If you would like to book Douglas Lipton for an event, or require more information relating to visits, then please complete the contact form.
FUTURE:
New Collections
Working currently to finalise several new collections of poems, a second bestiary called More Rebel Beasts, a book of poems about Scotland and France, called The Butcher of Flassans, and a further politically-driven collection, called Ace Deuce Trey Cater Cinque Sice.
PAST: EVENTS, BROADCASTS & EXHIBITIONS
New Paintings & Drawings
Compass Gallery, Glasgow, March-April 1985
Paintings and drawings by Keith McIntyre, poems by Douglas Lipton.
The Muscle in my Head
Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, September-October 1989
Block prints by Kenny Morrison, poems by Douglas Lipton.
Scottish Beasts
Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, Gracefield Studios, Dumfries, June 1991
A dramatised reading of The Flora and Fauna of an Independent Scotland, directed by Hazel Lipton.
Songs for the Falling Angel – a requiem for Lockerbie
Edinburgh International Festival [with SAC and STV] at Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, and the Crichton Memorial Church, Dumfries, August 1991
Artist: Keith McIntyre, composer: Karen Wimhurst, Libretto: Douglas Lipton, Choral Director: Ian McCrorie, Choir: The Scottish Festival Singers, soloists: Frances Lynch, Steve Kettley, Mary Ann Kennedy, Sarah Watson.
Songs for the Falling Angel – a requiem for Lockerbie
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, 11 December 1991 and 24 January 1992
Details as above.
Out of Love
BBC Radio 4 ‘Kaleidoscope’, 21 December 1991
On the Lockerbie Tragedy. Robert Dawson-Scott [presenter], Mike Greenwood [producer].
Songs for the Falling Angel – a requiem for Lockerbie
ITV/STV, 22 December 1991
Directed by Alastair Scott, produced by Donny O’Rourke
Songs for the Falling Angel
Loreburne Shopping Centre, Unit 10, May 1992
Paintings, prints and sculpture by Keith McIntyre
Poems made Manifest
Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, July 1992
Poems on a Postcard.
Dedication to the Memorial Cairn
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA, 3 November 1995
Dedication of the cairn given by the Lockerbie Air Disaster Trust to the United States of America.
‘The Golden Door’
Moffat Youth Theatre, Moffat, Dumfriesshire, 21 March 1997
David Ashton; and Children of the Andes. Play and charity poetry-reading, directed by Ericka Hulle.
Flights of Fancy
Dumfries Museum
5 April 1998
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Mr McFall’s Chamber, with Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association – community project workshops with Karen Wimhurst [composer], SCO musicians and Frances Lynch [soprano].
Wigtown Book Town Launch
Wigtown, 16 May 1998
Spiralling Aspirations
Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, November 2000
Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association/Rites of Passage/NSF Scotland – combined arts project.
Spirit of Greatness
The Writers’ Museum, Lady Stair’s House, Edinburgh, 7 July- 3 November 2001
An exhibition celebrating the work of Dumfries & Galloway writers, past and present. (City of Edinburgh Council, Department of Recreation – Heritage & Arts Design Section/Dumfries & Galloway Council/Gaelforce 2001). Curated by John Hudson.
Spirit of Greatness
Royal Festival Hall, Poetry Library, South Bank, London – 14th May-30th June 2002
Solway Fire
John Hudson’s hour-long film about five writers from south-west Scotland was premiered on 19th March 2002 at Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival’s 2002 launch. It was subsequently shown at the Royal Festival Hall Poetry Library, in London’s South Bank (in association with the Spirit of Greatness exhibition). The film – available on CD-Rom – features novelist Sian Hayton, and poets, John Manson, Josephine Neill, William Neill and Douglas Lipton.
Feral Choir
‘Six of the Best’ – a presentation of writers’ work, including Douglas Lipton, for the Feral Choir (Ali Burns) “Timeless” project – at St Ninian’s Church Hall, Castle Douglas, on 14th April 2002.
Feral Choir – “Timeless”
Ali Burns’s choral work, ” Timeless” was performed in Castle Douglas (Wallet’s Mart), Wigtown (Bladnoch Distillery), Whithorn, Mossdale Village Hall, Kirkgunzeon Church and Ay-Jay’s Cafe (Crichton University Campus, Dumfries) between June and September 2004. It featured work by Douglas Lipton – as well as Angus MacMillan, Josephine Neil, Liz Niven, Cally Phillips and Tom Pow.
Other material was produced by Elizabeth Burns, Tony Bonning, Mary Haskins and Bertie Fritsch (soundscapes and engineering). Along with the Feral Choir were soloist Janet Russell and reader Christine Blyth.
Scottish Poetry Library – Poetry Map of Scotland
The SPL launched its Poetry Map of Scotland on St Andrew’s Day 2004 The ‘Map’ features two poems by Douglas Lipton: Wolves and Songs for the Falling Angel.
Holyrood Poetry Link Scheme
Douglas Lipton was partnered with Dumfries MSP Elaine Murray for the second phase of the Scottish Poetry Library‘s Holyrood Poetry Link scheme, pairing a poet with a ‘local’ MSP. This phase ran throughout the Spring of 2005, culminating in a launch event at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 29th March 2005, as part of the Parliament building’s Easter Open House Week. Douglas Lipton’s poem – “The Canny Moment” – a celebration in Scots of Elaine Murray’s and his adoptive town, Dumfries – appears on the SPL’s website, the MSP’s website and as e-cards sent by her with correspondence.
