Spring 2020

KAPKA KASSABOVA talks place and mind with NICK MAJOR, JAMES SINCLAIR sails to the Greenland ice, CHRIS ARTHUR chases feathered Zen, JENNIFER MORAG HENDERSON celebrates crime-writing women, ROBIN FULTON MACPHERSON and many others unveil new poems

PLUS stories aplenty and some of our plans at a time of crisis.

Saothair ùr Ghàidhlig ann an Tuath le Caoimhin MacNèill, Lisa NicDhòmhnaill, Babs NicGriogair, Maggie Rabatski, Eòghan Stiùbhart agus sgrìobhadairean eile. New work in Gaelic by Meg Bateman, Angus Peter Campbell, Myles Campbell, Peter Mackay and others.

Editorial

In these times of pandemic, the Northwords Board has decided to delay main publication of the current issue in print until we can be confident of a modest level of distribution. At present, all our regular outlets are closed. We’ll hope to have another print run – though smaller than our usual one – when circumstances allow.

However (at the risk of stating the obvious to all of you now reading this on a screen), a full version of this issue (No. 39) is now online. This includes a .pdf of the whole publication, and – as begun last year – archiving of each work under writer name.

There’s exciting content within these virtual pages. This includes new work from internationally renowned poet and translator, Robin Fulton Macpherson, an in-depth interview with Kapka Kassabova, and a major new poem sequence in Shetlandic by James Sinclair. As you’ll have come to expect if you’re a regular reader of Northwords Now, there's also a wealth of other new prose, poetry and non-fiction.

The principal contribution we can make, as global sands shift around us, is to give both readers and writers a boost. We hope to do this by continuing to cultivate and expand our online presence as resources permit. To begin, this is our largest issue yet, with 40 pages, rather than the previous 32, plus the annual ‘Tuath’ supplement of new Gaelic writing. Over the next few months, we’ll also be exploring ways, including with advice from our funders – Creative Scotland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig – to further enhance our online presence in ways that will make Northwords Now even more enjoyable and useful to writers and readers across the north.

Thanks for visiting us, and so being part of the unfolding Northwords Now project.

Kenny Taylor, Editor