One Night Stanzas

Photo by Chris Scott

August is almost upon us, and every Edinburgh resident knows what that means. MADNESS IS ABOUT TO DESCEND. But also gigs. Lots of them.

Listen Softly Edinburgh
Friday 11th August, 6pm – 8pm
Forest Cafe (Tollcross Junction)
Okay, I am really glad this one is the first event I get to put under your eyeballs, because I REALLY want it to go well! I AM MAKING ANOTHER FORAY INTO POETRY PROMOTING, friends, after a long hiatus (I must have forgotten how stressful it is again), and this is the first dipping-of-my-toes-into-the-water. I’m teaming up with the inimitable Dom Stevenson of Listen Softly London, to deliver a one-off LSL-style Edinburgh event for the Fringe. However, if all goes well I’m hoping to turn LSE into a semi-regular thing. So call this a pilot phase, if you will…
There’ll be poems from the brilliant Theresa Munoz, Colin McGuire and Laura Rae — one other feature TBC! You might get the odd poem out of Dom and I, too. AND, there are five open mic slots up for grabs, which YOU could read in if you email claire@onenightstanzas.com and ask me to put your name in the hat!
The Facebook event is here — please come along, bring friends, help me fill the Forest and convince me that becoming a promoter again is in fact a good idea…

She Grrrowls
Monday 14th August, 7.20pm
Black Market (venue 399)
“London’s favourite feminist arts night”, says the Facebook event, “bringing you a night of the best women in spoken word, mixed in with some music and comedy. There are new features every night and you can give us your best growl with the all-inclusive open mic!” I’ll be one of three feature readers at this — the others are Katie Pritchard and Beth Hunt. I’m also hoping to be sharing the stage with some pals as part of the open mic! Come along!

Political Poetry with Andy Jackson and WN Herbert
Tuesday 15th August, 12.30pm
Edinburgh International Book Festival, Bosco Theatre (George Street)
Andy and Bill are the brains behind some of the best anthologies of Scottish literature to happen lately: most recently, they edited New Boots and Pantisocracies, which started out as a daily blog and then became a fantastic book. I’m honoured to have been picked from among the contributors to read my contribution at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. This one’s ticketed but well worth the ticket price! And perfect for your midweek lunchtime…

Edinburgh, City of Poetry with Russell Jones and Claire Askew
Thursday 17th August, 12.30pm
Edinburgh International Book Festival, Bosco Theatre (George Street)
So, yaknow I helped the lovely Russell Jones to edit that wee book of Edinburgh poems and stories, Umbrellas of Edinburgh, recently? Well we’ve only gone and bagged ourselves a Book Festival event! Come along and hear Russell and I introduce work by the geniuses that are Harry Giles, Jane Yolen, Finola Scott and Marjorie Lotfi Gill. There’ll also be poems by Russell and I that have been specially commissioned for the event! This one’s also ticketed but you get six — SIX — writers for the price of one event!

Reshuffling The Pack with MacGillivray and Courtney Sina Meredith
Sunday 20th August, 5pm
Edinburgh International Book Festival, Writers’ Retreat (Charlotte Square)
I’m chairing this one, but I’m counting it as a gig because I am super excited and also SUPER NERVOUS about doing it! These two poets are very different, but both of them make mind-blowing work that is complex, experimental, political and brilliant. This one is well worth every one of the shiny pounds of its ticket price… come and ask smart questions in the Q&A, and I shall field them!

She Grrrowls
Monday 21st August, 7.20pm
Black Market (venue 399)
My second go at this fine feminist night… again, I will be one of three features! The other two are Katie Pritchard and Kathryn O’Driscoll. There’s also that open mic, if you fancy coming and sharing a stage with yours truly!

That’s What She Said
Tuesday 22nd August, 5.45pm
Bar Bados, Cowgate (venue 281)
I am really excited to be reading as a feature at this bloody amazing women’s spoken word night, run by none other than fellow #GrrrlCon organiser and all-round magical goddess Jane Bradley! I get to appear alongside Rosie Freakin’ Garland!!! And also my lovely lovely pal Sasha de Buyl — trust me, you do NOT want to miss a very rare appearance by Sasha! That’s What She Said is doing a whole run, and every single night looks absolutely golden. It’s at a great time of day as well… come along before you head to your evening shows!

