Vicki Husband

Here's a great offer - a poem a day delivered to your inbox for a donation (£1 or more) to Médecins Sans Frontières - link in the comment below:

Image of stylised river and roads illuminated in pink against a dark blue background with map like /medical overtones

New launch date for Glasgoscopy: Wednesday 3rd December 7pm at the Alchemy Experiment, Byres Road Glasgow, in conversation with add Gillean McDougall, come along!

Glasgoscopy launch event tonight is postponed, apologies for any inconvenience

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, When the Words Leave The poet Caroline Bird explores the silences when it feels like the words have left you.

Tonight at 7.15 on Radio 3. Writer’s block, dry spell, fallow period, worrisome silence, that terrifying, lonely time when you *cannot* write a poem. I speak to Liz Berry, Oliver Carmichael, Hannah Copley, Marie Howe, Vanessa Kisuule and Jack Underwood! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Mirrorball Gaelic Showcase with Peter Mackay with Jim Carruth - Glasgow Life Aye Write 2025 presents Mirrorball Gaelic Showcase with Peter Mackay with Jim Carruth

AYE WRITE FESTIVAL

starts today in Glasgow with lots of fine poetry events to check out. eg tonight at 6pm: Mirrorball Gaelic Showcase

with Peter Mackay (Makar), Shane Johnstone, Petra Poncarova, Babs Nicgriogair, Robbie Anndra Macleòid & Martin MacIntyre.

www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/mirr...

Newspaper Page of poetry review with photo of Karen Solie and Vicki Husband

Thanks to Stuart Kelly for the review in #ScotlandonSunday today

St Mungo's Mirrorball The Glasgow network of poets and poetry lovers

stmungosmirrorball.wordpress.com Gaelic poetry showcase 6th November at Aye Write -not to be missed

A tile effect of book covers including Looking Down at the Stars by Christina Riley, Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet, The Story of the Christmas No. 1 by Marc Burrows, Poor Creatures by Mairi Kidd, The Little Book of Christmas and Hogmanay by Anna Marshall, The North Sea by Alistair Moffat, Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales by Lari Don, Our Secrets are the Same by Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill and Graeme Thomson, Barrowland by Alison Irvine, Wild Edinburgh by Keith Broomfield, The Salvage by Anbara Salam, On Friendship by Andrew O' Hagan, La Lucha edited by Carolina orloff and White Raven by Maggie Ritchie.

It's time to Celebrate the latest BooksfromScotland issue!

Read it here: booksfromscotland.com/issue/celebr...

Thanks for your contributions @birlinn.bsky.social @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social @faberbooks.bsky.social @bwpublishing.bsky.social @canongate.co.uk @florisbooks.bsky.social & more!

Gentle reminder to add alt text to photos!

It’s an important feature to ensure this place is inclusive and accessible

If you need help remembering, you can change your settings to prompt you to add it before you post

I’m seeing a lot of disability content lacking alt text which is disappointing

CALLING ALL YOUNG POETS

The deadline for entries to the Eric Gregory Awards is 31 October.

It is awarded for a collection by poets under the age of 30.

Winners of the Eric Gregory Awards are invited to a free solo week residency at Thomas Cottage.

Poster for book launch of, text as in caption, book cover of Glasgoscopy with blue map-like/xray-like design

Exterior photo of The Alchemy Experiment shop from with green woodwork big, big windows and illuminated neon sign

Book launch! The Glasgow launch of Glasgoscopy will on Wed 12th November 7pm @ The Alchemy Experiment, 157 Byres Road, G12 8TS. I’ll be reading from the book and talking with Dr Gillean McDougall about the process of writing it. Books available to buy with *free zine poster* Come along!

front cover of a book, entitled Glasgoscopy by Vicki Husband. Cover has a white background with X-ray style image in dark blue with illuminated lines like a map of roads and a river in brighter blues

Inside cover of book opened out to reveal dark blue black background with map-like lines of river-like in pinks and blues, more abstract than the front cover

Back cover of book in white with book blurb and commendations

Glasgoscopy is published by Vagabond Voices on 14th October
www.vagabondvoices.co.uk/poetry/glasg... review copies and pre-orders now available.
Details of Glasgow launch on 12th November to follow. #booksky #booksfromscotland #poetry

Submissions will open for the 2025 annual poetry prize on National Poetry Day, Thursday 2 October for Scottish-based poets in memory of William Bonar. See posts below for details 👇

Background image shows an open notebook and pen on a wooden table. The text reads: Publishing Your Work - October 2025, Poetry & Writing Submissions - Journals, Competitions, Bursaries, Residencies. www.thisiswordbox.com

Over 160 calls for literary competitions & submissions including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, photography, & more - contests, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in October 2025. Please share & best of luck!
www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

