12th January 2024 – Excited to be announcing the first 2 #PibrochPlay events of 2024. A performance at Johnshaven Village Hall on 20th March and a new exhibition – Reflecting on a Future Dance – at Fittie Community Hall on 21st March as part of Climate Week North East 2024. @NorthEastArtsTouring @JohnshavenVillageHall Climate Week North East

13th December 2023 – The Future is Not F*cked launches tonight at 7pm to 8pm at the Worm (Peacock), 11 Castle St, Aberdeen, AB11 5BQ. The Future is Not F*cked is a collection of poems by a variety of Northeast poets written in late 2021. These were performed at the ‘Speakin Weird’ night and featured in a short film of the same name by Aberdeen filmmaker Sara Stroud. The film and the book include new poems by John Bolland.

6th December 2023 – I am very pleased to announce that one of the poems from the Pibroch collection, Sweetness, has been included in the Scottish Poetry Library’s selection of Best Scottish Poems for 2022. And in such fine company! https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/…/best…/ Thanks to all of the SPL team and to Ifor ap Glyn, this years editor.

14th November 2023 – Marvellous and humbling review of Pibroch in The Glasgow Review of Books. WE LEARNED TO BURN: Pibroch by John Bolland – Glasgow Review of Books

4th April – 6th July 2023 – Pibroch Tour supported by funding from Creative Scotland and the National Lottery’s Touring Fund.

14th January 2023 – Launch of Tales frae the Doric Side including Hadean Eon :4.5 Billion Years Ago .

14th October 2022 – Thanks to the editorial team at Gutter for accepting Rangifer, part of my new/ forthcoming collection – Twilt – for publication in Gutter 26. Great to be in company of old classmates like Ely Percy.

6th October – 2022 Big thanks to Rebecca Sharp and the Centre for Energy Ethics genre both for featuring an extract from Sweetness for National Poetry Day.

15th September 2022 – Broadcast day for the Words Up interview organised by shmu FM and Pushing Out the Boat. Readings of The Type, Three North East Vignettes and Retention Bonus available from the Pushing Out the Boat website here along with discussion of the background of the work and it’s links to Pibroch.

8th September 2022 – Back working with UHI Creative Writing students today – online this time. Great to meet such an interesting group of writers.

7th September 2022 – After some time, premiere viewing of the film The Future is not F***ed at the Belmont Picture House in Aberdeen. Work arising from the creative writing workshop of the same name, facilitated by Mae Daesangu and commissioned by FoE Scotland has been shaped into a film by Sara Stroud examining Aberdeen’s conflicted relationship with oil, gas and survival. Performances were filmed at Speakin Weird in Spin, Aberdeen in November 2021.

5th September 2022 – Delighted to be co-facilitating a creative writing workshop for UHI at Inverness Art Gallery with the marvellous Mandy Haggith. The workshop invited first-year Creative Writing students to respond to Mandy Baker’s thought-provoking and weirdly beautiful exhibition: Our Plastic Oceans. Participants built a lively word-horde of striking images and terms which individuals built into pieces peerformed as part of a live stream event from the Exhibition.

14th August 2022 – A pleasure to perform (and listen!) to work from across the globe at the first ever New Pitsligo International Spoken Word Festival, dreamed up, organised and curated by the inspirational (and seemingly indefatigable) Finn Hall of Blot from the Blue. And there will be a next year!

29th July 2022 – Second time around for the Wee Gaitherin, Stonehaven’s increasingly international poetry festival – performing as part of the Red Squirrel Showcase event. So many old friends and good poets – with a very substantial overlap. As always, an inspiration to discover how the Scottish and Irish poetry scenes are thriving. Thanks to Neil Young, Lesley Benzie, Shug McMillan & Marcas Mac an Tuairneir for making it bigger, better, brasher.

28th July 2022 – So! Pibroch round 2. Extremely chuffed to be among the 10 shows selected for funding in this round of Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund allocation. Gosh! A tour…oooeer? Creative Scotland on Twitter: “Ten theatre and dance productions have received nearly £1m @TNLUK funding through our Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance 🥳 Roll up, roll up, details of these wonderful shows await you: https://t.co/arorbjom2a https://t.co/RVK7HpAECH” / Twitter

14th July 2022 – Lovely afternoon being interviewed and reading some of my work which has been published by the Pushing Out the Boat team over the years. The interview and readings should feature in shmu FM’s Words Up series sometime in the autumn. Thanks to Loraine Mudie for her facilitative and generous company (and the choice of music).

