What's New in the North?
by Kenny Taylor
North Isles stars shine
It’s been a remarkable few months for writers linked to the North Isles. First of all, congratulations to Burra-based Jen Hadfield for being one of eight recent recipients of the prestigious and financially generous Windham-Campbell prize. This international award celebrates achievement across fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama and aims to offer financial security to encourage creative freedom for recipients.
Speaking to Shetland News in the summer, Jen said that she had no idea the award was coming. Writers don’t apply for the prize, but have their names put forward by people invited by an anonymous prize-giving committee. Known for her work in various genres and media, including poetry, visual art and recently nonfiction, Jen moved to Shetland some 17 years ago. She writes in English, Shetlandic and Scots, and among many other subjects tackles issues of environmental degradation and challenges ideas of remoteness and isolation. She became the youngest winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize earlier in the millennium and was awarded the Highland Book Prize (2021) for her fourth collection The Stone Age.
One of her prose pieces, Bonhoga, was first published in Northwords Now 44 (go to our online archive at northwordsnow.co.uk if you haven’t already read it). Bonhoga is now included in her most recent book Storm Pegs – A life made in Shetland published this year by Pan MacMillan.
Come autumn, Orkney became part of the big-screen backdrop for the powerful film adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s international bestselling memoir The Outrun. With a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan as ‘Rona’ (a renaming of Amy), the film also benefits from the author’s input as co-writer of the screenplay. Satisfyingly, this shapes it as a major new work, which although rooted in the book, also feels fresh. Some local islanders feature, including people who have been through rehab. It was also good to hear that Papay, where the book was written and important parts of the story are set, had its own ‘premiere’ screening this autumn, attended by Amy, Saoirse Ronan, islanders and others involved in the making of the film.
Finally, as winter has come around, Shetland author, singer-songwriter and managing editor of ‘Gutter, Mallachy Tallack, has been having multiple events for launches of his new novel That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz and the accompanying album of the same name. Describing the work as “a novel with a soundtrack – an album with a story” these linked creations have been attracting wide attention. This includes through a long interview on 23rd October with Kirsty Wark on Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’ where Mallachy talked about the novel and performed music from the album. Listen to it on iPlayer.
As described in the Editorial, the recent past has been financially challenging for Northwords Now. Though help has now been secured from Creative Scotland for this and the next issue, we still need to boost our coffers. It was a pleasure to be able to do this in modest amounts but grand style on the Black Isle at the cusp of autumn meeting winter.
Resolis Memorial Hall is in a rural parish on the north side of its home peninsula, not far from where several regular contributors to Northwords Now (and this editor) are based. For more than twenty years, Resolis Community Arts (RCA) has hosted a wide range of music, theatre, dance events and talks here, including performances by both internationally renowned musicians and singers and by local talent.
One person who liked to perform at Resolis was the late Michael Marra, one of Scotland’s most quirkily talented lyricists and singers of recent decades. His last-ever solo gig, just months before his death in 2012, was in this hall and a memorial concert held here about a decade ago was supported by many well-known performers, Eddi Reader among them. So it was good to give a further nod to Mr Marra here through a long-planned event ‘All Will Be Resolved’ which also raised some extra funds for Northwords Now.
James Robertson, whose biography of Michael Marra was published through Black-Isle-based Bryan Beattie’s ‘Big Sky’ a few years ago, was the lynchpin of the evening, describing aspects of Michael’s work and his friendship with him in later years. He also shared readings from some of his other books and projects, including ‘365’(where he wrote a story of exactly 365 words every day in 2013 and later collaborated with Aidan O’Rourke, who had composed music for all of them). For the second half, singers, readers and musicians staged a ceilidh of performances, rounded-off by James to close the evening. Thanks to everyone who took part. This included music from The Disclaimers, Bob Dunsmore and Willie Gilmour, and readings from three of the writers featured in this issue - Cáit O’Neill McCullagh, Anne MacLeod and Ian Tallach. Thanks also to the enthusiastic audience and the team from Resolis Community Arts who made the joint RCA/Northwords Now event a memorable one.
A perhaps inevitable consequence of a long gap between issues is that intimations of mortality keep making unwelcome knocks at the door. That includes through the passing during the last year of several respected poets whose work has featured in both Northwords Now and its predecessor, Northwords. These include Sheila Templeton, Gerry Loose, Paula Jennings and Rhoda Dunbar - the woman who made the transition between those titles possible.
Rhoda revived the ‘Northwords’ name after a brief absence early in the millennium and became the first editor of Northwords Now. Her enthusiasm for new writing from the north was crucial, her eye for detail keen, so by the time she handed the editorial reins to Chris Powici in 2010, the publication was in good heart. Rhoda had a particular passion for poetry and was able to have a volume of her own work published in retirement. For many years until her death this summer at the age of 89 she was also a supporter, including financially, of the Neil Gunn Trust and its biennial writing competition.
In the last issue, we noted with sadness the death of Aonghas MacNeacail in December 2022. Since then, an important volume of selections from his English-language poetry has been published by Shearsman (2023). Called beyond and edited by poet Colin Bramwell (a friend of the family) and with a joint introduction by Aonghas’s widow, Gerda Stevenson, this collection shines, in poem after poem, with the writer’s wit, warmth and skill.
“English was a partner language to Aonghas’s Gaelic,” writes Colin Bramwell. “Scots was another.
“This linguistic hybridity defines him, as much as it defines the general tenor of Scottish literature today.”
That playful, polylingual aspect, to paraphrase Colin Bramwell, very much chimes with the ethos of Northwords Now. To continue to celebrate the man and that idea, it’s a privilege to have permission from both the artist, Áine Divine, and Gerda Stevenson to publish Áine’s late portrait of Aonghas here. As a bonus, you can see and hear both artist and poet in conversation as this work was created by watching a video on our homepage at northwordsnow.co.uk.
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