Poetry reading

Beth McDonough

Beth McDonough has a background in Silversmithing and teaching. Following an M.Litt in Writing Study and Practice at Dundee University (where she now teaches) she was inaugural Writer in Residence at Dundee Contemporary Arts (2014-16). Her work is strongly connected to place, particularly to the Tay, where she swims. Her son Keir has autism, with associated communication and sensory integration issues and severe learning difficulties. Through him, she is involved with a number of related organisations and is a trustee of Ochil Tower School (a Camphill Community). Her poetry may be read in Gutter, Northwords Now, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Interpreter’s House, many other journals and anthologies. She reviews poetry and edits at DURA .Handfast, a poetry duet pamphlet (with Ruth Aylett) was published in May of this year. In that sequence of poems she investigates her experience of her son’s condition, as her co-poet considers in tandem her parents’ dementia. The poems ask questions of how the person experiences their condition, and how in turn that affects close family member; it also finds parallels in the two conditions. Handfast is published by Mother’s Milk Books.