The FREE literary magazine of the North Northwords Now Issue 23, Spring 2013 Island Lives: Prizewinning Poems and Stories from the 2013 Baker Prize Donald S. Murray, Mandy Haggith and Kevin Crowe on Questions of Independence New Poetry and Fiction, Reviews Section EDITORIAL Contents Questions of Independence ou’d have to have turned the blindest of eyes not 3 Independence Blues to have realised that the issue of independence is set Essayn by Donald S. Murray Ydominate Scottish politics for the next two years, and beyond. That why Unstated: Writers on Scottish Independence 4 Poems by George Gunn (Word Power Books) is such a timely book, and not just because the writers therein weigh up the pros and cons, the 5 With Her Head on His Chest principles and pragmatics of independence. The question Short Story by Laura Morgan cuts deeper than that. From Shakespeare to Yeats, from Walt Whitman to Hugh MacDiarmid, writers (and other artists) 6 Poems by Jim C. Wilson, Fran Baillie and Nicky Guthrie have take the lead in imagining their countries, in discovering - even inventing - what it means to be English, Irish, American 7 Poems by Hugh McMillan, Maoilios Caimbeul, Mavis Gulliver, Brian Johnstone, and Scottish. And that is why I asked Donald S Murray not Katherine Lockton and Pàdraig MacAoid for a review of Unstated but for a response, a chance to put his own conception of Scotland on the page. As you’ll see from 8 Poems by Ian McFadyen, Angus Macmillan, Charlie Gracie, Annie Pia his essay on page 3, he does not disappoint. You may not agree & Liz Treacher with his views, but it’s an eloquent and potent contribution to the debate. 9 Publish and Be Glad! Questions of independence do not begin and end at Article by Mandy Haggith Hadrian’s Wall, nor for that matter in the debating chambers of Holyrood and Westminster. Independence is about more 10 Halfway than national identity, as the articles by Mandy Haggith are Short Story by Lyndsay Marshall Kevin Crowe demonstrate. They are not just practical accounts of publishing and bookselling; they’re reminders that in an 11 Poems by Pauline Prior-Pitt, Katharine Scambler, Julian Ronay, Greg MacThòmais, increasingly globalised and corporate world, the independence James Andrew and Gordon Jarvie of writers and of the people who bring writers before the public, is a crucial aspect of any society for whom the word 12 Baker Prize – Poems by Deborah Moffatt, Garry MacKenzie, Alison Barr ‘free’ means something. Now that is a state of independence & Andy Jackson this editor is more than happy to abide by. Finally, congratulations to everybody who entered the 14 Baker Prize – Short Stories by Juliet Lamb & Heather Marshall Baker Prize, organised by the Reading Room on Skye. As one of the judges I can testify to the high quality of entries and 17 Poems by Vicki Husband and Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh I’m pleased and proud to publish the best poems and stories in this issue. n 18 Books and Bricks & Mortar Article by Kevin Crowe Chris Powici, Editor 19 Poems by Aonghas MacNeacail, Julienne Thurrott, Niall O’Gallagher, Colin Will, Stephen Keeler and Gavin Broom 20 Reviews 23 Contributors’ Biographies, Where To Find Northwords Now At The Northwords Now Website: www.northwordsnow.co.uk Podcasts of George Gunn and Vicki Husband Gaelic Poetry in translation Reviews Extra How to download Northwords Now to an e-reader Books and Bricks & Mortar, page 18 Northwords Now is a three times Designer Bradhagair. The verses are in my father’s yearly literary magazine published by Gustaf Eriksson handwriting. The photograph is of my Northwords, a not-for-profit company, www.gustaferiksson.com parents.” www.annecampbellart.co.uk registered in February 2005. Technical Advisor Submissions to the magazine are welcome. Address Tony Ross They can be in Gaelic, English, Scots and PO Box 15066, Dunblane, FK15 5BP [email protected] any local variants. They should be sent www.northwordsnow.co.uk to the postal address. Unsolicited e-mail Contact NNow attachments will not be opened. The material Board members Manager: Angus Dunn should be typed on A4 paper. Contact Adrian Clark (Chair), Ann Yule, [email protected] details and SAE should be included. We Valerie Beattie, Kristin cannot return work that has no SAE. Pedroja, Stewart Lackie Subscriptions Copyright remains with the author. The magazine is FREE and can be picked up Payment is made for all Editor at locations across Scotland. See list on P23 successful submissions. Chris Powici, [email protected] The fee for individual ‘home-delivery’ is £6 The next issue is planned for July 2013 for 3 issues, cheques payable to ‘Northwords’. Gaelic Editor The Board and Editor