Muriel Spark is one of the most extraordinary writers of the 20th Century, and 2018 marks the centenary of her birth. Prolific, needle-bright and sharp as a tack, her novels shine as brightly today as they ever did. Janice Galloway talks about the work, wit and no-nonsense style of one of Scotland’s most original writers, in an event suitable for both fans of Muriel Spark and for those unfamiliar with her work alike.
29 September 8.30pm
Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine.
£8
Muriel Spark's Study in Italy
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
The Public Image (Scottish Lady Tiger)
The Public Image (Scottish Lady Tiger)
—A response to the life of Muriel Spark by Michael Curran
—A response to the life of Muriel Spark by Michael Curran
Video and performance artist Michael Curran has created an environment in which a series of actions and performances inspired by the life and work of Muriel Spark can take place. Generator Projects acts as a laboratory, a press office, a casting room, and a film set for Curran and his collaborators to dissect the author’s fascination with appearances and ‘what lies beneath’.
Curran will inhabit the space for the full duration of the show's run—reading aloud from Spark's twenty-two novels, drawing on the walls, playing records, sitting in contemplation soaking his feet, and shredding books to make paper amongst an assortment of objects, videos, and situations which reference Spark's oeuvre and life. The exhibition will act accumulatively, as new elements are introduced or taken away, with the final result an accretion of Curran's time occupying the space.
This exhibition aims to explore some of the ambiguities concerning Spark—the exile, the émigré, and the enigma. As part of the project, Generator is producing an LP The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark with sound artists Viralux aka Trish Lyons & Gordon Dawson,[BOX] (Neil McIntee), UrbanFarmHand (Ben Seal), Somerset Moan (Emil Thompson), Ana Cavic, AD Crawforth, and New Root Canal (Rufus Mich), chosen by Michael Curran and the show’s curator Hari MacMillan. This will be manufactured during the show and released at the finishing party along with performances by the artists on the LP.
All of Spark's novels are available in the space and visitors are encouraged to read from them either silently or out loud. The author considered herself as a poet first and foremost—seeing her novels as long form poetry. Curran has commissioned artistsRebecca Sharp and Valerie Sutton to create a scent named POETA, evoking Spark's luminous aura. Rebecca will introduce the perfume at the closing party on Sunday the 30th of September at 2pm.
The show will conclude with Curran’s performative lecture Scottish Lady Tiger followed by a performance by some of the artists featured on The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark LP during a closing event that invites local artists, performers, and project participants to join together in celebration of Muriel Spark's Centenary.
Generator is open Thurs – Sun 12-5pm or by appointment
Monday, September 17, 2018
Crimes and Misdemeanours of Muriel Spark
The Crimes and Misdemeanours of Muriel Spark – Louise Welsh, Zoe Strachan and Alan Taylor at Bloody Scotland
September 23 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
£8 – £9
Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling
New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Dame Muriel, and her inspiring teacher Christina Kay, are both included in the New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, to be published by Edinburgh University Press next month. The new edition is published to mark the centenary of women's suffrage, and since Muriel had a suffragette in her family history, we hope she would have been pleased. It would be timely to reread her short story on the movement, Harper and Wilton.
Bluebell Among the Sables
Dame Muriel's poem celebrating her beloved cat Bluebell is included in a handsome new anthology published by Serpent's Tail.
Thursday, September 06, 2018
Muriel Spark: child writer, childhood writer, children's writer - Willy Maley
Here is a link to an article by Spark Society member, Professor Willy Maley:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/reading/2018/08/muriel-spark-childhood-writer
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/reading/2018/08/muriel-spark-childhood-writer
Spark: poetry and art inspired by the novels of Muriel Spark
Rob A. Mackenzie writes:
I have co-edited (with Louise Peterkin) a poetry anthology containing two poems inspired by each of Muriel Spark's twenty-two novels, and also a few works of Spark-inspired art. It features forty-four of the most interesting and acclaimed poets around today, mainly from the UK, with a special emphasis on Scotland, but also a few from further afield e.g. Sean O'Brien, Vahni Capildeo, Sasha Dugdale, Tishani Doshi, W.N.Herbert, Robert Alan Jamieson etc - everything from T.S. Eliot Prize winners to some of the best of today's 'emerging' poets. And it comes with an introduction by the novelist and short story writer, Olga Wojtas.
The book, which will be called 'Spark' with a subtitle 'Poetry and Art Inspired by the Novels of Muriel Spark', will be published on 15 October 2018 by Blue Diode Press and will cost £10. It will be this new Scottish publisher's first publication. I'm sure it would be of interest to many in the Muriel Spark Society.
The launch will be on Saturday 13 October, 2.30-4pm, at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT. It's a free event, although we hope people will buy the book! I would be grateful if you could pass on these details to anyone you think might be interested.
I am here, in case you are wondering who I am! - http://www.All the best,
Rob A. Mackenzie
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