1-5 May

BIG LIT, now in its ninth year, just gets bigger and bigger! It’s now five bumper days of poetry, launches, prose, talks, film, puppets, history, workshop, buskers, song, installation, exhibition, politics, music and cabaret, and a children’s programme of magical time travel, folk tale and madcappery. 

Saturday March 30th 2019

7.00pm for 7.30pm    

Ciara is 'a born enthusiast' according to the Times Literary Supplement. Her 'striking' poetry has appeared widely in newspapers,  journals and literary magazines. She's been selected for 'Scottish Poem of the Year' and written for Scottish Opera and The Edinburgh Book Festival. Her pamphlet, Past Love in The Museum of Transport explores everyday love from girlhood to motherhood. 

'Funny, generous, deeply humane.’ Liz Lochhead

Winner of New Writer Award 2017

Come and strut your stuff, poetical, musical or theatrical in our acclaimed Fickle Tupperware Bowl of Fate open mic spots. 

Tickets £5.00

Saturday February 23rd 2019
7.00pm for 7.30pm    

The Bakehouse is delighted to host eco-activist, poet and novelist Mandy Haggith.  She will take us on a journey back in time with poems rooted in myths and legends and readings from her historical novel The Walrus Mutterer based on the intrepid Iron Age explorer, Pytheas - this alongside exclusive previews of the next instalment of this compelling trilogy and her forthcoming Red Squirrel poetry collection.

“Moving and quietly passionate.” AL Kennedy 
“Compelling and terrifying.” Observer
“An ecological page-turner … lyrical and vivid, written with a poet’s eye for detail.” Linda Gillard

Winner: Robin Jenkins Literary Award for her novel The Last Bear 

Come and strut your stuff, poetical, musical or theatrical in our acclaimed Fickle Tupperware Bowl of Fate open mic spots. 

Tickets £5.00 

Saturday January 26th 2019

7.00pm for 7.30pm  

TOM POW

Conversations with Burns

Tom Pow has spoken at Burns Nights in Vancouver, Sydney, Nairobi and Ellisland and now The Bakehouse. Join us for Tom’s engaging conversations with Burns in the form of poems, stories and song.

Tom scarcely needs an introduction. He has been a bright star in the Region’s literary firmament for many years. Suffice it to say his work has won awards, bursaries and prestigious short listings aplenty. It is an honour to host him at The Bakehouse for our Burns Night Celebrations.

A YEAR OF CONVERSATION 2019 event.          

The Fickle Tupperware Bowl of Fate awaits once more.
Bring a poem, a song, (we can supply a keyboard), guitar, small pipes, BIG PIPES - entertainment either suitable or wholly unsuitable for the occasion.

Tickets £10.00 (includes hot toddies and haggis nibbles).

Saturday November 10th  7.00 for 7.30

Slam Winner Jon is a widely published, much anthologised and a long awaited first full collection is due out next year.

Born in Ireland, now living in The Highlands, Jon is prime mover shaker of the Corbenic Poetry Path - words of many contemporary poets have been carved in stone, etched in glass, encased in resin and are displayed with sculptures along a three and a half kilometre walk.  

‘Jon is a quiet man with a wild soul. His voice is gentle and alluring while the truths he delivers are like a punch to the throat’. Foy Vance  

‘In a world where authenticity can be increasingly hard to find, Plunkett’s work is the real thing’. John Glenday

!!!!AND HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!!

Jon is taking over the editorial reins of Poetry Scotland from the legend that is Sally Evans. Next Issue Spring 2019.

Come and strut your stuff, poetic, musical or theatrical in our acclaimed 
Fickle Tupperware Bowl of Fate open mic spots.

Tickets £5.00

Saturday October 20th 7.00 for 7.30

Gerda reads from her acclaimed collection QUINES: Poems in tribute to women of Scotland. Quines charts the role of women in Scottish society and culture from earliest times to our own - queens, politicians, a fish-gutter, scientists, a salt seller, sportswomen (including a whole football team!), artists, and many more. She’ll also talk about the process of creating this work and the origins  of its the wide variety of voices. 

Saturday 1st September 2018   7.00 for 7.30

Tickets £5

A great Poetry Double at The Bakehouse 
ANDREW SCLATER with MARK WILLIAMS

Andrew Sclater, shortlisted for the prestigious  Picador Poetry Prize has won awards from The Scottish Book Trust, New Writing North and  been published in many leading magazines. His new collection Dinner at the Blaw Baxters' (Happen Stance 2016) received rave reviews.. 

Andrew is joined by prize winning local poet Mark Williams, winner of  the inaugural Hedgehog Press Slim Volume of One’s Own competition, who will publish Papaya Fantasia in November following his successful first collection, The Odd Sock Exchange (Cinnamon Press 2015)

Saturday October 28th   7.30 – 9.00

Chrys Salt and Bashabi Fraser launch their new pamphlets on India – The Punkawallah’s Rope and The Homing Bird.  Supported by the launch of the Crichton Writers’ anthology of new writing, Alchemy.

To mark the 70th Anniversary of the partition of India and celebrate the Indian-UK Year of Culture 2017, Indian poet Bashabi Fraser and UK poet Chrys Salt offer unique perspectives on the historical legacy and contemporary relationship between their countries in two recently published collections.

Last year I was fortunate to read at The Kolkata Book Fair with Bashabi Fraser under the aegis of The British Council. Bashabi and I would love to share our very different perspectives on this glorious, but challenging continent. AND Bashabi will be facilitating a workshop for writers on the following Sunday morning too. Booking for that essential. Do hope we’ll see you on October 28th and or October 29th .

Tickets: £6.00

www.bashabifraser.co.uk

Sunday October 29th  10.30 – 1.00

‘What is home...?’

A writer’s workshop with Professor Bashabi Fraser a transnational writer currently a professor at Edinburgh Napier University where she co-founded the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs).  Followed by a light lunch at the Bakehouse for participants.

15 places. £15.00

www.bashabifraser.co.uk

November 25th 7.00 for 7.30

We are thrilled to welcome Pauline back to The Bakehouse with her new collection Be an Angel. Her focus on the pre-occupations of women, including MEN will make you laugh and catch your breath in recognition.

Pauline’s one woman shows attract sell out audiences in Festivals all over the country. She has appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Pick of the Week, With Great Pleasure, and Poetry Please; and on Channel 4 Television.

Her readings are a pure, indulgent delight!

‘Everyone needs a Pauline Prior Pitt in their lives’ Maureen Lipman

The Fickle Tupperware Bowl of Fate awaits once more.

Bring a poem, a song, a guitar, a large pipe, a small pipe – anything to entertain or amuse. 

Tickets: £5.00

Booking: 01557 814175 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.