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Goonie: SHORTLISTED FOR FORWARD PRIZE BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR FORWARD PRIZE BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2025
WINNER OF THE LIST'S BEST RISING SCOTTISH AUTHOR AWARD 2025
NOMINATED FOR SCOTS LANGUAGE AWARD'S SCOTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
'Goonie is a boisterously brilliant collection that sings like the mother of all songbirds' Michael Pedersen, author of The Cat Prince
'An absolute beauty of a book by an absolute beauty of a writer. Goonie is an essential tribute to life and fight and love and language' Hollie McNish, author of Lobster
'I've enjoyed Michael Mullen's poems since the moment I first encountered them. He is brave and funny, Glasgow-gallus and compassionate . . . Goonie announces a real new talent' Kathleen Jamie, author and former Scottish Makar
'This is gorgeous, maximalist poetry, playful and glittering but rooted in anger and honesty, a sensual Technicolor shot of Scots joy. I will be raving about this for years' Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen
'These poems are tender weapons that will smash through any apathy that still remains towards the Scots language, they are pulsing with humour and wit but the reverence that Mullen gives to every day moments, characters and life make me realise there is always more to learn, more to see, deeper to go. I have no doubt Goonie is a new Scottish classic' Leyla Josephine, Forward Prize-winning poet
Goonie is the raw and joyful debut collection from award-winning Scottish poet and spoken word artist Michael Mullen.
Whether exploring queerness through fierce lyrical poetry or celebrating Mullen's beloved Scotland through vernacular vignettes, Goonie's main preoccupation is with how we form community around us and how community, in turn, forms us.
Many of the themes are encapsulated by the title poem as the narrator readies themself to take the stage and perform for their older relatives wearing an old goonie (a nightdress): 'Ma aunt raising her vodka Iron-Bru, a tumblr ae noxious flame, a toast / tae me, n ma frilly jig. Awk A jist lettum wear witever he wahnts tae wear.'
In Goonie, the oral tradition of Scots combines with whip-sharp Glaswegian humour to bring alive in language and form the full spectrum of human working class friends gathering round a fire, a living room ceilidh, an chat in the hairdresser's chair, a queer awakening. These poems show the power of acceptance, togetherness and creative expression.
All aspects of Mullen's life as a performer, a poet, a queer son, a Scot, a working-class boy, come together on the page to form a collection that casts a sceptical eye on identity whilst also championing it. Ultimately, Goonie address the ties that it is a testament to how love - of ourselves, our heritage, our landscape, each other - transforms everything.
WINNER OF THE LIST'S BEST RISING SCOTTISH AUTHOR AWARD 2025
NOMINATED FOR SCOTS LANGUAGE AWARD'S SCOTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
'Goonie is a boisterously brilliant collection that sings like the mother of all songbirds' Michael Pedersen, author of The Cat Prince
'An absolute beauty of a book by an absolute beauty of a writer. Goonie is an essential tribute to life and fight and love and language' Hollie McNish, author of Lobster
'I've enjoyed Michael Mullen's poems since the moment I first encountered them. He is brave and funny, Glasgow-gallus and compassionate . . . Goonie announces a real new talent' Kathleen Jamie, author and former Scottish Makar
'This is gorgeous, maximalist poetry, playful and glittering but rooted in anger and honesty, a sensual Technicolor shot of Scots joy. I will be raving about this for years' Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen
'These poems are tender weapons that will smash through any apathy that still remains towards the Scots language, they are pulsing with humour and wit but the reverence that Mullen gives to every day moments, characters and life make me realise there is always more to learn, more to see, deeper to go. I have no doubt Goonie is a new Scottish classic' Leyla Josephine, Forward Prize-winning poet
Goonie is the raw and joyful debut collection from award-winning Scottish poet and spoken word artist Michael Mullen.
Whether exploring queerness through fierce lyrical poetry or celebrating Mullen's beloved Scotland through vernacular vignettes, Goonie's main preoccupation is with how we form community around us and how community, in turn, forms us.
Many of the themes are encapsulated by the title poem as the narrator readies themself to take the stage and perform for their older relatives wearing an old goonie (a nightdress): 'Ma aunt raising her vodka Iron-Bru, a tumblr ae noxious flame, a toast / tae me, n ma frilly jig. Awk A jist lettum wear witever he wahnts tae wear.'
In Goonie, the oral tradition of Scots combines with whip-sharp Glaswegian humour to bring alive in language and form the full spectrum of human working class friends gathering round a fire, a living room ceilidh, an chat in the hairdresser's chair, a queer awakening. These poems show the power of acceptance, togetherness and creative expression.
All aspects of Mullen's life as a performer, a poet, a queer son, a Scot, a working-class boy, come together on the page to form a collection that casts a sceptical eye on identity whilst also championing it. Ultimately, Goonie address the ties that it is a testament to how love - of ourselves, our heritage, our landscape, each other - transforms everything.