Our friend, poet and activist @sarahmaintains.bsky.social has been illegally detained by the IDF and is being held in an Israeli jail. There are reports of mistreatment and human rights violations. Please keep pressure on the Irish government and embassy to secure the release of Sarah and others. 🇵🇸🇮🇪

US prosecutors keep charging women with ‘pregnancy-related crimes’ | Arwa Mahdawi In the two years after Roe v Wade was overturned, hundreds were charged amid growing acceptance of ‘fetal personhood’

US prosecutors keep charging women with ‘pregnancy-related crimes’ | Arwa Mahdawi

Nominations are now open for the SPL's online guide to Scottish poets Who would you like to see added to the Scottish Poetry Library’s online guide to Scottish poets? The biennial nomination process is open until Sunday 2nd November 2025.

📢 POETS WANTED!

Nominations now open for the Scottish Poetry Library's ONLINE GUIDE TO SCOTTISH POETS.

Any poet can be nominated born in Scotland, lives/works in Scotland, or is Scottish by inclination. Closing date is 2/11/25.

#NationalPoetryDay

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2025/09/nomi...

🖋️ Langside Library Poetry Project

The exterior of Langside Library is to be transformed into a spectacular display of poetry. Submission prompts:

The Battle of Langside
Knowledge and Learning
Community Access
Mary, Queen of Scots
Refuge / Haven

opportunities.creativescotland.com/opportunity/...

I think we should share this a lot today.

Story Café Special: A Most Unsuitable Game | Glasgow Women's Library Women have been playing football in Scotland for over a century and its roots can be traced back hundreds of years.

Join poet Julie McNeill & historians Fiona Skillen & Karen Fraser as they uncover the powerful, little-known history of women’s football in Scotland — a story of passion, resistance & perseverance, spanning hundreds of years.

➡️ Book your free spot:
womenslibrary.org.uk/event/story-...

Book cover of Glasgoscopy by Vicki Husband showing an x-ray style image against a white background. The x-ray appears like a map of a city with brightly illuminated roads and a river and lung-like organic shapes against a darker blockish shapes.

Coming soon to a bookshelf near you, Glasgoscopy will be published by Vagabond Voices in October 2025. Thanks to Mark Mechan for the cover design (Red Axe design). vickihusband.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/g...

It Was the End of the World and All That Was Left Were Three Million Bowls of Porridge and a Lonely Dolphin
90 x 75 cm
Acrylic on canvas
@outerspaces.scotland
#abstractart #abstractartist #abstractexpressionism #artistofbluesky #contemporaryabstractpainting #scottishabstract #scottishabstractart

At our demonstration today, I'm holding a placard stating
"I support
Palestine.
Action
must be taken."
My aim is to highlight the absurdity of the government dictating what can and cannot be said by peace-seeking people

Nature Beyond Cure: Disabled Perspectives Books that explore nature and living with disability and illness from disability perspectives. No magical cures here!

I've made a new list on @bookshop.org of books that explore nature / walking / the outdoors by disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill writers - Nature Beyond Cure - aka our own narratives are messy and complex. Do share! #BookSky #DisabledWriters
uk.bookshop.org/lists/nature...?

RSL Scriptorium Awards - Royal Society of Literature Ten writer residencies presented to professionally active writers in need of a place to write.The 2025 Prize This year marks the inaugural presentation of the RSL Scriptorium Awards, inviting applicat...

An amazing opportunity for 10 writers to spend up to a month for free at seaside cottage to write.

All details in the link below.

Please share :)

Someone needs to start a literary prize for short story collections. It seems really odd to me that we don’t have one in Ireland or the UK. Before everyone shouts about the Edgehill Prize, it doesn’t seem to be happening this year.

This 83-year-old priest has just been arrested for holding a sign which read:

“I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

According to Starmer’s new law, this puts her in the same category as an ISIS or Al-Qaeda terrorist, with a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le... Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal it was far from the truth

If you've found yourself taking the narrative of the tragic illness the helpless homelessness and the walking cure encrusted with inspiration porn with a pinch of salt over the years, this is *quite* the read. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

If you want to stop funding everything Amazon does and stands for, you’ve come to the right place.

We’re Bookshop.org, an ethical alternative for buying books online. Every single purchase financially supports independent bookstores, allowing them to continue serving their communities.

Winners and Losers: The Death of the Poetry Critic Ben Wilkinson on the current state of reviewing culture

Is it practically impossible to be an honest poet-critic today?

A new essay of mine on the decline of reviewing culture, the rise of the poetry prizes, artistic standards and integrity.

Over at the @northseapoets.bsky.social Substack:

northseapoets.substack.com/p/winners-an...