Stanza poet's market

Tapsalteerie make our first ever appearance at the Stanza poetry festival this year, bringing our stall to the poet's market on Saturday 8th March (which is on between 12 and 4pm). That's the launch day for Calum Rodger's "Know yr Stuff: Poems on Hedonism" too, and we're tremendously excited to have the chance to show it off to the distinguished poetry readers of Stanza. Of course we'll also have "the Quait Chiel" by Bill Thom making its first poetry market appearance, a poem that has proven a great favourite with readers so far. We're currently concocting some special Tapsalteerie cupcakes to give away to the first stall visitors, and are working on a selection of other "enticing" freebies too. So if you're at the stanza festival please pop by the stall for a cake and a chat, we'd love to meet you and hae a news aboot poetry!

See you there!

Poetry at Books and Beans

Last night we launched our first pamphlet and I have to say it went swimmingly well. Books and Beans was packed out, Bill read his poem very succesfully - the audience was on tenterhooks for most of it - and we had some great guest appearances. Couldn't have hoped for a better start to our publishing adventure, so thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a memorable evening.

Launch Night for The Quait Chiel

It's a great pleasure to be able to say that on Thursday 26th September we'll finally release The Quait Chiel, Bill Thom's first (and rather superb!) poetry pamphlet.

We're launching it at the regular Poetry at Books and Beans night in Aberdeen, which happens on the last Thrusday of every month. It's a great regular fixture in the Aberdeen poetry scene so we're very pleased to take Bill's pamphlet along to it.

They've been good enough to make a special Doric evening out of the event; alongside Bill we'll have readings from the legendary Douglas Kynoch, as well as the excellent Grainne Smith. We'll also get the pleasure of music from Louise Counsell on top of as the usual open mic, so it promises to be a quality evening.

See you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/501580573259526/?ref=22

The pictures are here!

Tapsalteerie recently received the illustrations for our first pamphlet, expertly drawn as ever by the mighty Scott Simpson. I was going to post a few drafts of the design as it went along, but actually everything has fallen into place really quickly - and I don't really want to give away the poem's plot (yes, it has a plot - a proper beginning, middle and end story)!

Instead I decided to put together some words and an image from the early part of the poem, just so you can get a flavour of what's to come. Below it is the cover design:

It looks like we're heading for a September release date. More news to follow soon!

"The Quait Cheil" By Bill Thom

We're now getting to the final stages in preparing to launch our first pamphlet, The Quait Cheil by Bill Thom. The illustrations are almost ready, the text is basically complete. All that's left is the final cover design and typesetting. We'll be previewing some parts of the process on the blog here so you can see things as they develop.

Bill's debut pamphlet is well worth a read (of course we would say that!). It consists of one long poem in the old north-eastern ballad style, written entirely in Banffshire Doric. Although Tapsalteerie are well aware that the long poem isn't exactly "in" at the moment, Bill has managed to create a piece that really grabs the attention. He's produced a cracking story, told with a rhythm born out of traditional Scottish folk music. We're very pleased to be able to help him release it.

The Quait Cheil 
[extract from beginning section]

Thi twa o them aye disagreed,

Fit een o them wid takk thi lead,

Fan aye they cum up tae thi wid,

Wi thochts o fit thi darkness hid,

For lang they kent o stories old,

O ghosts an spirits they were told,

Bit through thi wid thi pathie geed,

An intae trouble wis guaranteed.

So huddin in atween thi trees,

Thi lack o licht caased their displease,

Nae moon thi nicht, nae licht wis seen,

Nor even stars oot up abeen.

By Bill Thom

Release date: early July