Thursday 20th January at 7pm on Zoom

We have an excellent line of poets to kick off our first Mirrorball of 2022: Leela Soma, Hamish Whyte Eveline Pye, and Jason Allen-Paisant.

Jason Allen-Paisant is a writer, academic and the Director of the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Leeds. Born in Jamaica and currently living in Leeds, he holds a doctorate in Medieval and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and speaks seven languages. He serves on the editorial board of Callaloo: Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters. His debut book, Thinking With Trees, a poetry collection that examines and navigates themes including nature and race, leisure, property and space was published by Carcanet in 2021.

Eveline Pye worked in the Zambian Copper Mining Industry and lectured in applied mathematics and statistics at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her first collection, Smoke That Thunders, was published by Mariscat Press (2015) and, from it, the poem Mosi-Oa-Tunya was chosen for the 20 Best Scottish Poems of that Year. Her new pamphlet, STEAM, places A for Arts within the STEM subjects. Published by Red Squirrel Press, it explores the inner world and external perspective of her scientific mind.

Hamish Whyte was born near Glasgow where he lived before moving in 2004 to Edinburgh. Paper Cut is his fourth collection with Shoestring Press. He has edited many anthologies and runs the award-winning Mariscat Press. He’s been a librarian, indexer and crime fiction reviewer. For Edwin Morgan’s 100th birthday year in 2020 he edited his Centenary Selected Poems (Carcanet) and published a memoir, Morgan & Me (HappenStance). He’s a member of Edinburgh’s Shore Poets and plays percussion and drums in a couple of bands.

Leela Soma was born in Madras, India and now lives in Glasgow. Her poems and short stories have appeared in many anthologies and publications. She has published three novels and two collections of poetry. Her pamphlet Chintz was published recently by Dreich. She has served on the East Dunbartonshire Arts & Culture Committee and is chairperson of Bearsden Writers. She is the Scriever of The Federation of Writers Scotland for 2021. Some of her work reflects her dual heritage of India and Scotland. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020.

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