- GenresPoetry
90 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2025
2 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 26, 2025
something so special about reading someone’s experiences and thinking oh me too!!! dancing to abba gold with your aunties 😍😍
But also so much in here that is unfamiliar with me but told in such a vulnerable and open way that it really lets you in. Challenging and enlightening
But also so much in here that is unfamiliar with me but told in such a vulnerable and open way that it really lets you in. Challenging and enlightening
September 10, 2025
I am in awe of these beautiful, challenging and heart stirring moments of love, connection and truth anchored in Scotland’s landscape, cities, culture and language.
I am in awe. What a talent.
I am in awe. What a talent.
June 18, 2025
Very proud to call Michael Mullen a friend, and his debut book of poetry shares his singular voice and style that I've loved for many years. Even if you are not typically a poetry fan, I promise there is something in here for you. There's humour and grief, passion and love, and above all a celebration of what it means to be Scottish.
October 18, 2025
"The only harvest to speak of this year is loss,/as boys blink oot/like the lights/in a tenement windae."
Even before its epigraphs, Mullen's collection startles with a shaped poem in the form of a forked tongue (which I initially mistook for a crab's claw until googling its title, alluding to a mythical serpent named the Beithir), written in the Scots language. A forking tongue is an apt metaphor for GOONIE's style, which dances between Scots and English, comedy and dramatic elements, in its exploration of Scottish and queer identity.
Mullen has an excellent eye for metaphor and simile: in the bleak industrialised landscape of "Clyde Pastoral", "cormorants tumour and old tree/a crop of black lungs" and "a deer stalks Dalmarnock's train tracks like a suicide". The haiku-like density of imagery in "Arran Stars" contrasts with the streetwise comedy of "Love Story in Two Parts" and "hot pink", a narrative poem about a first Pride celebration, while poems like "Gay Voice" and "POOF" examine the politics of queer self-expression, the latter using the eponymous word as a rhythmic refrain that queries and subverts its derogatory associations. In contrast to these confident uses of form, I found that some of GOONIE's free-verse poems and uses of unconventional textual layouts were less persuasive, their more diffuse structure weakening their expressiveness, but there's enough verve and wit in Mullen's work to make this collection well worth reading.
Even before its epigraphs, Mullen's collection startles with a shaped poem in the form of a forked tongue (which I initially mistook for a crab's claw until googling its title, alluding to a mythical serpent named the Beithir), written in the Scots language. A forking tongue is an apt metaphor for GOONIE's style, which dances between Scots and English, comedy and dramatic elements, in its exploration of Scottish and queer identity.
Mullen has an excellent eye for metaphor and simile: in the bleak industrialised landscape of "Clyde Pastoral", "cormorants tumour and old tree/a crop of black lungs" and "a deer stalks Dalmarnock's train tracks like a suicide". The haiku-like density of imagery in "Arran Stars" contrasts with the streetwise comedy of "Love Story in Two Parts" and "hot pink", a narrative poem about a first Pride celebration, while poems like "Gay Voice" and "POOF" examine the politics of queer self-expression, the latter using the eponymous word as a rhythmic refrain that queries and subverts its derogatory associations. In contrast to these confident uses of form, I found that some of GOONIE's free-verse poems and uses of unconventional textual layouts were less persuasive, their more diffuse structure weakening their expressiveness, but there's enough verve and wit in Mullen's work to make this collection well worth reading.
August 4, 2025
"ye canny kill yersel wae thi hing thit cures ye"
My favourite poetry collection I have read in a long time. I read the acknowledgements first and knew it was gonna be for me seeing Thank you to Glasgow. I don't think Michael Mullen intended his poetry to be read with the sound of the Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack blaring in the background but if anything it elevated the experience to me. Gave it the vaguely nostalgic vibes of being a kid and listening to drunk uncles rambling about work and life and their childhood and the football and the last movie they saw in the pictures while aunties sing karaoke a few feet away. The kind of poetry that makes me love being glaswegian.
My favourite poetry collection I have read in a long time. I read the acknowledgements first and knew it was gonna be for me seeing Thank you to Glasgow. I don't think Michael Mullen intended his poetry to be read with the sound of the Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack blaring in the background but if anything it elevated the experience to me. Gave it the vaguely nostalgic vibes of being a kid and listening to drunk uncles rambling about work and life and their childhood and the football and the last movie they saw in the pictures while aunties sing karaoke a few feet away. The kind of poetry that makes me love being glaswegian.
January 27, 2026
Hands down my favourite poetry collection I’ve ever read. It’s playful, lively, and joyful, and as a Celtic cousin (Welsh) I especially loved the poems using Scots language. Full of humour and heart — something I’d happily recommend to anyone. Brilliant on its own terms, but also really accessible if you don’t usually read poetry. What a talent. Can’t wait to see what Michael does next.
August 15, 2025
This collection had me proper belly laughing. So much nostalgia throughout the collection and so many lines I’ll remember.
Standout poems for me was Goonie and Love Story in 2 parts.
“Yer aboot as reliable as the McDonald’s ice cream machine.” What a belter of a line
Standout poems for me was Goonie and Love Story in 2 parts.
“Yer aboot as reliable as the McDonald’s ice cream machine.” What a belter of a line
September 20, 2025
I didn’t understand 70% of this but still had a hoot with it
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews