Join two stalwarts of the Scottish poetry community for the festival’s first Poetry Café lunchtime reading, with performances from Jim Carruth and Stewart Sanderson. Jim Carruth is a long-time eco-poet, exploring the changing rural landscape and the hardships being faced by small farms struggling to survive ever-increasing financial and environmental challenges. Stewart Sanderson’s first full collection, The Sleep Road, digs into notions of deep time, what is left behind and what survives of us. Two elegant, thoughtful poets to guide you through their experiences of rural Scotland.

Jim Carruth is the current poet laureate of Glasgow. The last of his Auchensale Trilogy, Far Field, is published by Birlinn in March 2023. Stewart Sanderson is a multi-award-winning poet from Scotland. His first full-length collection, The Sleep Road, was published by Tapsalteerie in November 2021.