Coffee and a Poem with Paul Muldoon
Thursday 24th August, 10am
Golden Hare Books, Stockbridge
YES, I AM CHAIRING AN EVENT WITH PAUL MULDOON. YES, THAT PAUL MULDOON. Obviously come along to this one because it’s PAUL FREAKING MULDOON. But also, come along and make supportive faces at me so I can at least attempt to form sentences in the presence of this man? The event is, after all, free — and you get coffee!

Please come along to these events, friends! But mainly come to this one. Seriously.

(Photo credit)

Thursday 3rd November
6pm to 7.30pm, Scottish Poetry Library
Umbrellas of Edinburgh: the launch!

I’m so excited to finally be bringing this fabulous anthology into the world! I’ve been working on the behind-the-scenes editing of it for several months alongside editor extraordinaire Russell Jones (he of Where Rockets Burn Through fame). It’s an anthology of poetry and prose about Edinburgh — Edinburgh in all its moods and guises. There are poems and stories about people, parks, pubs and places famous and infamous… every corner of Edinburgh from the Castle to Kay’s Bar is covered. At this exciting launch event there’ll be readings from poets Aitch Giles, Theresa Munoz, Colin McGuire, Marjorie Lotfi Gill, Jonathan Bay, Louise Peterkin, Colin Will, Elizabeth Rimmer and Jane Griffiths. There’ll also be free wine, cake and the chance to buy copies of the book from the lovely folk at Freight. Entry is free and all are welcome!

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Saturday 5th November
6pm to 7.30pm, 24 Royal Terrace Hotel
K/RK with Claire Askew

“Spoken Word producer Freddie Alexander presents and hosts K/RK; a new events series seeking to witness and engage with spoken word artists. Drawing from the rich UK live literature circuit, K/RK invites some of the best touring artists to perform and discuss their work. An intimate and exclusive, this event series will be hosted in the sumptuous surroundings of the 24 Royal Terrace.
This event series will occur fortnightly on Saturday evenings, with a performance by the feature artist followed by a Q&A with the audience. The event will last one hour, but there will be opportunities for further networking afterwards. Pre-booked tickets will include complimentary hors d’oeuvres.”

HOW FANCY DOES THAT SOUND, FOLKS? And this weekend the poet is little old me! I am so looking forward to this!

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Thursday 10th November
10.30am to 11.30am, Royal Botanic Gardens (Botanic Cottage)
Open Book weekly drop-in with Claire Askew

I’m really excited to be attending this Open Book session — the first of three, two of which are open to the general public! (More on the next one below…) You can find out more about what Open Book do at their website. At my session, I’ll be unveiling an extract from my novel in progress for discussion (its first public outing, eek!), and we’ll also be discussing some of my poems.

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Friday 11th November
1pm to 4.30pm, Craigmillar Library
Robert Louis Stevenson Day: make your own monster!

This is an event I am running with my Reading Champion hat on! 7th – 13th November is Robert Louis Stevenson week, and this year the theme is ‘crime’. Jekyll and Hyde is my all-time favourite RLS book and on 11th November I’ll be running a fun event for kids and adults alike. Come along and rummage in my box of monster-making materials, bring a friend or dress yourself up as the best monster you can be. The winner gets a prize!

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Saturday 12th November
10.30am to 6.30pm, Scottish Poetry Library
Scottish Women’s Poetry Symposium 2016

I am so excited to have been invited to speak at this event — and I love that I am described as an ‘independent academic’ in the official programme! Look out — academic at large! Anyway… this is going to be ONE AMAZING DAY of cool stuff, with speakers including Theresa Munoz, Jane Goldman, Helena Nelson and JL Williams. For my part, I’ll be taking part in a round table on Poetry in the Community with the lovely and talented Jane McKie, and then I’ll be reading some of my own work at the end of the day, when there’ll be free wine and nibbles and all good things. Places are limited, but you can see the full programme and register for a free place here.

