Poetry as Witness, Poetry as Protest
Poets Hannah Lavery and Don Mee Choi are united by their embrace of work which is insistently both playful and political, writing as witness, archive and protest in an urgent and unpredictable world.
Don Mee Choi’s Freely Frayed gathers early poems, recent essays and translation notes by the National Book Award winner and grapples with the politics of distance and language in exploration of anti-colonial logic and identity. Simultaneously restless and playful, these poems and essays move us to inspect our own sense of place and language.
The most recent collection by former Edinburgh Makar Hannah Lavery, Everything Everyday, is a formally innovative poetic journal of the year, in which personal confession and public ritual converge. The book’s richly textured sequences weave together everyday moments of joy with the unfolding chronicle of contemporary grief and protest.
Similar Events You May Enjoy...
Tracing the Shoreline
4:00 pm - 4:55 pm
Within this year’s festival theme, The Space Between, we’re exploring shorelines, their significance, power and the threat posed by climate crisis to our coastlines. Garry Mackenzie will join us with Firth, a poetic portrait of the Firth of Forth. Alycia Pirmohamed will read from her upcoming collection, as well as her memoir, Shorelines.
Get Tickets
Opening Night Cabaret, with Luke Wright
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Join us as we launch Push the Boat Out 2026 in style! Luke Wright will take the stage with an explosive set spanning more than two decades of poetry and performance: expect poems with sharp edges, strong rhythms and a big heart. Opening the night, we’ll enjoy poems from EmmaClaire Brightlyn and Nick Makoha and music from rapper RamZee.
Get TicketsOur Many-Voiced Country
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
As Scots Makar, Peter Mackay has embraced a mission to celebrate the many languages written in Scotland today. In this event, he brings together Deborah Moffatt, Tim Tim Cheng, Vahid Davar, Mae Diansangu, Paul Malgrati and Jordí Larios to present new writing interweaving Gaelic and Chinese, Spanish and Persian, French and Doric.
Get Tickets
