Kicking off the two-and-a-bit day book bonanza, on Friday 2^nd September, will be Mark Kermode. The leading film critic, writer and broadcaster will talk about his new book, “The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex”, answer questions and sign books. Mark is also co-curator of Screenplay 2011, Shetland’s 5^th Annual Film Festival.

Friday evening will also see the Launch of Ecstatics: A Language of Birds, a collaboration between artist Laura Drever and poet Lesley Harrison.  The book is published by Brae editions and the the publisher acknowledges financial support from Creative Scotland. The festival will also feature an exhibition of Laura’s original artwork for the book. Publisher, Alistair Peebles will also present an illustrated talk, entitled, “Up The Brae! Adventures in Small Press Publishing.” The evening’s fare will be rounded off by “Horseplay”, the book and film based Improv Show starring, Allen Chalmers, Sandy Nelson and Raymond Mearns, three of Scotland’s most talented comedians.

The spirit of Wordplay has always been one of participation, and there is plenty for folks of all ages to get stuck into. Saturday morning will see two writing workshops: one run by poet David Wheatley, for poets, entitled “Poetry & Place”. The other run by Roger Hutchinson, author of “Calum’s Road”: “Local People, Local Places” will encourage writers to use local and family history as a starting place for their writing. Another book related workshop will be run by Carol Dunbar, Education Officer at the Pier art Centre in Stromness. This all day workshop will introduce simple book binding techniques, including traditional Japanese stab bindings. Carol will also run a shorter workshop for young people on Sunday 4^th at 3.15pm in which 10-15 year olds will find out how to make a hard-back bound concertina book – no glue, no stitching.

Further workshops include Blast Off! Led by celebrated author and illustrator, Sally Kindberg, who has drawn pictures for three Bloomsbury comic strip books and is currently working on a fourth one about dinosaurs.  The interactive comic strip workshops are suitable for 5-11 year olds and will run on both Saturday and Sunday.

Also for young people (7-12), will be “If I Can Write, You Can Write’, which will feature, perennial children’s favourite, Viv French who will be running an interactive session, in which she will talk about her series, “Tales From the Five Kingdoms”. Viv will also run a workshop for adults about writing fiction for children.

One of the three makars, is Magi Gibson, the first Stirling Makar for 3oo years, who also writes under the name Maggi Gibson for young people. Maggi will run an event for 8-13 year olds, featuring the fun and feisty “Seriously Sassy” books, published by Puffin. She will also appear with her partner, the comic novelist Ian Macpherson, in BeMUSed, an entertaining session of poetry and stories, which will round off the entertainment on Saturday.

The festival line up is rich with poets, many who are also celebrated as writers in other forms. Making his first appearance at the festival is Simon Armitage CBE, the poet, novelist and broadcaster whose event will take place on Saturday afternoon. The multi award-winning writer will read from his work and answer questions from the audience.

Another celebrated writer, poet and dramatist, Liz Lochhead, Scotand’s Makar is making a very welcome return to the UK’s most northerly book festival. As well as reading from her work, Liz will be in conversation with broadcaster James Naughtie, making his first appearance at Wordplay.

James Naughtie, has one of the best known voices on Radio, presenting Today and Bookclub for BBC Radio 4. James’s session, on Sunday afternoon, is entitled, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Studio”.

Andrew Greig will need little introduction, as a poet and novelist of renown. He will appear alongside his friend Ron Butlin, the Edinburgh Makar, a novelist of international renown and a celebrated librettist.  Mr Greig will also appear in “At The Loch of the Green Corrie”, talking about the life and work of another of his friends, the late, great Norman MacCaig. Poetry will also feature on Sunday afternoon with a joint reading by David Wheatley, one of Ireland’s finest contemporary poets, who will be joined by Scotland’s very own John Glenday.

The festival also features novelist and broadcaster, Jonathan Meades. As well as an appearance by the man himself, in which he will read from the book he is currently working on and speak more generally about places and their relationship to fiction there will be screenings of two of his films, “The Isle of Rust” and “Surrealism”.

The relationship between Islands and both fiction and non-fiction is the subject of another session featuring journalist and author of best selling “Calum’s Road” Roger Hutchinson and the celebrated novelist, poet (and organic gardener) Margaret Elphinstone.

Shetland has a vibrant writing community, which is reflected in several of the events, including the Shetland launch of “These Islands We Sing” (Polygon 2011) edited Kevin MacNeil and featuring no less than twenty one poets, either native to Shetland, and/or currently living here. The event will feature Kevin himself, Alex Cluness, Lise Sinclair, and Roseanne Watt.

Lise Sinclair a poet and song writer from Fair Isle will also playing a few songs from her current work in progress, “A Time To Keep”, a cycle of songs inspired by George Mackay Brown’s book of the same title which she is writing with Icelandic composer Astvaldur Traustasson. Lise’s project has received support from both Creative Scotland and Scotland’s Islands.

Launching her first novel, “And Then Forever” (Shetland Times 2011) is another native of Shetland, Christine De Luca, who has also has five collections of poetry published. Christine is also an active member of Shore Poets, Edinburgh and a member of Hansel Co-operative Press.

Hansel Cooperative Press is a not-for-profit cooperative for writers and artists, which promotes literary and artistic works relating to Orkney and Shetland. The festival will host the launch of their new publication, a translation by William (Billy) Tait’s of Francois Villon’s “Grand Testament” which will feature readings by local broadcaster, Mary Blance and poet Jim Mainland as well as contributions by another local poet and scholar, Mark Ryan Smith and the Archivist, Brian Smith.

