I have several poems coming out in a new peace anthology by Scottish writers, published by Dove Tales. There is a fundraiser for the anthology here. Dove Tales’ Jean Rafferty hosted a great event at Celtic Connections. It involved a discussion about the Human Cost of War, featuring David Pratt, foreign affairs editor of The Herald and Sunday Herald; Mary Smith, author of Drunk Chickens and Burnt Macaroni, a book about the lives of ordinary Afghan women; and Billy Briggs, director of The Ferret online investigative newspaper and an award-winning freelance writer who has worked in many war zones. I was very touched to see that some of my poems (linking Iraq, Kurdistan and Belfast) open the anthology. A poem of mine also pops up first in an anthology on pubs, another of my passions! One for the Road, edited by Helen Mort and Stuart Maconie, is published by Smith/Doorstop. Here it is below. It’s keeping great company, with poems by Alan Buckley, Catherine Smith, Ian Duhig, Simon Armitage, Collette Bryce and Zaffar Kunial.

One for the Road and Dove Tales, with an amazing cover photo by Angela Catlin.