loosetongues
Loose Tongues are a Scottish-based loose collective of poets who launched at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh as part of the Radical Book Fair May, 2005.
The founding poets who met on the Glasgow MPhil in Creative Writing course during 2003-4 were Stephanie Green, Mandy Haggith and Eunice Buchanan but we frequently invite other writers and poets to read with us. The line-up varies depending on the event.
For more photos click on
To read a selection of poems click on
Stephanie Green Poems
News:
Former member of Loose Tongues, Eunice Buchanan, has emigrated to Australia following her grand-children(2009). We hope she will perform with us again some time in the future.
Loose Tongues
Taut, dramatic and witty. Different voices with a female perspective from the personal to the political. A selection of some of Scotland's best up and coming literary poets who are no mean performers too.
From L to R:
Stephanie Green, Patricia Ace, Janie McKie and
Mandy Haggith
2010 EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL
Poetry and Song: Loose Tongues and Just Voices will perform
4-5pm on Friday August 27th
at the Forest Fringe,
Forest Cafe, 3, Bristo Place, Edinburgh EH1
The poets are Mandy Haggith, Stephanie Green, Janie McKie and Patrica Ace with a capella song by 'Just Voices': Irene Railley with Yvonne Eardley, Kath Latham, Ulla Lorriman and Linda McPhee. See performer biogs below.
What better way to have a refreshing break from the festival whirl than an hour's cup of tea/coffee or fruit juice and a wee spot of poetry to set you up for the onslaught of the rest of your evening?
Last year's Review Rating 5/5 Stars: Excellent!
Edinburgh Review.
Performer Biogs:
Stephanie Green (Founder LT member) born in Sussex of Irish/English parentage. She is a trained marionettist, has picked strawberries, has worked for 'In the Heart of the Beast' agit-prop theatre in the USA and in Cornwall as a chamber maid. Occasionally she writes plays, some of which have been broadcast on BBC Radio. As a former Drama teacher, she performs with drama and flair and is no mean slouch at literary festivals, having read at Hay on Wye, StAnza , the Italian Poetry on the Lake Festival (Giulio San Orta) and the Strokestown Festival, Ireland.
Her pamphlet 'Glass Works' was short-listed for the Callum McDonald Award and in 2007 she received a New Writers Bursary from the Scottish Arts Council and a further grant in 2010. After 13 years in Wales, she now lives in Edinburgh.
Mandy Haggith, (Original LT Member) a campaigner on global forest issues, writes zen-like leaf-sized poems. Mandy's pamphlet 'letting light in' was published by Essence Press in 2005. 'Castings' , her first collection was published by Two Ravens Press in Spring 2007. Her novel 'The Last Bear' was published by Two Ravens Press in 2008 and which won the Robin Jenkins' prize for ecological writing in 2009. Research for her non-fiction book 'Paper Trails' on the making of paper took her to Russia, China and S.E. Asia. http://top-left-corner.blogspot.com
Our guests:
Patricia Ace started writing poems about female experience as a teenager and has never really grown out of it. Sometimes sad, sometimes saucy, sometimes satirical, her work has been described as moving, mysterious, frank and sexy. When she was 13 she wrote a poem about a hot-dog sausage which was published in the school chronicle. Since then she has gone on to publish widely in magazines and anthologies all over the UK and has won many prizes in competitions. She is a founder member of Lippy Bissoms, a women’s poetry group, who performed their cabaret-style poetry show at the Fringe in 2006. Her pamphlet 'First Blood' is published by HappenStance.
Jane McKie, originally from West Sussex, lives in Linlithgow. Her first collection, Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press) was awarded the Scottish Sundial/Scottish Arts Council prize for best first book of 2007. She runs a small press (www.knuckerpress.com) and her latest collection When the Sun Turns Green'is published by Polygon, 2009.
Her launch at the SPL in 2009 must have had the most numerous guests in memory! A tribute to Janie's much-admired poetry and personal charm.
She is currently a Tutor on the Creative Writing programme at the University of Edinburgh.
'Jane McKie is a seer...a mature, sensitive talent' - Polly Clark.
Irene Railley
Born and brought up in Edinburgh, Irene is the founder of 'Just Voices', a small group of a capella voices drawn from her hugely popular community choir 'Song Works' whom she rules with a rod of good humour. For the last few years, they have taken part in the 'Big Sing' in Dundee. 'Just Voices' perform songs from round the world, from Georgian cow-calling, African and Shetlandic to Gospel and Bluegrass with spine-tingling close harmony.
Irene is also a primary teacher with one term to go before retirement and is looking forward to more time for collecting songs.