the tiny dramas of the street
June 2024
Hello from all of us here at Gutter! Welcome to the second issue of The Gutter Press.
One of the things we’ve decided to change this year is the way we publish book reviews. Having only two print issues per year makes it difficult to highlight the best new Scottish books in a timely way. So, with that in mind, we’ll be publishing one new review online every month from now, with longer review-essays featured in our print editions.
Our first Book of the Month has just gone up on the website. It’s Time Cleaves Itself, the debut collection of poems by Jeda Pearl, published by Peepal Tree Press. Pearl is a Scottish Jamaican poet, who has previously been shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Award and longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize.
In her review of Time Cleaves Itself, Etzali Hernández describes the book as ‘a lyrical, visceral, and vivid collection’.
‘Pearl has woven a journey through a mist of imagery that evokes and stirs deep emotions, fostering a solid and intimate connection with the reader and making us feel a part of her poetic world.
You can read the full review here.
There’s another treat for you on the website this month: a poem from our archive by poet and novelist Claire Askew. Originally published in Gutter #13, ‘Frank’ is a portrait of an elderly neighbour:
Captain Frank, retired, is 84. He has no car, no dog and no TV, but lives the tiny dramas of the street.
It’s a splendid poem, and we’re delighted to unearth it from our archive and give it a fresh airing, like the ‘fitted sheets’ that Askew describes, ‘inflating on their whirligigs.’ The full poem is here. (And thanks to Claire for providing the title of this month’s newsletter.)
Writing opportunities
We’d like to highlight two excellent opportunities for Scottish writers that are open at the moment. The first is the Deidre Roberts Poetry Competition, run by the Mallaig Book Festival. The theme for this year is ‘humour’ and the judge is Don Paterson. The first prize winner will receive £250, an engraved quaich, £250 in book tokens for the Highland Bookshop, and a bottle of whisky. Sounds pretty good, don’t you think? The full details are here.
The second opportunity is a big one. It’s the New Writer Awards, which are run every year by the Scottish Book Trust. Previous winners include some of Scotland’s best known writers, including Kirsty Logan, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Nadine Aisha Jassat and Martin McInness.
The awards are open to writers of poetry, fiction, narrative non-fiction and work for children. There are also awards for writers in Scots and Gaelic. Winning writers will receive £2500, mentoring from professional writers, training in PR and performance, a week-long writing retreat and the invaluable support of the Scottish Book Trust. This can be a life-changing award, and we thoroughly recommend that any writers who are based in Scotland and who’ve not yet published a full-length book should take a look. The full details are here.
That’s it for this month. In the next edition of The Gutter Press we’ll give you a sneak preview of some of the amazing writers who’ll be featured in Gutter #30, as well as our next Book of the Month.