'McCready is an intensely physical and embodied writer with a forensic gaze on the world around her' 

'a very feminine collection, centring on the experiences, desires and the bodies of women'

I was very pleased to read this new review by Elizabeth Rimmer of Look to the Crocus and particularly delighted with her focus on my ballad-inspired poems, which were my favourite to write.  

Also happy to have a couple of poems in the recent issue of Causeway/ Cabhsair, magazine of Scottish and Irish writing from Aberdeen University Press. 

Relieved to be past the height of summer - always feel not quite myself in summer and the quiet space for writing poetry disappears in the busy summer months. 

I now feel, in the back-to-school lull, the autumn urge to write falling over me and I'm preparing for it by reading a poet who is new to me and I'm utterly bowled over by her poems - Mary Szyblist. Always a joy to come across a new poet whose poems feed and inspire. Not just her themes of nature, spirituality, female experience; but her hard, crisp imagery, her music, the bringing together of metaphysical and the sensual external world reminds me of Akhmatova.  

I find myself looking again for a large theme to work within and to write a series of poems around rather than going from writing opportune poem to poem. 

It's been lovely to have poems in two Scottish anthologies that have come out this summer: Summer Anywhere published by Dreich (a new and very dynamic press on the Scottish poetry publishing scene), a bumper anthology containing poems by around 200 poets. 

And Beyond the Swelkie edited by Jim Mackintosh & Paul S. Philippou, published by Tippermuir Books and is a collection of prose and poems to celebrate the centenary of the birth of George Mackay Brown.

Click on the links for more info on both books.

I've also had a few poetry acceptances (in the midst of several rejections!!), especially pleased to have some poems taken for Stand literary mag where I've never published before, they will appear in the magazine sometime next year.

It was lovely to receive a parcel from Athens last month with my contributor copy of a selection of Scottish poetry translated into Greek. The anthology contains poems from Niall Campbell, Penny Boxall, Stewart Sanderson, Janette Ayachi amongst others. Now I know what my name looks like in Greek!

I've been reading poems by the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. I attended his zoom reading recently as part of the StAnza poetry festival online, which was really great. Then sadly he passed away just over a week later. It's an oddly different experience reading someone's poems just after they've died, as if all of their poems now take on the spectre of elegy regardless of what the poem is about. 

I was asked to contribute a poem inspired by George Mackay Brown to a book coming out this year celebrating the centenary of his birth. So I spent a very pleasant few days reading through my collected GMB which I hadn't done for a while and wrote a poem inspired by a line from his poem 'Beachcomber'.

It's an odd place to be - at the end of a collection of poems and inevitably at the start of another. Plus the process of submitting to publishers and the endless cycle of acceptance / rejection and re-submission endemic to writing and publishing. The endless waiting for responses... such a slow process.

Except for a few intense writing spells, last year was not a hugely productive poetry writing year for me. I hope this year will be different and I've certainly found myself writing my way though this month so far and seemed to have, without planning to, joined in with national poetry writing month! Lots of dross coming out but I'm long enough in the tooth to know, if I persevere, I'll get past the dross. 

Nice to have a couple of my poems in the summer edition of Poetry Salzburg Review with its characteristically beautiful cover. It's really packed full of poems and very good read! I have a three-part poem about Inveraray Castle in it. I've added the first part below.

I have a few more castle poems submitted out into the world, hopefully I'll find homes for them soon!

My other poem in the mag is a good example of a line that pops into my head but refuses to go anywhere. I liked the rhythm of it but it just wouldn't lead to anything. Luckily I was able to sneak it into the title of this poem, here's the first stanza -

After having spent Christmas in the hyperreality that is Disneyland Paris - where the initial dream-like cartoony fantasy-joy of sweet childhood nostalgia turns eventually into some Kafkaesque nightmare where every time you close your eyes magnified shapes and colours turn endlessly, cloying disney music burns on your brain and Cheshire cat smiles grow grotesquely larger on every princess' face. 'The Happiest Place on Earth' - where everyone is happy whether or not they are happy (sounds more like North Korea). However I did enjoy it - an experience truly of our age, and of course my kids had a blast though after four days they too were glad to get away from it.

Now is the time to break back into that distant memory of writing poems - put an end to post-holiday fatigue and discipline the days again.  

Plan - 

Spend an hour a day close reading The Golden Bough, making notes

Start working on random poems to break the inertia - read Lawrence and Bhatt for inspiration

Read Read Read

Continue this until the bones of a theme start to reveal themselves

Happy New Year!

Madame Ecosse

I'm delighted to say that Eyewear Publishing will be bringing out my second full-length poetry collection, Madame Ecosse, this September!!!

I've been working on putting together a second collection manuscript for a while but it wasn't until I wrote what is now the title poem of the collection last week that I felt I was able to bring the poems together as a cohesive whole.

'Madame Ecosse' was a nickname given to Winnie Ewing, mother of the Scottish National Party. She was the second SNP member to sit in the House of Commons and she represented the Highlands and Islands at the European Parliament for 24 years where she gained her nickname for never missing a chance to speak up for Scotland.
I knew immediately that I wanted to write a poem about her and when I did I realised it brought together the main themes of my manuscript.

I'm so completely delighted, I never expected that the book would come out this year and I'm so happy that the excellent Eyewear Publishing are bringing it out. It's such an innovative press and the sheer quality of their books - every Eyewear book or pamphlet I've bought is genuinely a beautiful object in itself.

So now starts the process of ordering, pruning and proofreading the collection - exciting!!


Thanks to Gillian Prew for showcasing my 'Rose Hips and Thistles' poem, first published in Paris Lit Up Magazine, on her blog here.

Also happy to have my 'Magpies', 'Night Poinsettias' and 'Owl Girl' poems published in the new Glasgow Review of Books which you can read here.

I'm so happy that Michelle McGrane is showcasing four of my poems on her wonderful poetry blog Peony Moon. Michelle's blog is a goldmine of contemporary poetry, if you take some time to read through her posts you'll not be disappointed, I'm so pleased to have some of mine in amongst all that gorgeous poetry!