Stanzalone and upcoming gigs

Stanzalone is an open-mic night held on the last Wednesday of each month at Auchterarder. It takes place in a building full of memories of great nights - the Auchterarder Picture House (which is, incidentally, undergoing a process of renovation to return it to its original splendour). 

I was excited to be invited to be the headliner at the 30 Sept 'gig' (as I like to call these things!). I'd never been before, and in fact this was my first visit to Auchterarder itself. Well worth it, let me tell you.

Carol McKay at Stanzalone, Auchterarder, 30 Sept 2026. Photo courtesy of Shirley Williams.

The event is one of warmth and camaraderie, with performances from regular attenders and newcomers. The readings included humour, topical observation of life and the world around us, sci-fi, and memoir. I was really impressed by both the content and the quality. 

That made it feel even more special for me to be the headliner. In my fifteen minute slot I read some poems from my Seahorse Publications poetry collection One Last Tango, and a couple of others, and a short story called Troubles that was published in Wasafiri issue 92 in 2016. All seemed to be well received by the audience, and we had good chat during the interval.

Carol McKay at Stanzalone, Auchterarder, 30 Sept 2026. Photo courtesy of Shirley Williams

My thanks to Shirley Williams, Tom Langlands and Lesley Buchan Donald for organising and hosting. Thanks to Shirley Williams for the photos, too. They're super. And I must also mention my friend Carol and daughter Liane who helped me with transport and support. Liane read four of her poems, which are characterised by her blend of poignancy and gentle humour. 

Liane McKay at Stanzalone, 30 Sept 2026. Photo courtesy of Shirley Williams

I definitely recommend going to Stanzalone if you can. You can find out more via their Facebook page - Stanzalone Poetry: Spoken Word Open Mic

Coming up, I have another three 'gigs'. The first is at St Mungo's Mirrorball in Glasgow on 29 October 2026 at 7pm in Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street, where the headliner is Todd Turner and I'm reading in support alongside Ryan Van Winkle and Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana. It's a privilege to read with these fine poets.

Then, on Sunday 15 November 2026, I'm one of three guest readers at Teith Lines - a poetry open-mic which is being held as part of the first Teith Fest, at the Rural Hall in Doune from 2-4pm. I'll be reading with Moira McPartlin and Chris Powici - two absolute poetry stars.

The final one of 2026 will be at Balloch Open Mic on Monday 7 December at 7pm in the Balloch House Hotel. I'll have more details about that soon.

 

One Last Tango

Fanfare!

My latest collection of poems One Last Tango has been published by the amazing Seahorse Publications. Huge thanks to publisher Dr Linda Jackson. 

You can watch a video of me in conversation with Linda on the Seahorse YouTube channel.

Endorsing One Last Tango, author and poet Allan Gaw says, 'Carol McKay invites us to travel with her through time and place in this remarkable collection. ... Here, there is the pain of loss, the trauma of childhood, the slow agony of chronic illness, but there is also acceptance in the face of tragedy. Even hope. Throughout, her style is spare yet silken; her artistry always assured.'

Poet Charlie Gracie says of One Last Tango, ‘Carol McKay is a storyteller supreme. … She is immediate, writes with such clarity, and her poems are beautiful.’

In collaboration with Seahorse stable-mate Karen Macfarlane, whose 'clear-eyed poems honour the sacredness of everyday' (Rebecca Sharp), we're in the process of in-person launches, with events at Glasgow's Avant Garde and Dundee's Forks Cafe. 

On Wednesday 27 May 2026, we'll be at Stirling Central Library from 6 - 7.30pm, with guest poets Liane McKay and Catherine Conoboy-Reid, and with Linda Jackson in the role of MC.

Gutter? Cancelled

 News in last week is that Gutter Magazine cancelled the review they were featuring of Polly Clark's latest poetry collection Afterlife. They had included it in their monthly Substack mailout, but pulled it from the actual magazine and their website. This, after Iona Lee gave it a glowing review.

The reason? Apparently something Polly Clark said - not in the poems, but in social media - offended them. Didn't fit with Gutter's world view. It wasn't illegal, what she said and the views she held, but they didn't like it, so they withdrew coverage. You can read Polly Clark's own take on this here.

