Ian Hamilton Finlay – The Arcadian Dream Garden
All Weekend, Friday 21st Nov, Saturday 22nd Nov, Sunday 23rd Nov
11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Join us at a special exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006), one of Scotland’s most distinctive and internationally recognised artists and poets. Known for his poetic, philosophical and often playful approach to art, Finlay is best known for his remarkable garden, Little Sparta. This exhibition allows us to celebrate that work beyond the boundaries of the garden.
Supported by the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Tinderbox Collective: Playing Poetry
All Weekend, Friday 21st Nov, Saturday 22nd Nov, Sunday 23rd Nov
11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Come and try this playable game installation influenced by the poetry of Edwin Morgan and other technology-inspired poets. Created by young game designers from Tinderbox Games Club over two months, the work touches on themes of technology and poetry in various forms, and features art, audio, custom controllers, set, and story designed collaboratively by the group. The young people will also be demonstrating their game on Sunday’s Gaming the System panel.
Temporary Autonomous Poetry Zone – A Flotsam Flourish
All Weekend, Friday 21st Nov, Saturday 22nd Nov, Sunday 23rd Nov
11:00 am - 8:00 pm
More Fun With Games invite you to join us for a game of playful, palimpsest, poetic perambulations. A self-guided and paced immersive experience via our mobile web app for you to discover detritus and hidden gems. Unmoor yourself and drift on the currents of our Dérive, wander and wonder. Perhaps you might discover some prizes at the end of our treasure trail?
Calm Seas with Mobile Massage
All Weekend, Saturday 22nd Nov, Sunday 23rd Nov
11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Need a breather between events? Drop an anchor at the wellness corner and let Mobile Massage & Wellness work their magic. Their expert therapists specialise in stress-busting seated massages, the quickest way to melt tension, recharge your energy, and sail smoothly through your weekend.
Embodied Poetry: A Yoga and Writing Workshop
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Join award-winning poet and storyteller Spencer Mason for a poetry and yoga workshop, with 45 minutes of yoga leading into 45 minutes of embodied responses to writing prompts. Participants will be invited to explore writing in any medium they choose. Please bring a notebook and pen with you. Yoga mats will be provided.
Get TicketsThe Mythic and the Familiar: Fiona Benson and Pascale Petit
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Start your Sunday right with what promises to be a haunting double bill, as two poets at the top of their game read from and discuss their unsettling and intriguing latest collections. In Midden Witch, Fiona Benson lets the women accused of witchcraft speak back to us. Pascale Petit’s Beast, meanwhile, is populated by mythic and familial beasts, roaming wildernesses near and far.
Get TicketsA Portobello Poetry Walk: Being Guided By Nature
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Join clare e. potter for a poetry walk around Portobello Beach where we will pay deep attention, taking nature as our guide for our writing. We will practise listening and noticing, and think about how the environment we are in can be a collaborator in our writing. Please meet for this walk at The Portobello Bookshop on Portobello High Street.
Get TicketsPoetry as Exile: Marjorie Lotfi and Najwan Darwish
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
The experience of creating art from afar when your homeland is in conflict is uniquely challenging. Najwan Darwish and Marjorie Lotfi will each present new work considering this theme, especially commissioned for the festival, alongside readings from their powerful repertoires. This will be followed by a discussion chaired by Esa Aldegheri.
Get TicketsMagma: The Liberation Issue
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Join us for the launch of Magma’s Liberation issue, full of rousing poetry and defiant prose. Hosted by Isabelle Baafi, the event will feature readings from Alycia Pirmohamed, Nat Raha, Zain Rishi and Amy L. King, as well as a video presentation and discussion, inviting us to consider what liberation truly means and how we can enact it.
Get TicketsThe Alchemy of Metaphor: a Workshop with Pascale Petit
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Join award-winning poet Pascale Petit to write poems full of metamorphosis and creative alchemy as she encourages you to explore the power of metaphor, and its ability to translate the personal into vivid new realms. Discover how to transform your experiences, and how the more-than-human worlds can help us turn experience into beauty.
Get TicketsRe-imagining the Hero’s Journey: Luke Kennard and Nick Makoha
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Come and listen as Luke Kennard and Nick Makoha read from and discuss their latest collections, The Book of Jonah and The New Carthaginians, discussing the stories we think we already know, and the unexpected places they might lead us.
