Word is Aberdeen University's May festival of poetry, songs, plays and books and it comes to a climax this weekend with the Word in May Festival, under the direction for the last time of poet and playwright Alan Spence[pictured].
Friday's programme starts at 11am with Ken Macleod taking a tour through the recent collection of poetry by himself and late novelist Iain Banks. Other sessions include consideration of Baudelaire in Scots, Italian scholar Marco Fazzini's Conversations with Scots poets, and music and verse from Gerda Stevenson. Kenneth White kicks things off on Saturday with heavyweights Michel Faber and David Mitchell eventually making way for Spence himself in the evening. Sunday has appearances by Kathleen Jamie, Chinese novelist Xiaolu Guo and Polish poet Wioletta Grzegorzewska.
abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival
Crichton Royal Farm makes a singular contribution to the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival on Friday by combining talents from the SRUC Dairy Research Centre and a lecturer in literature from Glasgow University's Dumfries campus. Dr Dave Roberts will explain aspects of the work on the functioning dairy farm and Dr David Borthwick will contribute site-specific poetry. Visitors can either tour the farm on foot or on a specially-constructed tractor-trailer, before an evening session from Glasgow's Poet Laureate Jim Carruth with musical accompaniment from post-grad student Chris Henry. Tickets are £5 from the SRUC Dairy Centre.
glasgow.ac.uk
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