I returned in December 2011 from a five month stay in Scotland to find the bookstore running like a fine oiled machine thanks to the amazing energy and efforts of Debbie Reeves, Joan Kruger, Geoffery Neill, and Kevin Mims. Thanks to you all!
It’s now 2012 and I am still trying to find a way to adequately process all the experiences that made up my time living in Edinburgh from the middle of July until the middle of December. I’m still unpacking all the books I bought for myself at the numerous bookstores and charity shops that have done their part to make Edinburgh’s first UNESCO City of Literature. I met authors Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Alan Bissett, as well as Scotland’s present poetry Makar (laureate) Liz Lochhead. I sat next to John Malcovich as we watched actor Julian Sands read the poetry of Playright Harold Pinter. I even got to see a reading by California’s own Kay Ryan, past poet laureate of the United States, when the Scottish Poetry Library hosted her in Edinburgh. I saw the splendid Amanda Palmer not once, but three times. Sure, her husband Neil Gaiman was there too. August in Edinburgh was a surge of creative energy. But even as the Festivals cleared out, the city still offered so much. A Robert Rauschenberg exhibit in the Royal Botanical Gardens. (Maya Deren was there too.) The amazing Filmhouse. And the Cameo. The Traverse Theatre. Poetry readings at The Forest Cafe (Inky Fingers!) The Scottish Poetry Libary small press day. The Westport Book Festival. Literary Lectures at the National Museum. (Alas, gale force winds compelled the cancellation of a talk by Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy. I missed him by that __ much!)
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