11th June 2022 – Open Windows & Deeper Wells: a workshop focused on empathy, otherness and character building in writing – happy to spend this afternoon facilitating a creative writing workshop for Aberdeen Central Library on the role of creative writing in the development and support of empathy.

4th June 2022 – Finally, the Huntly Launch of my second collection, Pibroch, hosted by the lovely folk at Orbs Bookshop, the Square, Huntly. And on a busy Farmers’ Market Day!

28th April 2022 – First Aberdeen launch of Pibroch at Books & Beans hosted by the marvellous Judy Taylor and Jo Gilbert.

10th April 2022 – Great to be among the 61 poets reading Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in a production by A Blot from the Blue. HOWL – YouTube

3rd April – Chuffed to have the first of the Twilt poems – Ootsettins – published in Poetry Scotland 103. And in such fine company.

9th-13th March – StAnza. Just…StAnza!!

19th February 2022 – MC for ‘Flooers fae the fillin stayshun, words from the heart’, the Scottish Writers Centres first Speakeasy Event of 2022. Such a great bunch of readers and lively audience. Makes one proud to be a poet.

18th February 2022 – Great to be back at Avant Garde in Glasgow for a Red Squirrel Launch event generously hosted by Linda Jackson of Seahorse Publications. Reading alongside Laura fyfe and Helen Boden with a musical interlude, on alto sax, covering jazz standards and Lament for the Children. Thanks to Linda for letting me play to such a wonderful audience.

16th February 2022 – Launching the festival-version of Pibroch with Fraser Fifield at the Paisley Book Festival. Great audience and lively post-show discussion. Thanks to all the PBF organisers and support.

4th February 2022 – Great reading and conversations with Mandy Haggith, Mille van der Have and Stephanie Green as part of the Poetry Lit online event. My performance and thoughts online via the link below.

John Bolland Poetry lit! Feb ’22 – YouTube

21st January 2022 – Dates announced for the formal book launches of Pibroch at Avant Garde, Glasgow on 21st February and Scottish Poetry Library on Saturday 26th February. Looking forward to reading with Laura Fyfe who is also launching a Red Squirrel pamphlet at these events.

15th January 2022 – Pibroch (the Show) premiered to a sell-out, socially distanced audience in Glenbuchat Hall after an intense week of rehearsals and months of dilligent planning and preparation by the team.  A great week and a show that became SO much more than the sum of its parts with beautiful improvised musical support from Fraser Fifield, exploring the motif of McCrimmon’s Lament for the Children. Watch this space for more details.

My thanks to Creative Scotland & the National Lottery for co-funding the development of this work.

18th December 2021 – So!  After many trials and tribulations, THE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED!!  Almost just in time for Christmas…available (signed) from the shop on this website.  Go on! You know you want one!

12th December 2021 – getting some real traction of the production of Pibroch for next year with a great team onboard including Mark Thomson, Graeme Roger, Arthur Coates and Simon Gane with production and mentoring support from Martin Aitken and Lesley-Anne Rose of Open Road Ltd.

8th December 2021 – Great night tonight at Speakin Weird in Aberdeen as part of their The Future is not F*cked event.  New poems from the workshop facilitated by Mae Daesangu and organsied by Orla Kelly and Scott Herrett of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Great work from Mae, Orla, Sid Ozalid & Sally Silvers and the usual stellar local open mic performers.  Filmed by FoE though I worry some of my poems might have featured the f-word too prominently.

18th November 2021 – We have a cover!  Last piece of the jigsaw for Pibroch, my second collection!  Thanks to Gerry Cambridge and Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel Press for taking the words to this place.  Looking forward to launch day!

12th November 2021 – fascinating conversation with Grant Smith of As if Radio on Climate Poetry as Activism – a live-stream discussion as part of AiR’s COP26 programme.  Live radio even!