You might think, fair enough. They can publish what they like. Yes, but what about the fact they are supported financially by Creative Scotland?

I don't have any answers for this. But it makes me uneasy. I trained, and worked for many years, as an information specialist. A chartered librarian. I've also studied and written journalism, and taught creative writing. I believe giving people access to information is the way to build strong individuals and communities. It leads to tolerance and understanding.

So, given that I've been a 'Friend' of Gutter Magazine since 2017, paying a higher subscription to support the magazine, how does this latest episode of 'cancel culture' make me feel? Do I really want my name on the inside back cover, as a supporter?

I wrote them a letter. It's mostly about me, but I'll post it here in its entirety.

Dear Gutter team,

I've cancelled my 'Friends' subscription. I'm sorry about this. Since its inception, I've loved Gutter, and Gutter, for the first 23 issues, loved my work. I had the honour of being the writer whose story (Frozen Waste) was the opening piece in the very first issue. My poem Holding All the Aces (issue 23) attracted huge interest and positive feedback for Gutter (and me) on Twitter. In between, Gutter published another six pieces of my writing, both poems and short fiction. 

But since issue 23, you've taken nothing of mine. Creative writing markets change, and widen, and refocus, and it's probably just that my work no longer reaches the standards needed. I accept that, though I have had work rejected by you which has gone on to be published in e.g. Causeway/Cabhsair and by the University of Strathclyde CW dept.

I was also disappointed that you didn't review my pamphlet Reading the Landscape. One of the poems in it - 'Ceilidh' - was chosen by the Scottish Poetry Library as one of the 20 Best Scottish Poems of 2022, so that suggests to me that the pamphlet was of a sufficiently high standard to be worth Gutter considering.

Ageism. Misogyny. I certainly hope Gutter's team wouldn't be guilty of those. When I was in my 20s, the ratio of men to women being published was 20 to 1. By the time I did my MLitt in 1998, the gap was less - about 5 to 1. So I've faced difficulties in being published all my life. 

I know how hard it's been for women to be regarded equally. When I went for my first mortgage for a flat with my partner, I was told my income wouldn't count. Full stop. Because I was a woman. I had to argue fiercely to make them take it into account. The 'success' was that our mortgage offer was based on three times my partner's annual salary and one of mine.

Like all women, I've been subjected to unwanted male attention - dirty phone calls at work, abuse in the streets, a poet in a position of power passing me his email address with a certain look in his eye and suggesting he might help me if I got in touch. Women have a lot to lose. I was briefly trans sceptical. I have four daughters and admit I was concerned that some man might take advantage of the trans movement to enter the women's changing rooms in shops to assault them. But I quickly moved on from that and see it for the flawed logic it is. I'm very fond of the trans people I have in my family and friendship circles, and see them as fully equal human beings.

I was concerned, however, by a report that you notified a poet you would review her poetry collection, then you withdrew that when you heard that she had expressed anti-trans views. If her poetry collection expressed anti-trans views, then I could understand you might do that, but I can't agree with you cancelling someone otherwise. Free speech is a thing to treasure. By listening to different views - as I did - we can persuade people to our case. As writers and publishers, we must be open-minded.

Have you blocked me because I once had concerns about what I perceived as the trans lobby setting back women's rights after a hard struggle to win them? Or am I just invisible? I've won the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, had a Scottish bestseller, was shortlisted in Oct 2025 for the Wigtown Festival's Alastair Reid Poetry Pamphlet Competition, am included on the Scottish Poetry Library's list of Scottish Poets, have won Creative Scotland and Magnetic North bursaries, have two poetry collections out with a third one being launched later this month, etc etc yet you don't mention me in any of your lists of writers you've published, and my name only appeared on your front cover once out of eight acceptances. Hmm. 

Well, for whatever reason, I think it's time I ended my association with Gutter. I'm genuinely sad about this because I do think you do great things. But something's gone wrong somewhere, and I would ask you as a team to consider the wider points I make in this long email.

I felt it would be wrong of me to cancel without giving you my reasons.

With best wishes,

 

How did they respond? They didn't ignore it, which was good. The managing editor wrote me a nice reply.

