Stranger Things vibes at the Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Grand Palais

Stranger Things vibes at the Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Grand Palais

Rooftops, Le Marais

Reading a book on Van Gogh and interested to note that he read and admired Thomas Carlyle's work. There's presumably academic commentary on this? Carlyle as incubator of postimpressionism.

A very still Loch Lomond

"Rothko’s paintings are..numinous tempests, violent force fields, mercurial landscapes you can feast on, roll with, drown in." I visited Rothko in Florence while deaf & loved it so much I wrote this essay on the artist & silence. It's free to read/subscribe. Thanks. open.substack.com/pub/danigara...

📢 Callout for participants 📢 National Theatre of Scotland at 20: Culture, Democracy, and the Stateless Nation is a day of conversations on how the arts shape Scotland’s society and democratic life, hosted at @scotstorycentre.bsky.social on 23 Oct

This is an excellent essay by Boyd Tonkin, that captures the Muirs' cultural positionality accurately: "The Muirs – marginal itinerants uneasy with the dominant Scottish, never mind British, literary culture – did not enjoy the luxury of institutional radicalism."

Just showed up in my inbox - proof copy of the second volume of Connolly's collected writings - the complete shorter works. This brings together all of his pamphlets - including ones he edited which have never been republished. Amazing work by @iskrabooks.bsky.social On target for autumn release.

2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”. For #GiesAScotsPoemDay @brambrella.bsky.social invited some of the standard-bearers of present-day Scots poetry to compose new work responding to MacDiarmid & his legacy www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/gies-a-scots...

My new book is out! "Art of Divination: A Visual History". An original exploration of global divination traditions across time, and 240 colour images from around the world.

Rare reference to Hugh MacDiarmid in a contemporary novel - Natalie Jayne Clark's The Malt Whisky Murders.

Rare reference to Hugh MacDiarmid in a contemporary novel - Natalie Jayne Clark's The Malt Whisky Murders.

10.23pm, early June, Edinburgh. It's such a beautiful, ridiculous time of year in Scotland. I never want to sleep.

Disability history has been widely suppressed to the extent it rarely even gets mentioned when talking about the past. Huge congrats to Prof. David Turner for his groundbreaking deep dive, A History of Resistance. Out this week: www.waterstones.com/book/disabil...

In May, IASSL held its election for offices. Bob Irvine is the new convener, supported by a committee of re-elected and newly elected members, based at universities in Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, USA, and China, representing IASSL's global reach. tinyurl.com/yf5j35c6

Delighted to have a chapter on Alasdair Gray and Hugh MacDiarmid in the hot-off-the-press The Edinburgh Companion to Alasdair Gray and the Arts, published by @edinburghup.bsky.social

Delighted to have a chapter on Alasdair Gray and Hugh MacDiarmid in the hot-off-the-press The Edinburgh Companion to Alasdair Gray and the Arts, published by @edinburghup.bsky.social

New publication day! Delighted to present this new scholarly edition of Alan Sharp’s A Green Tree in Gedde (1965): beat generation, existentialism, faith, sex, and the collision of Greenock with Paris: a forgotten classic of the Scottish 60s. Published by @asls.org.uk asls.org.uk/publications...

Newhaven scenes. I often feel there's something indescribably otherworldly about north Edinburgh, Newhaven in particular. Maybe it's the light.

Newhaven scenes. I often feel there's something indescribably otherworldly about north Edinburgh, Newhaven in particular. Maybe it's the light.

It’s Agnes Owens’s centenary on Sunday. I was thrilled to be able to write about her life and her bitterly funny books for @theobserveruk.bsky.social, talking to her family, her first readers (“What the fuck is this?!”), her first publisher, and fans like Douglas Stuart:

James Kelman at 80: a conference to mark the 80th birthday of the great Glaswegian writer. Spring 2027, University of Glasgow @glasgow.ac.uk

Please share this advert for the Dr David Summers Master of Research (MRes) Studentship in Scottish Literature @edinburghnapier.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 May 2026. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Nice afternoon in Linlithgow today

Registration now open for SGSAH Summer School 2026 🚀 18–19 June (online) + 24–25 June (Glasgow) For arts & humanities PhDs in Scotland, including our Doctoral Research Showcase (open to all) Explore the programme & book soon—spaces limited! padlet.com/sgsah/sgsah-...

Good exhibition on Brutal Scotland at Trongate 103.

Good exhibition on Brutal Scotland at Trongate 103.

Admiring the local silver birch

Admiring the local silver birch

Endings

Some good news!: New Carnegie Masters Grants to support fair access to postgraduate study in Scotland carnegie-trust.org/new-carnegie...

Please share this advert for the Dr David Summers Master of Research (MRes) Studentship in Scottish Literature @edinburghnapier.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 May 2026. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Just signed a contract to co-edit, with Juliet Shields, THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE SCOTTISH NOVEL. We have a great set of contributors and I'm looking forward to seeing the volume develop.

My story in the @heraldscotland.bsky.social On how poet Kenneth White, who left his house in France to the local council on the proviso they use it for writers residencies, has had his legacy overturne www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2... Petition against the move www.change.org/p/non-%C3%A0...

Very exciting to see copies of our book landing with peeps now. I've seen at least 3 people say they're reading it on the way to LBF and given how bleak some of it gets, I apologise. But hopefully it's something to chat about in the one hour long queues for coffee?! www.404ink.com/store/p/inkl...

Into the blue

Into the blue

Coming soon! The 404 Ink Bursary for small presses and accompanying crowdfunder will launch in mid-March. This will give away at least £3,000 to small presses - we hope to raise more to pay it forward to even more people.

Grateful to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for further support for my project to produce the first scholarly edition of Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Hugh MacDiarmid's book, SCOTTISH SCENE, to be published by @asls.org.uk rse.org.uk/rse-awards-p...

Very pleased to see this wee book on restless adventurer Robert Louis Stevenson out in the world. Thanks to Reaktion Books for all their support along the way. reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/robert-... #RLS @asls.org.uk @iassl.bsky.social

The February sun goes down on the Union Canal, Edinburgh. The light is returning...

Call for Papers: 'Scotland and the In-Between', the annual Société française d’études écossaises (French Society for Scottish Studies) conference (Université de Lorraine, 12-14 Nov 2026). Proposals for papers in French or English are due 28th April. More on the blog: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6338