. She won a 2023 New Writers Award and was a Finalist of the 2019 Mslexia and Poetry Book Society Women’s Poetry Prize. A previous recipient of a St Mungo’s Mirrorball Clydebuilt Apprenticeship, she now co-ordinates the Clydebuilt scheme. She has led creative writing workshops for organisations including Glasgow Women’s Library, Lothian Health Services Archive and the Inverclyde Homeless Centre. Eloise loves football and currently works for the LGBTQIA+ charity LEAP Sports Scotland.

Wednesday 11th June

LIV ALDRIDGE, ENDIJA LUKSTINA & SOPHIE COLLINS

Join us for the launch of BRACKISH a zine of experiments in translation and poetry, with readings from Liv Aldridge, Endija Lukstina & Sophie Collins.

Brackish is a zine of interviews and literature in translation in a DIY format. In one half of this first-ever issue of the project, you'll find interviews with Latvian poets about portraying gender and queerness when writing in Latvian – a language with an embedded gender binary. In the second half are interviews with full-time storytellers and archivists from county Småland in Sweden about folk legends, stories and the work of securing intangible cultural heritage.

Liv Aldridge is a Swedish poet living in Scotland. She had a poem published in the spring issue of Gutter Magazine, and her poetry chapbook BAD AIR was published by The Braag in November 2023. She is currently working on her Mlitt in Creative writing at the University of Glasgow, and is a member of The Writing Squad since 2022. She is currently writing a creative non-fiction piece about pickling and place.

Endija Lukstina is a Latvian poet based in Glasgow. Her poetry has been published by sincere corkscrew press, Ambient Receiver, Big Red Cat, and Avīzes Nosaukums in Rīga. They are currently studying towards a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow where her writing projects are focused on queerness & androgyny, contemporary & digital forms of spirituality, and she is working on a creative nonfiction project about their grandmother as a swan that lives in her organs.

Sophie Collins is the author of small white monkeys (Book Works, 2017) and Who Is Mary Sue? (Faber, 2018). She is the translator, from the Dutch, of Lieke Marsman's The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes (Pavilion, 2019) andThe Opposite of a Person (Daunt, 2022), for which she received the TA First Translation Prize.