Dear Carol,

We’re really sorry to hear you’ve decided to cancel your Friend subscription to the magazine. We really very much appreciate all the support you’ve shown Gutter, both as a reader and a contributor. 

Over the years, the number of submissions we receive at the magazine has increased dramatically. We currently read and consider upwards of a thousand poems from 400-500 poets for each issue. Only a small number of those can be selected for publication. 

Nevertheless, we really hope you’ll continue to submit your work to us, and that we’ll have the opportunity to publish it again in future. 

Very best wishes,

No attempt whatsoever to address the issues.  Ah well. That's it, Gutter. Cancelled.

Retire? Me?

When does a writer retire?

When do we stop feeling the urge, the need, to express ourselves?

Possibly never.

And so it is that I'm happy to have my small successes through the year. 

Recent publications

In Spring 2025, I was delighted that my short story 'Flight' was published in the Aberdeen-based literary magazine Pushing Out The Boat. 'Flight' is a story about a doctor who grew up and studied in Scotland, but who left for Africa shortly after qualifying, in part because he faced ostracisation for being gay. I originally conceived this story decades ago, and the memory part of it is set in the 1980s and 1990s. In 'Flight', the character Bird returns to his old family home in Scotland and processes his loss and gains. I really appreciate POTB publishing it.

Forthcoming in October is another publication in an Aberdeen-based magazine. This time it's a poem in Causeway/Cabhsair. More about that later. Suffice to say that I'm really pleased to have my poem 'Arbitrary' included there.

Also forthcoming in October is my poem 'The Storm Woke Us' in the Linen Press anthology Look Away Now.  

Huge news for me is that my poetry pamphlet submission entitled 'One Half of the Sky is Clear' has been shortlisted for the Wigtown Poetry Prize Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 2025. Results on 3rd October.

My thanks to the publishers and editors. And as for retiring - nah, keep on keeping on.

Goodbye 2024. Welcome, 2025

You don't need me to say it. It's been a turbulent time on the world's stage this year, with conflicts and catastrophes. If only it really was a stage and we could pelt the 'bad-guy' players with over-ripe tomatoes and rotten eggs, and make them clear right off. Unlikely. Well, we might feel our efforts go nowhere, but I believe that being present, acknowledging, not forgetting, helps. Whether that's writing to our MP or peacefully attending demonstrations, or giving to charities like War Child, Oxfam, UNRWA, MAP - it all helps. Read widely. Don't be blinkered or shuttered in your views. My new MP responded fully and positively to my email about the situation in Gaza, addressing my concerns about the carnage - the genocide - there, and he has been pro-active in parliament on the subject, too. I appreciate his efforts and thank him for that. 

I could be negative. I remember the demonstrations and dissent just over twenty years ago. A million demonstrating, urging the government - Don't attack Iraq! That didn't go well, did it? But what else can ordinary individuals do? Ditto with climate action. Yet, at this year end, it's good to take stock and recognise that we can play our part (that stage metaphor again), even if it is just a tiny part. With positivity, maybe we can help bring about peace in the world's major war zones in 2025. The earliest part of it, hopefully. And take urgent action to prevent climate catastrophe.

Closer to home, 2024 has been a year of many blessings for me. Mostly family-related. I'm lucky to be surrounded by many loved ones. When I was a child, I assumed I'd grow up and be a mum - girl children did, then - but I never dreamed of this sense of security and belonging I have at age 69, living with a loving partner for almost fifty years, with this world-wide web of children, grand-children, siblings, cousins - and a much-loved and valued network of friends. Thank you, all of you. 

Of course, there have been mires and bogs and quicksands and scratchy patches of densely packed trees to scramble through. Every year has them. But beyond that, if we ever get a glimpse between those bin-bag clouds, there's a blue sky and bright sunshine, and lungs to be filled with fresh air, and even in the city you can see some stars at night. And if not this night, tomorrow night.

Creatively, this year, I've enjoyed a few special poetry successes, including poems in New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and in Dreich's final issue, 100B. And I've just heard that Hedgehog Press have nominated my poem 'When the train slowed' - published by them in their Little Black Books series - for consideration for the Pushcart Prize. My chances of winning are slim, but I'll take them! My thanks to all the editors who've considered my writing over this past year. I love you for it. 