11th November 2021 – Power & Poetry reading with Rebecca Sharp and Garry MacKenzie in Power and Poetry – a ‘real-world’ gig at the Byre Theatre in St.Andrews organised by Sean Fields of the Centre for Energy Ethics.  Sell-out house in the main theatre and a marvellously eclectic and resonant triangulation on aspects of the anthropocene predicament.

9th November 2021 – The Climate of Poetry – The Poetry of Climate : chairing a stellar line-up of poets in an online reading from the Scottish Writers Centre to coincide with COP26. Jen Hadfield, Gerry Loose, Finola Scott, Elizabeth Rimmer and Sam Tongue (to name-drop a few).

6th November 2021 – COP26 Global Day of Action. I didn’t make it to the marches in Glasgow this week or the NESCAN Stand in the Green Zone at COP26 (though I’ve spent the last 3 weeks flat-out developing material for it). Reading, instead, at Deveron Projects stall at the Farmers Market in Huntly on a chill, dreich morning. Read a mix of poems from Fallen Stock and Pibroch. And the usual useful & constructive conversations about the climate emergency. Thanks to Jess, Susannah and Yevgenya of Deveron Projects for setting up a space.

1st November 2021 – OK…so I didn’t say at the time but I have received a grant from Creative Scotland’s Open Fund programme (in turn funded by the National Lottery) to develop the Pibroch text into a show! I heard in July but it’s taken us till now to get a team together and settle on dates. Great team assembled including Mark Thomson, former Artistic Director at the Royal Lyceum, Graeme Roger, a theatre and lighting designer from Moray and Arthur Coates, a versatile young musician with support from the team at Open Road. Looks like the premiere will be in Glenbuchat Hall on 15th January 2022 with the next scheduled date at Paisley Book Festival on 19th February. Rehearsing through the first weeks of January but lots to do before then.

29th October – Talking COP26 and the results of the recent NESCAN ‘Our Community: Our Choices’ consultation. Stimulating conversation – and delicious food – at the first of Deveron Projects ‘Friday Lunch’ events to be held in the refurbished ‘Square Deal’ premises on Huntly Square. What a vibrant, creative town Huntly is.

28th October 2021 – Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel just sent me the first proofs of Pibroch! Gerry has done an amazing job typesetting the text in Foundry Wilson, a beautiful distinctive font – and carefully incorporated the wordclouds and images of the Cumha na Cloinne (Lament for the Children) scores. The usual tinkering with ‘my’ long-lines required on the shift down to A5 with suitable guttering etc. But a proof! Starting to feel real!

27th October 2021 – First board meeting (online) at the Scottish Writers Centre where I am now a board-member. Lots of ideas…lots of (interesting) challenges.

14th October – So…there seems to be this new thing bubbling: Twilt. A working title. Based on the deep history of the Deveron valley – an epic poem (I think) in Scots. Part 1 from the Big Bang to the formation of this Solar System. 9.8 billion years (by some accounts) – pacy eh?

3rd October 2021 – Pleased to be reading on behalf of SWC at the forthcoming Exchange Night event on 25th October with poets from across Scotland. The event, organised by the irrepressible Linda Jackson of Seahorse Publications, will be at Avant Garde, King Street, Glasgow. More details on my events page.

1st October 2021  – Online panel discussion of geopoetry as part of the launch of the Earthlines anthology which arose from Geopoetry 2020 last October. The book is gorgeous, by the way. Available from Edinburgh Geological Society and the discussion should be available on their Youtube channel soon. Thanks to Pat Corbett, Norrie Bissell, Sara Tremlett, Brian Whalley and Phillip Ringrose for all of their effort in bringing the anthology together.

24th September 2021 – Chairing STEM Poets : Making it Clear, Making it Present as part of the excellent WayWORD Festival 2021. A pleasure to host, discuss and read with Mandy Haggith and Evelyn Pye. Thanks to the students and staff of Aberdeen University’s WORD Centre and the University’s excellent AV team for making it such a smooth event and a special shout-out to Helen Lynch. A recording of the readings should be available online soon.

23rd September 2021 – Honoured to be asked to perform at The Byre in St. Andrews as part of a set of readings with Rebecca Sharp and Janette Ayachi to coincide with COP26. 11th October. Will post further details when available.

