Free Reads & Book Reviews
New poetry
This collection of poems was inspired by my experiences during collaboration with Orla Stevens to celebrate the centenary of George Mackay Brown. They also mark International Refugee Day, and were shared at the George Mackay Brown Memorial Garden, Stromness, Saturday, 25th June.
Poetry
The Tern – inspired by the birds around the Peedie Sea.
Key – A wee poem, cobbled together at writing group. My subject was singing…
Wonderlust – inspired by the walk to school (over snails)
The Maker – inspired by a photograph by Annie Wright
Margaret’s Lookout – inspired by a visit to St Olav’s Cemetery
Cutting Willow – inspired by winter gardening.
Acrostic poems
George Mackay Brown 20th anniversary celebration poems.
Left behind by others, we notice more.
Magnus 900 poems
Magnus 900 – a reflection on a special year. Film produced by Start Point Media. Poems/reading by Gabrielle Barnby, Orkney, 2017.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of the Orcadian film maker, writer and poet Margaret Tait.
Her writing was inspiration for this screenplay which won the 2018 George Mackay Brown Fellowship Writing Competition.
Short stories
Listener – a dark Orcadian tale, winner of the 2015 George Mackay Brown Fellowship Writing Competition..
Jeopardy – all is not what it seems between two old friends on a shopping trip to Sydney.
Widow Kharms’ Guesthouse – inspired by a book on Russian Absurdist Literature. Russia’s Lost Literature of the Absurd Selected works of Danil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky Translated and edited by George Gibian, 1974.
Hostel – two walkers find good company.
Flash Fiction
Summer Void – a little story about hide and seek.
Gift – a seasonal short.
F# – it is very loud in here.
Making of the Man – a creative response to the front cover image for Carrington’s Cases and the title A Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston.
Creative response to 200 Years of Diaries, Life’s Documents Chronicled: Diary continuation, Thoughts on Bert and V. and Fluffy and Thoughts on Miss Burke
Reading fuels writing. This is a selection of reviews for books I have recently read as well as events and activities I have attended or been involved with. If you have a response to anything I have written please drop me a line. I take on a small amount of work writing paid reviews for literary journals.
