In pictures: Iain Clark: Intimate Portraits of Scottish Writers

AYE WRITE! festival is showcasing a special exhibition of portraits by Iain Clark, whose work captures some of Scotland’s finest contemporary literary figures; the recent death of one writer, Edwin Morgan, adds a poignancy to the exhibition, which is shown in its entirity for the first time.

The Scotsman previews some of the portraits, together with some choice quotes from the writers’ works.

A.L. Kennedy

“We are not all connected. We are bags of skin. We are all separate bags

of thinking skin.”

• From What Becomes

Ian Rankin

“On the steps of the Great London Road police station in Edinburgh,

John Rebus lit his last legitimate cigarette of the day before pushing open the

imposing door and stepping inside.”

• From Knots and Crosses

Douglas Dunn

Day by nomadic day

Our anniversaries go by,

Dates anchored in an inner sky,

To utmost ground, interior clay.

It was September blue

When I walked with you first, my love,

In Roukenglen and Kelvingrove,

Inchinnan’s beech-wood avenue.

• From Anniversaries

Edwin Morgan

A mean wind wanders through the backcourt trash.

Hackles on puddles rise, old mattresses

puff briefly and subside. Play-fortresses

of brick and bric-a-brac spill out some ash.

• From Glasgow Sonnet Noº 1

Liz Lochhead

Trouble is not my middle name.

It is not what I am.

I was not born for this.

Trouble is not a place

though I am in it deeper than the deepest wood

and I’d get out of it (who wouldn’t?) if I could.

• From Trouble is not my middle name

Tom Leonard

Helluva hard tay read theez init

stull

if yi canny unnirston thim jiss clear aff then

gawn

get tay f*** ootma road

• Six Glasgow Poems: From (6) Good Style

• Aye Write, 9-17 Mar, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, G3 7DN

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