22nd September 2021 – So…that’s the back-page copy of Pibroch away to Red Squirrel. Last bit of the jig- saw…I hope! Can’t wait to see what Gerry Cambridge does with the typesetting and layout. Watch this space.

18th September 2021 – Interesting day offering STEM Poetry Workshops during the Explorathon 2021 live event at the Aberdeen Science Centre. I had built-up a word-hoard of ‘stemmy’ words (and rhymes) with help from the exhibitors on the day from Aberdeen University Geosciences and SRUC. And, of course, they chose ‘tsunami’ as the preferred rhyming word! Of course, they did….

15th September 2021 – Proud to reveal that I have been invited to join the board of the Scottish Writers’ Centre. And that I said yes.

12th September 2021 – So…after an awesome lead time due to COVID constraints and restrictions, Elsewhere to Be was finally launched today at the Bennachie Visitors Centre with a range of readers and a sell-out audience (OK it was free but numbers were limited!). It has been a pleasure and a privilege to edit this publication on behalf of the writers who participated in the From the Colony to Tatras project dealing with migration and belonging. Thanks to the Bailies of Bennachie, the WORD Centre and the University of Aberdeen for their support.

8th September 2021 – Ahhh! Speakin Weird! Welcome back and thank you Orla Kelly.

6th September 2021 – Okaaay! Just received confirmation that my funding application to develop the Pibroch text into a spoken word show has been accepted.  Thank you Creative Scotland. Time to get the team together! Watch this space!

3rd September 2021 – Reading at OVD Vaults in an event as part of Maggie’s Culture Crawl Aberdeen. Great event for a good cause pulled together by the indefatigable Jo Gilbert. A reminder how vibrant, varied and outrageous the North East Spoken Word scene is.

19th August 2021 – Another day out! Well, more than that. Reading from Threads as part of the SWC line-up at the excellent Big Lit Festival in Gatehouse of Fleet with Gail Winters and Charlie Gracie. So many interesting events and readings and a breathtaking reading of Des Dillon’s new pamphlet, Daily Bread. Thanks to Chrys Salt and everyone involved in organising this event for their generosity, hospitality and sheer chutzpah.

1st August 2021 – Pleased that one of my Geopoems – Blur Times – will be included in the anthology – Poets’ Time – by Seahorse Publications.

28th July 2021 – So…one of my learning curves over the last year or so has been film making, editing and sound recording. I’ve added uploaded a couple of film-poems on this site. More to come as the Pibroch and other projects mature. Enjoy.

23rd July 2021 – So…Premiere of Pibroch the Reading this weekend as the first event of the Excellent Wee Gatherin organised by Neil Young and his co-conspirators in Stonehaven. First gig in-real-life for over a year as part of a programme that should put Stonehaven firmly on then poetry-map of Scotland. Hugh McMillan, Bob Beagrie, Jo Gilbert, Morag Anderson, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Donna Campbell, Graham Fulton,Chris Boyland, Mandy MacDonald, Linda Jackson, Haworth Hodgkinson, Lesley Benzie, Knotbrook Taylor, George Gunn…and of course Neil himself. A real celebration of the craft and exciting energy in the Scottish poetry scene these days.

08th June 2021 – Fair-tricket to discover that one of my poems will be published online by Magma in October 2021 as part of their forthcoming Anthropocene issue. Yes. Magma!

16th May 2021 – Well…this is different! Having worked with Judith Taylor and Jan Simpson on the prose selection panel for Pushing Out the Boat #16, Judith & I spent the day recording the performances at PotB’s online launch. Fine readings and diverse voices as always. Edited versions of each reading are available from https://www.pushingouttheboat.co.uk/issue-16-readings/

24th March 2021 – Glad to report that 2 poems – Sunlight on Brass and How John Fell into the Fairy Glen have been accepted by Veronica Aaronson for the forthcoming Despite Knowing anthology. The anthology will be published by Foreshore Press as part of the Teignmouth Poetry Festival in October 2021.

14th March 2021 – The novel is finished again (again)!  It seems to have changed it’s name by deed-poll from Bass to Threads.  My deepest thanks to everyone who has supported me in getting to this stage and especially, in the last year, to Mary Armour.

