Best-selling authors Alex Gray, Bernard MacLaverty, Ajay Close and Douglas Skelton are joining the lineup of authors for the inaugural Soutar Festival of Words next month. The weekend festival will celebrate the beauty of the Scots language, Gaelic and contemporary Scottish culture at venues and outdoor locations across Perth over the weekend of 26th to 28th April.
The Soutar Festival of Words will host over twenty events, including author talks, the Perthshire poetry slam, children’s events, music and opportunities for local people to gain an insight into the world of creative writing.
The festival, organised by the charitable trust, Culture Perth and Kinross, will take place in a number of well-known venues across the city, from the AK Bell Library and St John’s Kirk to Perth Museum and Art Gallery. There will also be the opportunity to explore the local area on literary walking tours including the Corbenic Poetry Path, a poetry walk in Buckie Braes and a chance to visit places mentioned in Walter Scott’s 1828 novel, The Fair Maid of Perth.
On Friday 26 April the festival will open at Perth Museum and Art Gallery with crime writers Denzil Meyrick, Neil Broadfoot and Douglas Skelton in conversation about setting the scene in crime writing and beyond.
At the AK Bell Library on Friday night, Professor Kirsteen McCue will present the annual Soutar Lecture, looking at how Soutar’s experience and theories of ‘Dreams’ played their part in his growing stature as a published poet.
The festival continues on Saturday 27 April with award-winning author Alex Gray hosting a creative writing workshop at the AK Bell Library for keen writers looking to take that next step. At Perth Museum and Art Gallery, illustrator Kate Leiper will create and develop characters in a fun workshop for both children and adults.
A younger audience can enjoy the festival at the AK Bell Library on Saturday morning as staff present storytime and Bookbug Rhymetime sessions with a difference, presenting the sessions Gaelic and Scots.
In addition on Saturday morning, there is a chance to catch a screening of The Garden Beyond, produced by Douglas Eadie,a dramatised enactment of the life of William Soutar, originally made for the BBC Omnibus programme in the 1970s.
At Perth Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday afternoon, local author Ajay Close will lead a discussion of the unique, passionate and sometimes bittersweet bond between a mother and daughter, while publishers Tippermuir Books, Red Squirrel Press and Big Dog Books publisher panel will help and inspire budding authors. At the AK Bell Library, author Susi Briggs will go on a diddle daddle journey to find stories, music and wee pixies as she explores the beauty that is the Scots language. Saturday will be capped off with a visit from award-winning author Bernard MacLaverty at the Soutar Theatre in the AK Bell Library. Forty years on from his first book, Bernard will be reading from his most recent work and discussing his life as a writer.
On Sunday the festival will celebrate emerging authors with a visit from three of Scotland’s newest and most exciting authors; Conner McAleese, Tracey Emerson and Liz MacWhirter, as they look to inspire anyone thinking about writing or publishing their first book.
On Sunday afternoon, Hotchpotch appear in Perth for the first time, with a chance for writers, readers and listeners to react creatively to current affairs at an open mic event.
The Festival draws to a close on Sunday evening with a special performance of Perth Chamber choir Chansons in St John’s Kirk. Chansons will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary on Sunday, April 28 with a specially commissioned suite of songs to words by William Soutar from Edinburgh composer Tom Cunningham. The choir’s celebratory concert “Voice and Verse” on Sunday evening will include the world première performance of this attractive work. Full details of this event can be found on the choir’s website www.chansons.co.uk
As part of the Soutar festival, poet Jon Plunkett has a 6-week poet in residency working with the community to promote the festival and produce a commissioned piece that will be performed during the festival.
Full details of the festival can be found on the Culture Perth and Kinross website at www.culturepk.org.uk/whats-on/soutar-festival.
The Soutar Festival of Words will run from 26th – 28th April 2019.
The Soutar Festival of Words is kindly supported by The Friends of William Soutar, The Jimmie Cairncross Trust and The Forteviot Trust.