And that's it! Whatever the next year brings us, let's approach it with positivity and hope for the best!

Lang may yer lum reek! A guid new year tae yin an aw, and many may ye see.

Norman Bissell - Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth

I recently had the pleasure of reading Norman Bissell's latest book Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth and chatting with him about it. Part memoir and partly an account of the Scottish Geopoetic movement, it's especially timely as it was written just after the death of the man who coined the name 'geopoetics' - Kenneth White - a man who was a huge inspiration to many.

But first of all, what is geopoetics? There are several descriptions in the book, but here are the ones I like best (p.106) - 

seeking a new or renewed sense of the Earth, a sense of space, light and energy which is experienced both intellectually, by developing our knowledge, and sensitively, using all our senses to become attuned to the world...

learning from others who have attempted to leave 'the Motorway of Western civilisation' as Kenneth White called it, to find a new approach to thinking and living. For example, 'intellectual nomads' or 'outgoers', who approached the world in creative ways...

Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth 

Author Norman Bissell was born in the heart of industrial Clydeside in the late 1940s. He lived in Glasgow’s densely urban environment for most of his childhood, but visits to the Clyde coast and islands introduced him to the vastness and beauty of the wider world and awoke his love of the sea. 

At University in the 1960s, he encountered lecturer Kenneth White and became something of a wide-eyed disciple of White's views. This included the call for a reappraisal of our place in the world, and the need for radical cultural renewal that sees humankind not as a species set apart and free to use the earth and its resources mindlessly and without conscience. 

Rather, geopoetics sees humankind as one integral part of the physical earth and all life on it. This change in mindset is crucial to the understanding of geopoetics. And while there have been many influences and influencers on this philosophy, Norman Bissell is surely one of the most significant – yet most modest – having been for so many years instrumental in running the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics and arranging inspirational events within Scotland and internationally.

In Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth, Bissell recounts all this experience and reflects on it. In the opening section, he charts his early life and youthful introduction to the movement in an appealing writing voice which combines factual yet often entertaining prose with poems which express the essence of geopoetics. 

A large part of the book is devoted to documenting and evaluating the wider movement’s history, right up to the present. As well as appraising and applauding the role of key figures like Tony McManus, Bissell also considers earlier influencers such as John Ruskin and Robert Burns and looks beyond the western world to Zen Buddhism. 

Nan Shepherd, Joan Eardley, George Orwell and Alan Spence are among many creatives who feature in Bissell’s detailed survey of a way of living and writing that is underpinned by the geopoetics credo. It’s an informative and engaging account of this significant and growing approach to living. It's also extremely readable and I heartily recommend it!

Norman Bissell at the Atlantic Islands Centre in Cullipool on Luing

Q&A with Norman Bissell

CMcK: Thanks for joining my blog, Norrie. Your new book is called Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth. What drew a Glasgow boy like you to the Isle of Luing?

NB: My pleasure - and thanks for the 'boy'! I write about my childhood in Kelvinhaugh and Partick in my new book and how my parents gave me a love of the coast by taking me on holidays to Dunoon, Kirn and other seaside places. I went just for the day to the Isle of Luing for the first time in 1995, as many day trippers still do, and fell in love with it right away. So much so that I knocked on the door of a cottage that was for sale that first visit and kept going back on holidays from Glasgow until I got one four years later. It was the view west to the long coast of Mull and all the little islands in the Firth of Lorn that bowled me over, and the sense of space and changing light that inspired me to write poems and want to live there once I could afford to. My first poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky, a journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing has both city and island poems in it. There are plenty of walks you can take on Luing and the people are very welcoming, wherever you're from. 'It's not where you come from that matters, it's what you do when you get here,' says one of Luing's oldest inhabitants. And I've done plenty since getting here, as my new book reveals.

CMcK: You’re Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics. What do you consider the SCG’s greatest aims and achievements?