27th February 2021 – Another exciting day of interdisciplinary sharing and collaborations on the topic of The Anthropocene in an online event organised via UCLAN , Magma and the Geological Society by Yvonne Reddick and Patrick Corbett.  My film-poem, Hindcast, presented on the day, can be viewed here.

30th November 2020 – finished my second tour of duty of the Prose Selection panel for Pushing Out the Boat #16 due out in 2021.  Pleasure and a privilege to read so many (and there were a lot!) short fictions in the good company of Judith Taylor and Jan Simpson.

1st October 2020 – Geopoetry 2020.  Fascinating day of talks and readings on all things geological AND poetic in this online event organised by the  Geological Society, Scottish Poetry Library and Scottish Centre for Geopoetics.  The excerpt from Pibroch – one of my current works in progress – can be viewed here  at 1hr 45mins.  I have also contributed an essay on the Poetics of Climate Change for their forthcoming publication: Earthlines.

27th September 2020 – Pushing Out the Boat – Leopard Arts Showcase.  A great line-up for this online showcase of North East and International Writing as part of the wayWORD festival.

7th March 2020 – Launch of the collection of poems produced during the 2018 Theorartistry Poets Project in collaboration with ITIA and StAnza. Great to be reading alongside Christie Williamson, Christine de Lucca, Marjorie Loft-Gill, Ian Crockatt and Maria Apicella. The pamphlet I s being published by Tapselteerie.

22nd February 2020 – Back at Granite Noir reading in the locals in the Limelight event and as the support act to Ann Holt in the newly re-opened Aberdeen Music Hall.

11th February 2020 – Reading at the Scottish Writers Centre in great company as part of the STEM group of poets with Eveline Pye, Colin Will, Mandy Haggith, Elizabeth Rimmer, Chris Powici, Leela Soma, Lesley Traynor, Gill Ian and Joe Murray. The first in a programme of events exploring the beneficial links between poetry and the sciences especially in the context of the current climate emergency.

13th November 2019 – Great to be headlining at Speakin Weird organised by the fabulous Orla Kelly at Spin in Aberdeen – the filling between two great open-mic line-ups.

10th November 2019 – Fabulous to be meeting up with old classmates for the Glasgow University M.Litt course 2004-2006 at Hyndland Criket Ground  to fill in the gaps and hear each others work.

26th-27th October 2019 – fascinating collaborative workshop setting Doric texts to musical performance on cello with a puckle  scrievers and a posse of cellists and composers from Aberdeen University.  Facilitated and led by Helen Lynch, Laura Bowler and Noemi Boutin.  A great follow up from the We need to talk/Il faut qu’on parle premiere of Laura Bowler and Frederic Pattar’s work by Noemi Boutin and Matthew Sharp on the Saturday evening.  Intrigued to see how these collaborations will develop.

26th October  2019 – excellent lunchtime workshop on Voice in Poetry & Flash Fiction with Lemon Tree Writers as part of the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature Scheme,  Good to see new faces and catch up with old friends.

28th-29th September 2019 – a great weekend at Jenny Lindsay‘s Creating a Spoken Word Stage Show Masterclass at the Saltire Society in Edinburgh.  A really informative and inspiring workshop mapping a practical route to developing  a long-form spoken word piece.  And in great company.

14th-23rd September 2019  – NEOS 2019...exhibiting paintings, prints…and selling books at Leith Hall near Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire.  beautiful space, lovely people…nice soup!

1st September 2019 – privileged to be reading at Extinction Rebellion’s Rebel Rising Scotland Festival at Aberdeen Art Centre in the company of the awesome Imogen Stirling.  Great line up…and a bonus of Molly McLachlan agreeing I could put one of my woodcuts – Closing Time – into the gallery.  Chuffed!

23rd August  2019 – lunchtime talk on ‘Who Owns Huntly’ for Deveron projects….so far I’ve only scratched the surface!  Work-in-progress.

26th May 2019 – Reading from Fallen Stock at Blackwells Bookshop in Old Aberdeen as part of  the May Festival 2019.

25th April 2019 – Aberdeenshire Launch of Fallen Stock at Glenbuchat bothy – probably the best wee venue in the world with support from the excellent Eclectic Events team.

