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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall
@scottlyall.bsky.social
1.1K followers 840 following 95 posts
Hyperlocal aesthete: skies, seas, trees, birds, art, literature I teach at a Scottish university and mostly write about Scotland's interwar literary renaissance and modernism https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/scott-lyall
www.napier.ac.uk
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 7h
Ocean Terminal from Granton Harbour
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 7h
Indian summer in Edinburgh
Granton breakwater
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Reposted by scott lyall
levparikian.bsky.social
Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 1d
Anyway, today is World Migratory Bird Day, so I invite you to spend a minute contemplating those extraordinary journeys, perhaps by looking at the European Migration Atlas. migrationatlas.org
Bird Migration Atlas
This online Migration Atlas covers the huge geographical area represented by two continents, encompassing the flyways between Eurasia and Africa. Movements in time and space of 300 bird species are ma...
migrationatlas.org
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Reposted by scott lyall
scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 2d
Looking at John Bellany's work in the NLS today. This is 'Pourquoi? II', which Bellany painted after visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1967 - a life-changing moment for the artist. Resurrection?
The painting 'Pourquoi? II' by John Bellany.
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Reposted by scott lyall
ahistoryinart.bsky.social
Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d
'Our Lady of the Hills.' (1921) The word anathemata, as David Jones unpicks it in his introduction to what later became an epic poem, means a lifting up and a setting apart of something for our particular savouring. A precise reading of what art is and always should be.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 2d
Looking at John Bellany's work in the NLS today. This is 'Pourquoi? II', which Bellany painted after visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1967 - a life-changing moment for the artist. Resurrection?
The painting 'Pourquoi? II' by John Bellany.
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Reposted by scott lyall
bellacaledonia.bsky.social
Mike Small @bellacaledonia.bsky.social · 3d
In non-Bella news I'm doing a talk at the Edinburgh Futures Institute 'Patrick Geddes and the Anarchist Strain of Town Planning' is on 30 October. It's free and open to all - but book your tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/patrick-ge...
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 5d
One of the poem's great passages.
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Reposted by scott lyall
fwwsoc.bsky.social
International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social · Sep 5
We are delighted to share the details for this year's Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture 'Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War' to be delivered by @juliarsct.bsky.social on 11th Nov 2025

You can book to attend in person or online:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remembranc... 🗃️
Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War 5.30pm, Tuesday 11 November 2025 Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University What did the First World War do to poetry? What did poetry do during the First World War? In this lecture, Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz will explore a brand new corpus of war poets to interrogate not what is a good or bad war poem nor what war poems say about the war, but rather the social and cultural functions accomplished by poetry in 1914-1918: inventing itself, creating social links, anchoring the war in relation to a poetic past and multiple imagined futures, mediating the experience of war, and producing knowledge about the conflict. She will explore how the expansion of our definition of war poetry allows us to ask new questions about the First World War, as well as future possibilities to continue broadening our understanding of what war poetry was and, above all, what it did and continues doing for those writing and reading it. Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz is a postdoctoral researcher at Université de Lille. She completed her doctorate, on French poetry of the First World War, at Université Paris Nanterre. Julia has already published widely in academic journals, and is a Fellow of the International Society for First World War Studies. This lecture continues the annual series of Remembrance lectures at Edinburgh Napier University, marking the historical significance of Craiglockhart as a War Hospital during the First World War, famously the meeting place of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. We also remember our late colleague Catherine Walker, who was for many years curator of the War Poets Collection. Funding comes from the Centre for Arts, Media and Culture and the Centre for Military Research, Education & Public Engagement. This year the event is also the Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture, selected by the International Society for First World War Studies. Named after Dennis Showalter, the leading historian of Germany during the war and a longtime friend and supporter of the Society it is delivered each year by a leading early career researcher in First World War Studies. The event is held in the Rivers Suite at Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart Campus (Google map | travel info). There will be a wine reception from 5.30pm; the lecture will start around 6pm. The event will also be streamed online via Zoom. If you have any queries about the event, please contact Dr Andrew Frayn (a.frayn@napier.ac.uk). This event is both in person and online. If you wish to attend online, please buy an 'online Ticket'. Zoom information will be found in the email confirmations.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 6d
The post in postmodernism?
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 7d
Reading MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle again. It was published 100 years ago next year. Kenneth Buthlay's annotated edition from 1987, published by @asls.org.uk, remains the best guide. The poem itself is as thrilling, ambitious and flawed as ever it was.
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Reposted by scott lyall
scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 9d
Don Paterson (@dharmabam.bsky.social) on Tony Harrison is some of the best lit crit and socio-cultural observation and part-memoir and many other things besides, that I have read in quite some time. It's also a wonderful tribute to Harrison and his poetry.

open.substack.com/pub/northsea...
Tony Harrison's 'Study'
Don Paterson on the best room
open.substack.com
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Reposted by scott lyall
asls.org.uk
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 9d
Concrete Scottish Connections: Finlay, Jandl, Gomringer, & Satie
22 Oct, Edinburgh – free

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ernst Jandl, & Eugen Gomringer – all born in 1925 – helped shape concrete poetry, breaking linguistic barriers & reimagining the power of words
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/concrete-s...
Concrete Scottish Connections: Finlay, Jandl, Gomringer, and Satie
Experience an evening of concrete poetry, sound, and music
www.eventbrite.co.uk
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 9d
Don Paterson (@dharmabam.bsky.social) on Tony Harrison is some of the best lit crit and socio-cultural observation and part-memoir and many other things besides, that I have read in quite some time. It's also a wonderful tribute to Harrison and his poetry.

open.substack.com/pub/northsea...
Tony Harrison's 'Study'
Don Paterson on the best room
open.substack.com
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 11d
Those crows flew through from Edinburgh especially to do this 😆
katejj.bsky.social
Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 11d
The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Sisson's book isn't error-free, so worth checking elsewhere.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Bulfin joined the IRB in 1913, according to Sisson.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Éamonn Bulfin was a boarder at St Enda's according to Sisson and played Daire in a performance of Pearse's play The Master. Sisson says Bulfin and Desmond Ryan (and early Pearse hagiographer) organised the St Enda's boys into a local Fianna Éireann club.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Illustrations all from Elaine Sisson's book Pearse's Patriots: St Enda's and the Cult of Boyhood.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Here's one with sun and shield.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
Or could be the Fianna badge with sun illustration?
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
I wonder if the dish is simply a shield?
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Reposted by scott lyall
kristingrogan.bsky.social
Kristin Grogan @kristingrogan.bsky.social · 12d
Excited to beam into Scotland next week!!!
scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
📢 On 8 October, starting 3.30pm (UK time), @kristingrogan.bsky.social will talk about her research to @edinburghnapier.bsky.social's Centre for Arts, Media and Culture. Kristin's talk focuses on Gertrude Stein and is drawn from her new book, Stitch, Unstitch: Modernist Poetry and the World of Work.
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
The talk will take place on MS Teams. If you'd like to join, please email me on my university account for a link. (You can find my email address by clicking on the link in my bio.)
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scottlyall.bsky.social
scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 12d
📢 On 8 October, starting 3.30pm (UK time), @kristingrogan.bsky.social will talk about her research to @edinburghnapier.bsky.social's Centre for Arts, Media and Culture. Kristin's talk focuses on Gertrude Stein and is drawn from her new book, Stitch, Unstitch: Modernist Poetry and the World of Work.
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