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Tuesday 15th November
6.30pm to 8pm, Blackwells South Bridge
Umbrellas of Edinburgh: a celebration event at Blackwells

Another Umbrellas of Edinburgh event! This time we’ll be featuring two of our lovely fiction writers — Jane Alexander and Sandy Thomson — as well as poets Ruth Aylett, Roddy Shippin, Andrew Wilson, Patricia Ace and Tracey S Rosenberg. There’ll be readings, there’ll be wine, there’ll be cake, there’ll be a warm welcome and of course, more books than you can shake a bookish tote bag at!

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Tuesday 13th December
10.30am to 11.30am, National Library of Scotland
Open Book weekly drop-in with Claire Askew

This is the other Open Book session I mentioned above. Much like the first except: BONUS CHRISTMASSY-NESS!

I hope to see some of you at one or more of these events! In the meantime, you can keep up on my various shenanigans over on Twitter at @onenightstanzas.

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I wrote a book of poems! It’s called This changes things, and you can order it here! You can also support me by checking out the many sweet and sparkly things at Edinburgh Vintage, my Etsy-based store for jewellery and small antiques. Or if you just want to say hi, you can find me on Twitter.

So… he’s appeared in so many One Night Stanzas posts over the years that — if you visit this site even vaguely regularly — you must know by now. I AM A HUGE GEORGE WATSKY FANGIRL. I’ve thought his poems were awesome since his Def Poetry Jam appearance in 2007. I’ve listened to his self-titled album on countless bus-rides to work to keep my spirits up. I’ve shown his poetry performances to students in my writing and literature classes, because they always dig his stuff. He’s one of my favourite contemporary poets.

So, you can probably imagine the level of SQUEE that happened when George contacted me on Twitter in response to an excited tweet I wrote to say I had tickets to his sold-out London show in August. I added the daft, only-half-kidding hashtag #pleaseplayaScotlandgigtoo. He responded, asking if I knew a venue that might host. Naturally, I leapt at the chance to organise the whole shebang myself, and One Night Stanzas presents WATSKY x 2 was born…

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One Night Stanzas presents WATSKY x 2: an evening of spoken word with George Watsky, Paul Watsky and special guests.

Tuesday 7th August 2012
Doors 7.15pm
Henderson’s at St John’s
Tickets £7 from the Eventbrite page

One Night Stanzas is proud to present an evening of spoken word starring two very different, very exciting poetic talents from the USA.

This is an exclusive, one-off event to mark the end of George Watsky’s multiple-city summer tour. This is the first time that WATSKY x 2 have performed in Scotland and it is their only Scottish tour date.

Come along and enjoy an explosion of spoken word in the beautiful “vaulted dining room” at Henderson’s at St John’s.

George Watsky is a rapper, writer and performer from San Francisco now living in Los Angeles. He won the Brave New Voices National Poetry Slam in 2006 and appeared on the final season of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry in 2007. He has subsequently performed at over 150 universities across the country.

Rapping all the while under the name ‘Watsky,’ George self-released the barely-heard jazz-hip hop record ‘Invisible Inc’ in 2007 and the self-titled ‘Watsky’ in 2010, which peaked at #7 on the iTunes hip hop charts. In January 2011 George’s fast rapping went viral and led to two appearances on the Ellen Show, a slot on Last Call with Carson Daly, and an exploding online profile.

George has performed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the NAACP Image Awards on FOX, three times at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and has been featured in XXL, Billboard Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine. Find out more about George at his website.

Paul Watsky lives in San Francisco, and earns his living as a clinical psychologist. He began writing poetry while he was a teenager, and his work has been widely published in literary journals over the past eight years. In 1996 and again in 1997 he was awarded Second Place in the Haiku Society of America’s Gerald Brady competition.

Paul published a full length book, entitled Telling The Difference, in 2010 (Fisher King Press, available through Amazon UK), and in 2006 he was co-translator with Emiko Miyashita of Santoka a collection of work by the well-known 20th century haiku poet (PIE Books, Tokyo). He has a couple of poems in the current issue of The Carolina Quarterly, and online in The Puritan, which is published out of Toronto. Find out more about Paul at his website.

This event will also feature special guests — details TBC.

Henderson’s at St John’s is a fully licensed vegetarian and vegan cafe, and is open until 1am.

Tuesday 7th August 2012
Doors 7.15pm
Henderson’s at St John’s
Tickets £7 from the Eventbrite page

TICKETS from Eventbrite

TICKETS from Eventbrite

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

(Photo credit)