PLANS are being put in place for an expanded online celebration of the centenary of poet Edwin Morgan.
The Edwin Morgan Trust said it is reimagining and expanding on the physical programme celebrating the former Scots’s work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Morgan was born in the west end of Glasgow on April 27 1920 and died aged 90 in August 2010.
As part of the celebrations, a new online video channel - Hold Hands Among the Atoms - will launch on Monday April 27 on what would have been the poet’s 100th birthday.
It will feature elements originally planned for the public programme of #EdwinMorgan100, alongside new material created especially for the online channel.
It aims to bring together diverse voices and perspectives from across the globe to celebrate the poet’s work and life.
It will launch with a short film, Open the Doors!, featuring contributions from Morgan’s friends, collaborators and celebrity fans including current makar Jackie Kay, former makar Liz Lochhead, ex-UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, actors Alan Cumming and Kate Dickie, and singer Eddi Reader.
The trust has also announced an artist grant scheme, supported by Creative Scotland and the Saltire Society, which will provide funding for creative people working in a variety of art forms to respond to Morgan’s work.
Robyn Marsack, a friend of Morgan’s and the trustee leading the centenary celebrations, said: “When Edwin turned 80, he wrote a poem about pushing the boat out into the unknown - unknown is best, he declared.
“I can’t guess what he would have thought about the pandemic but I can be sure that his restless, dauntless imagination would have engaged with it.”
She added: “What a great example of inquiring creativity, of energy, humour and belief in human capacity he remains to us and how important it is to be reminded of an imagination and linguistic vitality that soars from his beloved Glasgow to Saturn and back.
“We wanted to encourage artists to respond to his work in a virtual space while social distancing is in place, to reach audiences through all the various media at their disposal in the way that Edwin, with his wide interests and curiosity, would have wished.
“The trust is delighted that Creative Scotland and the Saltire Society are enabling us to offer these opportunities to artists at a time when ‘unknown’ feels frightening - we hope we can all take courage from Edwin’s words.”
A new video will be released on the 27th of every month from April to December this year on Hold Hands Among the Atoms, the title of which is taken from the cycle of 70 social poems Morgan wrote for his 70th birthday - the year he announced publicly that he was gay.
Readers from around the world are being invited to share their favourite Morgan poems on social media on Monday April 27 across video, text or any other medium they find appropriate, using the hashtags #edwinmorgan100 and #holdhandsamongtheatoms.
Morgan was recognised as one of the great poets of the 20th century and was appointed Scots makar, in effect Scotland’s poet laureate, in 2004 by then-first minister Jack McConnell.
During his life he published 25 collections of poetry, translated hundreds of poems and wrote plays.
Shops across Scotland are closing. Newspaper sales are falling. But we’ve chosen to keep our coverage of the coronavirus crisis free because it’s so important for the people of Scotland to stay informed during this difficult time.
However, producing The Herald's unrivalled analysis, insight and opinion on a daily basis still costs money, and we need your support to sustain our trusted, quality journalism.
To help us get through this, we’re asking readers to take a digital subscription to The Herald. You can sign up now for just £2 for two months.
If you choose to sign up, we’ll offer a faster loading, advert-light experience – and deliver a digital version of the print product to your device every day.
Click here to help The Herald:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/subscribe/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel