I’m grateful to start 2026 as Poet of the Month for January in The Lonely Crowd journal .
Three poems will be published from my collection ‘Exposure: war, media, democracy’ due in February from culture & democracy press.
‘Exposure’ is in two parts. The first ‘Soldiers and Civilians’ looks at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Gaza/Israel conflict; the second, ‘Citizens and Politicians’ looks at conflicts in democracy and politics.
The Lonely Crowd has chosen ‘A Plan for the Development of Gaza’. My piece about writing the three poems will follow later this month.
As part of Belfast International Arts Festival the Linen Hall Library launched its Fragments of Scotch Poetry project, a creative encounter between contemporary poets in Scots, Ulster-Scots, Scots Gaelic and English and featuring the Scots Makar (National Poet of Scotland), Pàdraig MacAoidh and former Scots Makar, Kathleen Jamie. (She will be featured in a Linen Hall event on 4th November Kathleen Jamie in conversation with Chris Agee – The Linen Hall, Belfast).
In 1786 The Belfast Newsletter published extracts from three poems under the heading ‘Fragments of Scotch Poetry’. The un-named author was Robert Burns.
I welcome any opportunity to broaden my awareness of my literary heritage and the context in which I write. I have always been aware of the Irish Gaelic tradition, mainly through translation, and the fertile reaches of Irish writing in English. The influence of Scotland has been part of my writing background, and come more to the fore since I have been writing in Ulster-Scots.
The Gibson Collection contains much work of a Scottish sensibility in English. Engaging with it is like opening a window wider, extending the view, breathing more deeply. Since I went to live in Wales as an adult, Welsh writing, in Welsh and English, has been a great gift to me. Scotland has been a part of my atmosphere since birth, I could say, and I welcome any chance to get to know its writing better.
Published mid-October: Issue 499 of ‘Fortnight’, Northern Ireland’ s journal of politics and culture. I guest-edited the Arts section and it was such a pleasure to work with these writers. View the issue online here
On October 11th I was one of the winning writers taking part in the Soundwaves Performance Trophy competition in Portrush Town Hall as part of the town’s Swell Festival. A lovely evening, so warmly and efficiently compered by Mary Farrell. The winner of the Poetry Performance Trophy was Gary Devenney. The Poetry Prize Winner, Colin Dardis. The standard in poetry and prose was high. So much verve and imagination and so entertaining.
On 22nd October the Fragments of Scotch poetry Jukebox project was launched at the iconic Linen Hall Library, Belfast. I am one of 10 poets commissioned to write a poem in response to a poem from the Library’s Gibson Collection. The jukebox is sited in the Library. You can hear each poet read a poem from the Collection and t a poem written as their own response to the Collection, along with the poem texts, with readings by the poet.
On 20th October I delivered the final version of my next poetry collection, ‘Exposure’ to Culture & Democracy Press. It will be published in February 2026.
A single post for these four months, partly because my right arm has been somewhat out of action for a while so this is a rather rough and ready post . Photo shows Anne McMaster and me with crew on Double Band Films shoot.
Nawr magazine published my Welsh-language poem, ‘Newid’ and an article by me about writing about The End of the World in Ulster-Scots, Welsh and English, https://nawrmag.wordpress.com/blog/
The documentary Out Of The Silence, presented by Anne McMaster was screened on 16th February on BBC One Northern Ireland. I featured in this alongside other female authors from NI. View here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00281kw
The Linen Hall is an historic library in Belfast, which holds the largest collection of Robert Burns material, outside of Scotland in The Gibson Collection : https://linenhall.com/gibson-collection-samantha-mccombe/. Fragments of Scotch Poetry is the second curation of commissioned poems for the Poetry Jukebox and follows The Lexicon; a curation in English, Irish, French and Breton. I’m one of ten contemporary poets commissioned to write a new poem, inspired directly or indirectly by Burns. These new poems will feature on the Poetry Jukebox at the Linen Hall and at least two other venues as well as online.
I was allocated Burns’s Address To A Haggis as my starting-point. Having read widely in the Gibson collection I was very struck by Burns’s political commitment and by the facility with verse forms which all the poets demonstrate. So I’ve written a poem about Trump and Netanyahu which draws on both these.
Issue 14 of Offline Journal https://www.offline.wales/ which deals with contemporary photography, commissioned Phil Cope to do one of its separately published long-form essays on the subject of photo-poetry. Two poems of mine which are based on family photographs are featured.
I am delivering four sessions for Ballycastle Writers Group on prose and poetry.
Salo press has just issued Pissoir! #2 edited by Sophie Essex. Taking the word ‘pissoir’ as inspiration I wrote this poem below, ‘CHOICE’. It appears with another, ‘SUSPECT COMMUNITY.’ in the issue.
Skylight 47 is a long-established literary journal based in Galway. I have a poem in issue 19. It’s one of a series about my grandfather, Thomas Graham.
These Pages Singdescribes itself as ‘a quarterly, English-language magazine made in Wales. We aim to highlight unsung Welsh voices to honour our diverse culture and rich history.’ I was very pleased to have a poem in the first edition.
‘Cardiff Docks, 1931’ is about my father’s years in the merchant navy when he worked out of Cardiff for more than a decade before the Second World War.
In 2024 St Fagans National Museum of History, just outside Cardiff, opened its reconstruction of The Vulcan, a pub which had been moved from central Cardiff to this site. Below is a video which gives a virtual tour of this pub which features in my poem.
Nice to see ‘Star’ feature in news from my college.
Angela Graham (English, 1975) has published several collections of short stories and poetry in recent years, and her new offering is suitably festive!
STAR: Poems for the Christmas Season is a new poetry collection that illuminate a wide range of human experience – political power struggles; persecution and flight; the vulnerability of the innocent and of the planet – alongside celebration, wonder and friendship. And we hear some Irish, Welsh, Scots and Ulster-Scots, reflecting Angela’s engagement with our indigenous languages.
You can buy STAR right here or find out more about Angela’s work on her website.
A supportive bookshop is a wonderful thing and that is exactly what No Alibis is. David Torrens kindly arranged a launch for ‘Star’ in his welcoming and extremely well-stocked shop on 14th November.
No two launches are the same. No Alibis, on Belfast’s Botanic Avenue is a treasure trove for book lovers, an intimate place wehere you feel the love of books in the atmosphere.
It was a great pleasure to read to an audience of poets and book lovers and editors.