60/60
13th August 2005 – S.W. Scotland launch, at The Bakehouse in Gatehouse of Fleet, of this anthology commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
– with Christine De Luca, Brent Hodgson, John Hudson, J B Pick and Chrys
Salt – and with Chris Ballance (MSP), Shaun Burnie (Greenpeace) and Anne Clarke (SCND).
National Poetry Day 2005
6th October – Reading for DGAA (Dumfries& Galloway Arts Association) in Lockerbie Library with Rab Wilson
MARKINGS Magazine 10th Anniversary
29th October 2005 at ‘The Bakehouse’ in Gatehouse-of-Fleet (Kirkcudbrightshire)
Douglas Lipton read with Gerry Loose, Angus Macmillan, Josephine Neill and Liz Niven to help celebrate the 10th birthday of John Hudson’s (ed.) burgeoning arts magazine.
The Bakehouse
Douglas Lipton was guest reader at The Bakehouse in Gatehouse-of-Fleet on 28th January 2006. [For more information on this remarkable literary venue and venture, telephone: 01557 814196, or email Chrys Salt at: chryssalt@aol.com.]
SHOW SCOTLAND 2006 & WANLOCKHEAD MINER’S LIBRARY 250th ANNIVERSARY
Over the weekend of 29th April-1st May 2006, a series of Creative Writing Workshops and associated events was held in Scotland’s highest village. Douglas Lipton led a workshop for children with local connections on Monday 1st May.
POETRY DOUBLES
DGAA concluded its 2006 season of Poetry Doubles events with a reading by Kathleen Jamie and Douglas Lipton at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre on 18th September
STIRLING CENTRE OF POETRY
Douglas Lipton read at SCoP – an off-shoot of the University of Stirling’s English Department – on 17th October 2006.
PEACE POEMS
Throughout September 2007, windows in the High Street of Gatehouse-of-Fleet in Galloway displayed poems for world peace, including one by Douglas Lipton. This project was co-ordinated by The Bakehouse, and by Markings magazine in issue 25 of which many submitted poems are featured.
SAC SCOTS POEM OF THE MONTH
In November 2007, ‘bird’ extracts from Douglas Lipton’s “The Flora and Fauna of an Independent Scotland” were selected by the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) for inclusion in this monthly feature.
KIRRIEMUIR HERITAGE TRUST – BARRIE 2010
‘Taster Weekend’ 2009 – Douglas Lipton undertook a reading in Kirriemuir’s wonderful Bank Street Gallery on Sunday 10th May. www.kirriemuirheritage.org.uk and www.bankstreetgallery.org
SCOTS WORD OF THE WEEK ‘STUSHIE’
In The Herald (10th April 2010) Chris Robinson – Scottish Language Dictionaries – www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk – quoted from Douglas Lipton’s “The Flora And Fauna Of An Independent Scotland” (‘The Day I Met The Queen Mother’ 1990).
BARRIE 2010: A CELEBRATION OF IMAGINATION
The Thrums Hotel’ 15-16th May 2010 – Douglas Lipton undertook readings and conversations with a number of writers and an illustrator:
Kevin Telfer (“Peter Pan’s First XI”)
Knotbrook Taylor & Robert Ramsay (The Lemon Tree Poets) www.bluesalt.co.uk
John Nickson and Ashley Jennings.
A River Runs Through It
An exhibition celebrating Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum 11th November 2010-30th January 2011. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. Artworks and literature, including a poem by Douglas Lipton. (Riverside Museum Appeal)
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY ARTS FESTIVAL 2013 SOUTHLIGHT STAGE
Douglas Lipton read with other Southlight writers, John Burns, Angus Macmillan, Vivien Jones and Donald Adamson, at Bank Street Dumfries, on 31.5.13.
ANTHOLOGY OF SCOTTISH POEMS
The launch event for this Romanian-English-Scots-Gaelic collection of poems by 16 Scottish (or Scottish-based) poets was held in Glasgow’s Project Café along with the Tell It Slant poetry bookshop in late-January 2017. Douglas Lipton read along with most of the contributors.
Trumped – Poets Speak (while we still can) vol. 1 – a poets speak anthology
Launch at Tortuga Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, USA – 3rd May 2017 – Lipton’s contribution to the anthology – Donald, Where’s Your Visa – was read by actress and poet Eleanor Grogg Stewart
The Poets’ Republic – Issue 6 – National Poetry Day 2018 (4.10.18)
– Dumfries Launch at The Stove, with readings also by Katy Ewing, Angus Macmillan, Hugh Mcmillan (editor), and Stuart A. Paterson – and songs from Julie Ward – augmented by additional readings from The High Street Writers at The Stove
Lowland – The Stove Network – a project to celebrate Dumfries: October 2018
“Writers are the beating heart of a town. Their words, the lifeblood – Past, present, future. What does Dumfries mean to you?” – this scheme is projected to run for three years, 2018-2020. Douglas Lipton, along with many others, has contributed to its exhibition and collection of celebratory words. (Curator: Stuart A. Paterson)
Poets Without Borders
31.10.20: Inaugural meeting on-line [via Google Meet] of poets from across the world – China, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Israel, Nigeria, Cape Verde, South Africa, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, France, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, England, Wales, Cuba, Brazil, Canada, USA – by invitation, hosted by Indian poet, Pankuri Sinha. Douglas Lipton participated in this ‘Hallowe’en’ event.