9th April 2019 – Launch of Fallen Stock at the CCA in Glasgow at 7.30 pm.

6th April 2019 – Launch of Fallen Stock at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh at 2.00 pm alongside Mandy Haggith launching her new book of selected poems.

23rd March 2019 – very pleased to be reading Assynt poems from my Fallen Stock collection at Achmelvich Youth Hostel at 10.30 a.m. as part of a programme of readings in Achmelvich, Stoer and Lochinver that day.  In excellent company with Ian Stephen, Howie Firth, Iain McInnes, Clio Gray and culminating with the launch of  The Amber Gatherers, the second volume of Mandy Haggith’s Stone Stories trilogy published by Saraband.

14th March 2019 – Huntly Launch of Fallen Stock in The Hive (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland), The Square, Huntly at 6.30pm.

13th-14th March – Pop up gallery featuring the my art-work in The Hive (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland), The Square, Huntly.

9th March 2019 – The long-awaited launch of my debut poetry collection will be held at J&G Innes Booksellers in St. Andrews as part of the 2019 Stanza programme.  My profound thanks to my publisher, Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel Press, my editor Elizabeth Rimmer, StAnza and J & G Innes and to everyone who has helped, encouraged and supported my career to this point.

27th February 2019 – Fallen Stock has gone to the printers, beautifully typeset and a stunning cover design by Gerry Cambridge and nurtured by Sheila Wakefield & Elizabeth Rimmer of Red Squirrel Press.

22nd February 2019 – Pleased to hear today that that I am now listed on Scottish Book Trusts Live-Literature Database.  Interested groups can now apply for SBT funding for workshops and readings.  And yes…I’m available.

21st February – Publication of Shapeshifting: Theoartistry Poetry as Theological Action Research in Open Culture co-authored by the brilliant Kimberley Jane Anderson of ITIA

30th November 2018 – Chuffed to be able to announce the launch of my first full collection, Fallen Stock, at StAnza on March 9th 2019. Event details here. Fallen Stock will be published by Red Squirrel Press.

8th-16th September 2018 – Opening of my first full exhibition at my studio near Forgue in Aberdeenshire as part of NEOS18. Examples of the work exhibited available on my Visual Arts Page.

7th September 2018 – Honoured to be reading at what will sadly be the last of Sally Evans’ and Ian Kings’ Callendar Poetry weekend and to have my poem,Obedience, published in Issue 100 of Poetry Scotland.

16th June 2018 – Launch of the Expressing Recovery in the North East workshop programme with a taster session at this year’s Three Forums One Voice event at Curl Aberdeen. ‘Over-subscribed’ workshop but great group and excellent work combining watercolour with haiku. Looking forward to the full programme.

28th April 2018 – I think I’ve built myself a studio…for those of you resisting the urge to say ‘I didn’t think he had it in him’….me neither!

26th April 2018 – Reading with Judith Taylor, Bernard Briggs, Martin Walsh, Richie Brown, Catriona Yuile and E. E. Chandler at the Pushing Out the Boat Showcase at Books & Beans, Aberdeen.

13th April 2018 – Just back from a week in Skye at Hamish Napier’s Flute and Whistle course at Sabhal Mor Ostaig. What a wonderful institution. Great vibe and Hamish’s tuition measured, wise and inspiring. So much to practice on.

28th March 2018 – Chuffed that my poem, The Stobbie Hedge, was selected in the face of stiff opposition (I am told) as the poem to launch the new North East Scotland Language Board. Beautiful reading by the multi-talented Iona Fyffe at the Aberdeen University conference centre.

26th March 2018 – Back in paradise. Painting in the morning followed by a guided tour of the Clachtol Broch and the launch of Mandy Haggith’s new novel, The Walrus Mutterer.

24th March 2018 – Dee Don Ceilidh Collective 2018 kicked off with a great series of workshops in Ballater followed by a joyous extended session (musical) in the Deeside Inn. Thanks to Megan Albon and all the team.

11th March 2018 – Well…that was StAnza! Marvellous as always thanks to Eleanor Livingstone, Annie Rutherford and the rest of the team. Great readings by Pippa Little, the Red Squirrel Poets…fascinating discussions and the usual joyous open mics and slam. And the premiere of So Much for the Stag and the other Theoartistry poems.

