On 01st September 2025 at Balloch House Hotel, Balloch, we welcome poet and painter Graham Fulton back to Balloch Open Mic. He will be reading from his latest collection The Whifflet Triptych and Other Poems (Published in Silence Press, 2025) as well as other new unpublished work. Also sharing the bill is local poet, Stephen Watt with his new collection, Barbed Halo, published by Seahorse. This should be an interesting and compelling pairing. Both their bios are below. Graham’s photograph is by Kathryn Metcalfe.
We start at 7pm in Balloch House Hotel, Balloch. If you would like to read turn up earlier to sign up for a five minute reading slot which are usually available from 6.30pm. We hope to see you there.
Graham Fulton is an acclaimed Scottish poet who began writing poetry in 1986 when he attended Tom Leonard’s writers’ group in Paisley. He then formed the Itinerant Poets with other writers including Jim Ferguson, Bobby Christie and Brian Whittingham. He’s done hundreds of readings over the years and his poems have been widely published in the USA and Europe in many magazines, anthologies, newspapers and online publications including Edinburgh Review, Stand, The North, Poetry Book Society Anthology, Ambit and Dream State: the New Scottish Poets. His poems have been translated into several languages including Romanian, Italian and Spanish. He has had over 15 pamphlet collections and 29 full-length collections produced by many publishers including Polygon, Smokestack Books, Penniless Press, Rebel Inc, Red Squirrel Press, Pindrop Press, Roncadora Press, Mariscat Press, Seahorse Publications and Salmon Poetry. Angry at the Stars: Selected Poems 1986-2022 was published by Rymour Books in 2023. He’s also the author of two non-fiction books The Paisley Civil War and The Renfrewshire Victoria Crosses. He’s a painter with a studio at Wasps in Glasgow. He used to play drums and run marathons. www.grahamfulton-poetry.com.
‘Every country needs their Graham Fulton. He’s a prolific, angry, humane, funny, accessible poet.’ John Glenday
‘These poems take me to moments in my life with the sharpness of focus on time and place and atmospheres and emotion and philosophy that only a genius is capable of.’
Des Dillon
Stephen Watt is the author of six poetry collections, and editor of two punk poetry collections on behalf of the Joe Strummer Foundation and Buzzcocks. He is the Poetry Editor for Nutmeg Football Magazine, and has previously served as Poet in Residence at Dumbarton FC, Makar for the Federation of Writers (Scotland) and Poet in Chief for the Hampden Collection. More than anything though, Stephen aspires to become President of the Graham Fulton Fan Club of whom he has been a bonafide member for 15yrs.
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