Another feature of Wordplay over the last few years, has been the Prize Giving for the Shetland Young Writers Award. The competition, now run by Shetland Library has been going for twenty years.

Wordplay also has a long history of supporting Shetland Dialect and Shetland writing and this year sees the showing of an exciting new multi media production, “Kirsty and Da Snarravoe Njuggle”. The show will feature a mixture of live acting, original film sequences and shadow puppetry. This project is funded by Scotland’s Islands and run by Shetland Islands Council’s Creative Links and Drama Co-ordinator.

Laureen Johnson, who researched the seasonal work of the gutters as they followed the herring, celebrates their labour in poems like Barrels and Rhythms, while reflecting also on lightsome times in Wir Hut and Gutted.  The woman’s viewpoint is also reflected in Lise Sinclair’s longer poem Kuna, while Mark Smith takes a humorous look at the generation gap in A owld fisherman bulders at a young een.

The psychological and physical hazards facing the apprentice fisherman is the subject of Charlie Simpson’s Turbot Line, John Cumming’s Da Nipper and Smith’s The Fisherman.  In Settlin Up, James Sinclair’s old fisherman looks, with some trepidation, on his forthcoming retiral.

Arranged in chapters under headings such as Da Boat and Darg, this book provides a rich contrast to the existing library of historical studies of Shetland’s fishing industry.  Illustrated with simple line and wash drawings by John Cumming, it gathers from the live traditions of those Shetlanders who went to sea in search of sustenance, companionship, adventure and mastery; and those who added value to the catch in the herring-curing industry.  It is, as John Goodlad suggests in his foreword, a project long overdue.  Let’s hope this is only the first of many such ventures.  The writers will read from their work on Friday 7^th May at 6.00 pm in the Boat Hall at Shetland Museum and Archive.

The event, already sold out, will feature Christine de Luca, Lise Sinclair and Christie Williamson and will include performances of poetry and music. Christine de Luca is of course an established voice on the Scottish literary scene. She has had four collections of poetry published, Voes & Sounds (1994), Wast Wi Da Valkyries (1997), Plain Song (2002) and Parallel Worlds (2005) (selected works published in Shaetlan, English and French), for which she won the poetry Prix du Livre Insulaire 2007.

Appearing with her is musician and poet Lise Sinclair. Lise writes in Shetlan and English, and her poetry has been translated into seven languages. Her most recent work includes the pamphlet, Here, published by North Idea in 2006, the CD Ivver Entrancin Wis (shetlandmusic, 2007), Empty Ocean (broadcast on Radio 3’s Between the Ears in 2009), and a recording in Iceland for the SPL and Literature Across Frontiers.

Completing the trio for what promises to be a marvellous afternoon of poetry and song, is Christie Williamson. Christie who now lives in Glasgow was brought up in Yell. His poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies across Scotland and have been commended in competitions. In 2008–9 he was one of four mentees in St Mungo’s Mirrorball’s inaugural Clydebuilt mentoring scheme. Arc o Möns, translations of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry into the Shetland dialect was published in 2009 by Hansel Co-operative Press.

Also appearing at the festival will be Shetland resident Jen Hadfield, whose second collection, Nigh No Place won the TS Eliot Prize in 2008. Ms Hadfield will give two readings on Sunday 21^st at 11.30, in St Mary’s Hall and at 2.15pm in the Undercroft.

For more details visit  www.stanzapoetry.org

It doesn’t surprise me, no-one has hauled
Anything so majestic from these waters in the 30 years since
It’s an empty ocean out there
And there are precious few men left, like this
Who might remember where to start looking’

The track can be found at – http://www.myspace.com/lisesinclair

Declining fish stocks is a subject close to Fair Isle’s heart, in the middle of what used to be fertile fishing grounds. In the meantime, the cliffs empty of seabirds who can’t find fish for their young and in a wider context, the commercial fisherman try to adapt by managing bigger boats and sailing further and further, dredging new depths and negotiating high seas and quotas in search of their living.

Radio 3 senior producer, Jessica Isaacs brought Damian back to Fair Isle in May 2009 to make a programme in music, sound, poetry and conversation. The song Empty Ocean was recorded again in Fair Isle with just Lise’s voice and her uncle, Stewart Thomson playing accordion. Information on the programme can be found here – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kh0v1

Artist info

Lise Sinclair writes poetry and music, steeped in her home landscape and traditions, and has performed dialect singing at events including Celtic Connections and international festivals in Europe. She wrote and performed “Ivver Entrancin Wis”, a suite of Shetland poetry set to music performed by musicians including Chris Stout, also from Fair Isle, and Catriona McKay. The work was released on CD in 2008 and is available to buy online.

Damian Montagu is a composer and producer, who has worked with leading directors such as Paul Arden, Daniel Barber, Roman Coppola and Gore Verbinsky. His company Radial (www.radial.tv) specialises in the composition of bespoke music for commercials, games, films and television

Another Shetland poet who has recently been on her travels is Lise Sinclair. As well as an accomplished song writer, pianist, guitarist and singer, Lise is a fine poet with a growing international reputation. In June she was in Bremen for the Poetry on the Road festival, where she read at three events in three different venues: the packed Shakespeare Company Theatre in Bremen, aboard the old three-master Schulshiff Deutchland, in the harbour of Vegesack and on front of 500 pupils of the Kippenburg Gymnasium. According to festival organiser, Michael Augustin, Lise’s readings were “absolutely great!” and the festival “went very well. We had 26 writers from 15 countries (including Ernesto Cardinale, Hans Magnus Enzensburger et al) and all places were jam packed…”

For further info visit the following websites

• Scottish Poetry Library
• Wordsworth Trust
• Poetry on The Road