Craig Aitchison: Tweed Conversations

Join Connecting Threads at the Cobby, Kelso for a session of poetry reading, riverside conversation and printmaking in celebration of Tweed, a new full-length poem in Scots by Borders-based poet Craig Aitchison.

From the “steepin grund” and “moor gress” at the source of the Tweed near Tweedsmuir, through fickle rapids and history’s “constant rub”, the poem winds its own riverine journey across 28 pages, beside empty mills and “precious hauchs” to meet the sea, “giving itself with open arms”, at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Like the river it celebrates, Tweed is a polyvocal work – the result of multiple conversations and collaborations.Tweed exists in several forms. Book artist Rosemary Everett has created a beautiful limited edition version with help from fellow book artists Felicity Bristow and Susie Wilson.

This art-object combines Craig’s writing with a delicate, multi-layered etching made by Georgie Fay in response to his words, while the pages were letterpress printed by Robert Smail’s Printing Works in Innerleithen. There is also a pamphlet version, richly illustrated with prints made at a public workshop, as well as an audio version read by Craig.