Spring-Summer 2021

LEONIE CHARLTON follows pony paths, DEBORAH MOFFATT muses on Mexico, CHRIS ARTHUR asks "What is it like to be alive?", LINDA CRACKNELL gets castaway inspiration from RLS, WILLIE HERSHAW introduces poems by the late DONALD MACKAY, IAN STEPHEN speaks in three voices, PLUS many more stories and poems, news and an effusion of reviews.

Sgrìobhah ùr Gàidhlig ann an Tuath le ALASDAIR CAIMBEUL, AONGHAS PHÀDRAIG CAIMBEUL, MAOILIOS CAIMBEUL, SANDAIDH NICKDHÒMHNAILL JONES, MÀRTAINN MAG AN T-SAOIR, PÀDRAIG MACAOIDH, IAIN S. MAC A' PHEARSAIN, IAIN URCHARDAN, CHRISTOPHER WHYTE / CRÌSDEAN MACILLEBHÀIN

Editorial

The blossoms and birdsong of spring seem especially fine this year, as people emerge, blinking, into the light of post-lockdown days. Part of the challenges and sorrows of the past year is reflected in some of the writing in Gaelic, Scots and English in this issue.

But another – positive – effect of recent restrictions seems to have been to boost the output of many writers and small publishers in Scotland. Submissions of new work to Northwords Now have reached record levels. I’d like to thank all those who did submit poetry and prose through our website, but whose writing we couldn’t include, and to say: ‘keep trying – we appreciate your interest.’

To give ideas for possible reading and fresh inspiration, whether indoors or out, the reviews section has expanded to six pages for this issue. Within it, you’ll see how seven writers responded to a wheen of new publications, including a dozen recent poetry collections.

We’ll also be running some reviews on this recently re-vamped website, as well as having a rolling programme of audio-visual, news and archive material to refresh our homepage between publication of new issues. Thanks to many of our distribution outlets re-opening, we’ve also had a return to printing many thousands of copies – something that wasn’t possible last year.

You can find a list of Stockists here. We can’t guarantee they’ll still have a print copy when you get there, but we do know that every one of these Northwords Now supporters will be worth your visit.

Kenny Taylor, Editor