Poetry Reading Group

Calling all poetry lovers in Edinburgh – come and join us every second Monday of the month for our new poetry reading group, VOICES. From Queer and BAME voices, to Native American voices and voices in translation, our reading group will be an opportunity to explore an eclectic range of poetry.

No need to have read every poem from a collection or every collection from a poet! Come along for a casual conversation, to share interpretations and find meaning together.

VOICES: Queer & BAME Poetry

This month, our poetry reading group will focus on Night Sky with Exit Wounds by queer and BAME poet Ocean Vuong.

The release of Vuong’s latest poetry collection Time is a Mother earlier this Spring made us want to revisit his incredible debut collection. Winner of the Forward Poetry Prize in 2017 and the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize in 2018, Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other.

Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects – love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire – and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention. This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.

Join us Monday the 8th of August at 7:30pm in the bookshop to discuss this extraordinary debut from a young Vietnamese American poet. A place at the reading group is £5 – This voucher is valid up to and including the night of the event against the purchase of Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Join us for wine, nibbles and great conversation!