Podcast appearances and mentions of rob a mackenzie

Muriel Spark's 100th birthday was celebrated in 2018 in several ways honouring her status as arguably the greatest Scottish novelist of the twentieth century. One of the more imaginative ways came late in the year with the publication of Spark: Poetry and Art Inspired by the Novels of Muriel Spark, which was edited by poets Rob A Mackenzie and Louise Peterkin and published by Blue Diode. With contributors including Tishani Doshi, Vahni Capildeo and Sean O'Brien, the anthology does Spark justice. Mackenzie and Peterkin came into the SPL to talk about Spark and her career as a poet, from her controversial time at the Poetry Society in the 1940s to how poetry informed her novels. Plus a tribute to the late Matthew Sweeney. 

We discuss the story "Going somewhere? What happens when the story ends?" by Amy Moreno and the poem 'Bladerunner' by Rob A. Mackenzie.

Rob A. Mackenzie's latest collection of poetry, which is published by Salt, is called The Book of Revelation. The first half of the book pairs chapters from the Biblical Book of Revelation with poems inspired by them. Mackenzie was born in Glasgow. He studied law and then switched to theology then spent a year in Seoul, eight years in Lanarkshire, five years in Turin, and now lives in Leith. He is reviews editor of Magma poetry magazine and until the pandemic struck he co-organised the monthly Edinburgh live poetry event, Vespers. During the interview Mackenzie discusses why prophets usually come to bad ends, the genius of Mark E Smith, why twitter might not be good for poets and contemporary religious poetry. Image: Ryan McGoverne

Muriel Spark's 100th birthday was celebrated in 2018 in several ways honouring her status as arguably the greatest Scottish novelist of the twentieth century. One of the more imaginative ways came late in the year with the publication of Spark: Poetry and Art Inspired by the Novels of Muriel Spark, which was edited by poets Rob A Mackenzie and Louise Peterkin and published by Blue Diode. With contributors including Tishani Doshi, Vahni Capildeo and Sean O'Brien, the anthology does Spark justice. Mackenzie and Peterkin came into the SPL to talk about Spark and her career as a poet, from her controversial time at the Poetry Society in the 1940s to how poetry informed her novels. Plus a tribute to the late Matthew Sweeney.

We chat with Rob A Mackenzie, author of The Opposite Of Cabbage, associate editor at Magma magazine and organiser of the monthly Poetry At... series. Rob discusses what he's working on at the moment, his views on criticism and the poetry industry and we get to hear a few of his recent poems. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser of Anon Poetry Magazine http://www.anonpoetry.co.uk and @anonpoetry. Email: splpodcast@gmail.com

In our Sunday podcast, we include highlights from the Border Crossings event with Canadian Gaelic poet Lewis Mackinnon and Croatian Mario Susko. Rob A Mackenzie reads a poem which could not have existed without the internet. Director's Cut poet Jen Hadfield reads some poems about Canada and Shetland and we include two poems from Mario Petrucci on science and love.

In our second podcast, we were very glad to welcome Rob A Mackenzie and Andrew Philip to Anon HQ. They discuss their relationship to blogging, how they first got into publishing their poetry, their musings on the current state of poetry in Scotland and you'll get the opportunity to hear them both reading from their new collections, which are available from Salt Publishing. The music featured in this podcast is by the delightful Benedict Young.