6th March 2018 – Catching up with my fellow Theoartistry Poets – Christie Williamson, Christine de Lucca, Marjorie Lofti-Gill, Ian Crockett and M.A. Apichella. Great company. And a pleasure to attend the premiere of choral work composed by the Theoartistry Composers and available on te Annunciations CD.

5th March 2018 – In St. Andrews for the two-day Theoartistry Festival preceding StAnza. A pleasure to finally meet Kimberley Anderson and the rest of the ITIA team. Fascinating debates arising from the Theoartistry Composers project and keynote speeches by James McMillan and Michael Symmons Roberts.

24th February 2018 – Enjoyed reading an excerpt from my Doric-Noir novel A Lad O Pairts at the Lemon Tree Studio Theatre, Aberdeen to a packed audience as part of this years Granite Noir festival. Really encouraging feedback…Thanks to Lee Randall and the organisers for creating space for new voices.

5th February 2018 – Kicking of an exciting new collaboration with Kimberley Jane Anderson, a theologian at University of St. Andrews as part of the Theoartistry Poets project sponsored by Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts and Stanza. We’ll be working together on a new poetic response to The Song of Songs 3.6-11.

15th December 2017 – A real joy to hear the full recording of the Recovery Song, mixed and mastered by Sandy Mack and blended with visuals for the workshops. A real privilege to be part of this community.

13th November 2017 – Great recording session at the Huntly Hub of ‘Recovery’, the song devised and developed by the Huntly Recovery Group in September. Great to hear voices and music brought together in a professional and inspiring way.

8th November 2017 – Great night performing with so many talented poets including Kevin McLean and Katie Ailes at Speakin Weird, Spin, Aberdeen

29th October 2017 – Reading vignettes and poetry from Pushing Out the Boat 14 with other PotB contributors at the Belmont Cinema Café, Belmont Street, Aberdeen

24th October 2017 – Reading as part of next years Granite Noir festival in Aberdeen from my work in progress Lad o Pairts.

23rd October 2017 – Pleased to be reading my poem – Funerals – and a few others in good company at the launch of From Glasgow to Saturn 39 in Dram, Woodlands Road, Glasgow

22nd September – Privileged to facilitate a song-writing workshop, in collaboration with Sandy Mack, at the Huntly Hub. Zero to a four verse song in5 hours with twenty enthusiastic participants (and lunch!) (Songs are not just like poems…I know I said they were but they’re not!)

6th September – Reading at the excellent Speakin Weird event at Spin, Aberdeen in the company of so many talented spoken word artists.

1st September 2017 – Privileged to facilitate a Doric Bodies creative writing workshop for the Grampian Pain Support Group at the Frederick Street Health Village. An enjoyable session with a bunch of inspiring people.

24th August 2017 Reading a selection of recent poems as part of the Aberdeen Booked Festival at Aberdeen Arts Centre

27th Feb. 2017 – Pleased to have been once again selected for inclusion in Pushing Out the Boat Issue 14. Short fiction in Three North East Vignettes and poetry in The Type and Retention Bonus coming out in Spring 2017

26th Feb. 2017 – Facilitating a Dark Doric creative writing workshop in collaboration with Shane Strachan as part of Granite Noir, Aberdeen’s first Crime Writing Festival

18th Feb. 2017 – Reading at the Inspiration Point Literary Salon at the Lemon Tree Aberdeen along with fellow Aberdeen Writers Studio authors, Inspiration Point Writers in Residence and Morna Young, the 2017 Dr. Gavin Wallace Writing Fellow.

16th – 25th Jan. 2017 : Inspiration Point Residency with Fifth Ring Ltd. Two weeks of work in collaboration with the team at the Aberdeen offices of an international PR agency developing new work inspired by the business climate in Aberdeen and International Oil and the processes and practices of contemporary marketing and PR.

21st Nov. 2016 : Aiblins : New Scottish Political Poetry, Aberdeen Launch, the Underdog, Castlegate, Aberdeen – watch this space for further details.

6th Oct. 2016 : reading at the Federation for Writers Scotland National Poetry Day event at GOMA, Queens St., Glasgow.
FWS National Poetry Day Event