News

Buy a Book – Win a Diamond!

At Books and Beans - Belmont St. Aberdeen

Sponsored by Sandy Menzies – Jewellery by Design
6, The Academy, Belmont St. Aberdeen.

(In association with Dead Good Poets and Wordfringe Festival)

Give yourself a chance to win a 15 point diamond
(first prize), a pearl or an amethyst.

Here’s how:

Go to Books and Beans, 22 Belmont St, Aberdeen,
buy one of the chapbooks displayed on this poster
(£3.50 - £4), get an entry form, follow instructions.

Prize draw at Books and Beans, 29thMay. 6.30.pm.

£1 from every book sold goes to Children 1st.

In the pipeline:

Steve Porter  - Shellfish and Umbrellas, Summer '08

Apologies:

Due to unforeseen circumstances Koo Press was unable to attend the Poetry Pamphlet Fair. Hope to see you all next year.

Koo Press will be at the Scottish Poetry Pamphlet Fair at the Town Hall, St. Andrews, on Sunday March 16th. Ten titles available.

November 29th 2007

Click the link below for launch night pictures of shedding skin by Catriona Yule

Shedding Skin

Hampshire Chronicle 31st August 2007

Poet Writes in Scots Dialect

There could be dozens of budding poets in Winchester, but this one can certainly claim to be a wee bit different. Ex-pat Scotsman George Hardie, 74, has had a collection of his poems put into a booklet entitled Identities by a specialist publisher, Koo Press Poetry, which is based in Aberdeen. That is no mean feat in itself, but this collection has a difference - it is written entirely in the Scots dialect.

Mr Hardie, of Bereweeke Road, Weeke, a retired builder's estimator and a former councillor in Hamilton, where he was born, has been writing since the 1960's. He originally started writing when he was still in Scotland and, ironically, he wrote in English. He started to take an interest in the Scots dialect, but then moved to Winchester. he said he 'dried up' then until about 1990, when he returned to Scotland to some work in Inverness. That inspired him once more and he returned to writing, this time in the Scots tongue.

Mr Hardie, who is married to Veronica and has three children, said: "I found it a language I was much more comfortable in, I could express myself far better. I also loved the old words, which I kept finding and could remember from my childhood, because my father used a fair number of them." On his return to Winchester, he continued to write in the dialect. He tried a few publishers, but they were not interested because they said the booklet, which he has dedicated to his four grandchildren, was not commercial enough. But he said when he asked Koo Press Poetry it jumped at the chance.

The poems are mainly about Mr Hardie's feelings and observations. Some are to do with nature and others look back to his childhood. A few were inspired by things he saw in Winchester, including one about a drunk on a bench in the park. He added: "I don't expect it is going to make a huge impact in Scotland or anywhere else, but if I get a little bit of recognition, if people buy it, read it and, more to the point, enjoy it, I'll be quite happy. Nobody ever made a fortune out of writing poetry."

George Hardie reads from Identities

George would like to share his thoughts on the subject of writing in Scots, especially whilst in isolation. 

The Auld Leid

Here I sit, faur furth o Scotland,
screivin awaa in the auld leid
tho sum wad hae it deid
 

but, did thay no tell
the sel-same tale
ti Hugh McDiarmid years sin syne,
ti Alex Scott and Garioch,
ti Goodsir Smith and
mony anither makar fine?
 

Yet, here I sit, faur furth o Scotland,
screivin awaa in the auld leid,
and naither me,
nor it,
were deid
whan last I luikit.

George Hardie

Poetry Koo for Town Event

As part of the Wordfringe 2007 festival which ran throughout May across the North-east of Scotland, Better Read Books in Ellon hosted a poetry evening on Friday the 25th. Poets Douglas Kynoch, Maureen Ross and Brian Lawrie were the main contributors to a Koo Press presentation entitled Laughter, Love and Lochnagar. With some delightful and insightful short poems Douglas Kynoch provided much of the laughter. With readings from her book Day Moth, Maureen Ross lent a feminine voice to different aspects of love. And Brian Lawrie gave an insight of his love of the Scottish mountain scene with a selection of poems from his book From Source to Sea.

Haworth Hodgkinson at a book signing of A Weakness for Mermaids.

Poets Brian Lawrie, Maureen Ross and Douglas Kynoch

Pictures and excerpt courtesy the Ellon Advertiser.

Koo Press poet Gerard Rochford's poem 'My father's Hand' has been chosen by Janice Galloway as one of the top twenty poems in Scotland for 2006.

Congratulations, Gerard!

My Father’s Hand

I like to wear a band around my wrist,
an amulet of copper, links of bling,
a hippy weave of cotton or dried grass.

Reminds me of a change
my father made as I grew up
from toddler to walker. Crossing a road
he stops holding my hand
and wraps his finger and thumb
around my wrist.

My bracelet now is like the brag
of a teenager leaving home,
flashing his cell-phone
where father’s number sleeps.

I wear my father’s hand around my wrist.