Aye-Aye Books / Vagabond Voices Book Launch - Be The First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry

Throw a stone in Edinburgh or Glasgow today and you’ll hit a young poet. The Scottish spoken word scene has exploded, reaching a level of popularity last seen in the late 1970s, another era, coincidentally, when the issue of Scottish self-determination was in the air. A generation of poets has emerged who have grown up in an age of change, political and technological, with the internet providing them not only with new ways of sharing writing – through their websites, podcasts, Twitter – but also in some cases with a subject too.

Be The First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry is the first attempt to capture the spirit of a diverse scene where every poet is their own movement – from McGuire’s hilarious deconstructions of sexuality to Michael Pedersen’s dole-office blues; from William Letford’s building-site tales to MacGillivray’s mystic cowboys. It’s a scene where you are just as liable to encounter ancient gods as you are video game characters; Richard Branson as you are Dolly the Sheep. Be the First to Like This features forty poets, mostly under forty who have made Scotland their home. It’s a survey, a yearbook, a celebration and a promise of things to come.

Many of the poets will be reading from their work at this special launch event. vagabondvoices.co.uk