Get TicketsPunk, Poetry and Politics
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
In our festival theme Poetry Is Punk, we explore poetry as a DIY art form: political, exciting and subversive. Join punk poets Paul Case, Mátyás Dunajcsik and slam champion Kemi George Simpson, in conversation with Jay Mitra, as they dig into the intersections between poetry, politics and punk. Supported by Culture Ireland.
Get TicketsPink Witch, with the 12
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Join the 12 collective for a showcase of Pink Witch, a visceral, wry and ever surprising anthology responding to the 2023 Barbie movie and the Witches of Scotland campaign – which seeks historic justice for the people executed for witchcraft in Scotland. Intimate and eclectic, these are poems which question identity, vilification and the names historically used to constrain women.
Get TicketsCollective Memory, Documentation, and Resistance with Noor Hindi
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
In this workshop, we’ll be exploring poems from the Palestinian poetry anthology Heaven Looks Like Us, reading poems that explore themes of homeland, grief and joy, and silence and testimony. We’ll discuss how poets transform lived experiences through art that challenges erasure, opening space to imagine new futures. Noor Hindi will guide participants through generative writing prompts to create new work.
Get TicketsThe Pleasures and Power of Reading, with Peter Mackay
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
What happens when we read? What is it that we get from losing ourselves in a book? Does reading actually improve our wellbeing?
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Join Makar Peter Mackay in conversation with Philippa Cochrane and Dr Sarah McGeown for this special Book Week Scotland event, as he explores the impact that being a reader has had on his life.
BSL interpreted.Out of the Archive
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Today’s panel brings together three poets who’ve drawn on a range of archives for their work – from the accounts of witch trials to the archive of Muriel Spark. Join Theresa Muñoz, Fiona Benson and Rommi Smith as they discuss the challenges and joys of archival research, and how it can feed into and transform a poetic practice.
Get TicketsPoetry is Punk
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Don’t miss what promises to be an electrifying performance with two experimental poets and performers! Between them, German-Hungarian polyglot punk poet Mátyás Dunajcsik and Edinburgh-based poet and activist Nat Raha combine spoken word, bass, loop pedals and a whole lot of energy.
Get TicketsGaelic, Scots, Mè’phàà: Translation Beyond Dominant Languages
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Colin Bramwell’s Fower Pessoas has recently been making waves for its bold translation of Fernando Pessoa into vernacular Scots. What possibilities emerge when we remember that living literary languages aren’t just written in, but necessarily translated between? Join us for a discussion between Colin, Robbie MacLeòid and Juana Adcock, chaired by Harry Josephine Giles, to explore those possibilities.
Get TicketsGaming the System
5:00 pm - 6:15 pm
Play has always been central to how Push the Boat Out explores and platforms poetry – and from playful poetry it’s just a hop, skip and jump to poetic games… Join Calum Rodger, Krishan Coupland, Luci Holland and the young people from the Tinderbox Games Club as they discuss the parallels between poetry and games, and the possibilities that emerge in combining the two.
Get TicketsAnthropocene – New Poetic Performances
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
We’re delighted to premiere three new poetry-led performance commissions in association with the National Theatre of Scotland! Investigating the theme of ‘Anthropocene: the Human-Altered World’, Iona Lee and Nikki Kent, Garry Mackenzie and Sam Firth, and Taylor Dyson and Craig Aitchison explore poetry in conversation with different artistic disciplines.
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BSL interpreted.Rock the Boat
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Feeling inspired to share your own poems? Join us for the festival iteration of Rock the Boat, Push the Boat Out’s longstanding monthly poetry open mic. Register via our website to perform your poetry alongside a score of other open mic-ers or kick back, relax and enjoy the vibes. With featured poets Sam Phipps, Dean Tsang and Alice Keeling.
Get TicketsBàird Bhaile: Gaelic Poetry and Song Night
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Round out the festival with an evening of Gaelic poetry and songs, brought together by Jeni Flannigan (of Bothan Dhùn Èideann and Lusan Buì) and hosted by Niall O’ Gallagher. Come with us and immerse yourself in the witty, soulful world of the ‘local bards’, past and present. You’ll be in good company: Josie Duncan, Iona Mairead Davidson & Calum ‘singing weatherman’ MacColla, alongside other established and emerging voices from the wider Bothan Dhùn Èideann community.
Get TicketsLight it Up: Tinderbox Orchestra
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us for a glorious festival finale! Bringing together rappers, poets and singers with soaring strings, heavy brass, woodwind, and thundering bass and drums, Tinderbox Orchestra are teaming up with some of Scotland’s most exciting spoken word artists to combine original music and spoken word performances transforming preconceptions of what an orchestra can be.
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