of Northwords Now Rody Gorman, [email protected] Front cover image acknowledge support from Highlands and Photopolymer etching by Anne Campbell. Islands Enterprise, Creative Scotland, Advisory Group “Based on ‘an Uiseag’, ‘The Skylark’ by Hi-Arts and Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Jon Miller, Peter Urpeth, Pam Beasant Peter Campbell, Pàdruig Tharmoid Chalum, ISSN 1750-7928 2 Northwords Now Issue 23, Spring 2013 Independence Blues Donald S. Murray Responds to Writers on Independence or all that the images of politicians It was said that if you wanted to see him, he sometimes flickered across our TV was always good enough to come and visit Fscreen, it was the nights when its signal you at your house. It is not an offer that, I spluttered and failed that really brought the imagine, many of the more self-conscious of politics of the wider world to my young life the islands’ poor were anxious to take up. in the isle of Lewis. Older men might gather There was also a single issue that perturbed around the fire and speak about their days me at that time. Weavers like my father were working on Hydro dams throughout the in a curious position in terms of their em- Highlands, mingling with exiled ‘Poles’ and ployment. Technically self-employed, they Irish to bring light to our homes. They would were still dependent on the mills for their talk about the Tunnel Tigers whose bones supply of tweeds. This left them in a vulner- occasionally mingled with concrete when able position when no orders were available things went wrong, the disputes and dangers as they were not allowed to claim unemploy- that marked their existence in these remote ment benefit for themselves or their families. glens. My father might occasionally be drawn It was not, I heard from SNP activists, a situ- into speaking of these days, mentioning how ation that could be altered in any way – until – as a trade unionist – he had been involved the Labour Party did this when the industry in some of these clashes, losing his job one appeared to be in its death-throes in 2004. time through pressing for a works canteen on All this has left me with a rather cynical site. attitude to independence. In short, I do not These conversations provided me with a believe it will bring about any great trans- sense of theatre, one that was, however, more formation in society. The danger is, as Allan than matched by the arrival of the 7/84 Armstrong predicts in his contribution to company in the Nicolson Institute during Unstated, the SNP will not dissolve itself once my senior years at that school. Their play its goal is achieved but, instead, cling to power The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black with all the tenacity of Tartan Superglue. Oil was a history of both the Clearances and The writer standing upright in the winds of change In countries like South Africa, India and the struggle for secure land tenure in the Photograph of Donald S. Murray by Mhairi Chaff Ireland, this has not proved to be a positive Highlands and Islands. Told through songs, experience. For all my good friend, Aonghas a pop-up book and pantomime-like villains, life; these talks around the fireside. Despite there. It is also the case that, as John also MacNeacail’s words, I have not, for instance, it transformed many of those who watched this, I am all too aware that the principles points out, little has been done – apart from always been cheered by the confidence of it, providing us with a sense not only of the I believed in are no longer in the ascend- Jack McConnell’s Land Reform Act in 2003 my fellow-Gaels in Ireland. It has sometimes politics of the Gaelic language which many of ancy in much of the Highlands and Islands – to address what The Cheviot, The Stag and generated its own failings, such as a feeling us spoke (and often, unfortunately, derided) or Scotland generally. Instead it is the views The Black, Black Oil was all about, the issue of of complacency. In the Haughey years, in but also of our native place. of the other half of that 7:84 audience which land ownership, particularly in the Highlands particular, there was a sense in which virtu- For all our enthusiasm about the drama, have grown popular. It is all a little like both and Islands but also Scotland as a whole. At ally every TD and journalist in Hibernia had however, there was a division in the way the the final days and aftermath of the Austro- the time, McConnell’s piece of legislation retreated into ‘hibernus’ hibernation rather audience of school-pupils responded to its Hungarian Empire when the novelist Joseph was criticised by the SNP as being timid. In than bring out into sunlight the extraordinary words.