Writers' Shift

by Janette Ayachi

What happens when a team of poets joins a major cultural organisation busily remaking itself ready for the middle years of the 21st century? And what results when you throw a slew of unpredictable geopolitical and social shifts into their path? The answer is a treasure chest of insights. The poems, essays and illustrations within this book find fascination in 50 years of art and artists at the Fruitmarket in the centre of Edinburgh. In their subject matter are the movements of creative work and ideas across borders, the make-up and history of the city, and gothic fantasies of galleries reimagined as mortuaries or as gardens. As well as a temperature check on a remarkable time in a specific place, pulsing through it all is the abundant imaginative energy needed to convince us to make our commitment to new living. With Janette Ayachi, Callie Gardner, Jane Goldman, Iain Morrison, Tom Pow, and Shola von Reinhold.

Paperback

Published March 7, 2022

About the author

Janette Ayachi is a Scottish-Algerian poet. She was born in London but moved to Scotland at the age of thirteen, and Edinburgh and Glasgow feature in her poems.

Ayachi's work appears in many literary journals and anthologies. Her first independent release was a poetry pamphlet titled Pauses at Zebra Crossings (2012). Her Hand Over Mouth Music won the Saltire Society Literary Award for the Best Poetry Book of 2019.