NB: Our aim is to raise awareness of how the creative expression of the Earth can help to protect the planet and all its forms of life, and can enrich, inspire and sustain human lives as part of that. Geopoetics aims to bring about radical cultural renewal to enable us all to live our lives more fully and be more creative in whichever ways we choose. It's a big idea whose time has come and it is attracting more and more people in different parts of the world to get involved. The International Institute of Geopoetics was formed by Kenneth White and others in Paris in 1989 and the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics was set up in Edinburgh in 1995 by Tony McManus, myself and others. In my view the Scottish Centre's greatest achievement is to have grown in strength and influence in the last 29 years by consistently holding geopoetics days, weekends and even a week long Festival on Luing in 2009. These have led to its publication of 14 issues to date of its online journal Stravaig containing, poems, essays and artwork, and to its publishing imprint Alba Editions bringing out four books so far. We have held a series of online Geopoetics Conversations since the first Covid-19 lockdown and these have helped to increase our membership worldwide to over 140 who include 6 arts and science professors as well as lecturers, artists and scientists of all kinds. We now have an actual Scottish Centre with an extensive library and archive here in Cullipool Village on Luing and I'm looking forward to hosting artists' and scientists' residencies in it next year. 

CMcK: There’s a captivating film in production. Can you tell us a bit about it and when it’ll be released?

NB: It's called Expressing the Earth and we crowdfunded it in 2022-2023 to enable it to be filmed professionally by Glenda Rome, a wonderful film-maker from Portobello. She's filmed and edited it beautifully on the west and east coast to share a variety of perspectives on geopoetics along with some archive film of Kenneth White in Scotland and France. I've worked as its producer with Glenda and it's now in post-production with a view to its release at film festivals and elsewhere in Spring 2025. I think it will have a major impact and will encourage even more people to get involved in geopoetics.

Norman Bissell at the Atlantic Islands Centre in Cullipool on Luing

CMcK: You’re the author of Barnhill, a novel about George Orwell, and you’re also a fine poet. Where can we find out more about you, your books, and the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics?

NB: My website www.normanbissell.com has lots of information about me, my background and my books which can all be bought there. I'm pleased to say that Barnhill has been translated into Turkish and Arabic and hope that Orwell's warning to the world in Nineteen Eighty-Four, which he wrote on Jura about 12 miles from Cullipool, will prove useful to all those facing dictatorship and oppression. The website of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics is at www.geopoetics.org.uk and it contains many articles and essays which explain what it's all about, news of our activities and events as well as online issues of Stravaig and our other publications. You can also read about who some of the members are, and can apply to join there. It only costs £10/£5 unwaged per year! 

CMcK: Thank you, Norrie! 

 

None of This Makes Any Sense

In December 2023, I collaborated with my long-term creative partner Keith McKay on a project to produce four poems and four artworks that would inter-relate with and respond to each other. 

We entered the manuscript to Hedgehog Press 'Little Black Books' poetry pamphlet competition. And we were ecstatic when we learned we'd won! We were joint-winners alongside the softly mesmerising 'Snow', produced by Palo Almond and Peter Kenny.

Our pamphlet 'None of This Makes Any Sense' was published by Hedgehog Press on 15 May 2024. 

But is it poetry?

None of This Makes Any Sense is comprised of four poems and four asemic poems. The four poems I wrote are formed from words. Intelligible words, hopefully! But what about the four asemic poems Keith created?

First off, what does ‘asemic’ actually mean? Analysing the word's roots, it means ‘A-semic’ or ‘non-sense’. 

I’d describe asemic writing as part of a genre of visual poetry, which is becoming increasingly popular as an art form, and increasingly interesting. The asemic poems Keith has in this pamphlet are a selection of works he wrote using computer code, and writing freehand. See Keith’s website for more info on the genre.

So, I have a question for you. Can it be poetry if it's essentially meaningless? Isn't that the exact opposite? Isn't the point of writing to express how we feel about things? 

Our pamphlet is A6 in size, with full-colour images of Keith’s asemic works, one of which was sought out for an exhibition in Buenos Aires in November 2023.

My poems muse on the search for meaning and purpose in life, when – sometimes – it can seem none of it makes any sense.

You can order your signed, limited edition micro-pamphlet direct from Carol (and Keith) for £6.99 including p+p (UK only) via the link at the bottom of this post.

You can order None of This Makes Any Sense from the publisher, Hedgehog Press, too

Is it poetry? 

Is it art?

Let us know your thoughts via the 'comments' section of this blog post!