Wanderlust Women: Extra Baggage Launch Event

Following the outstanding success of the book and tour ‘Wanderlust Women: Three Poets’ (2021/22) ‘Wanderlust Women: Extra Baggage’ will be launched in Glasgow, at The Scottish Writers' Centre.

In this collaborative collection these 3 Scottish women still ‘travel’ but in the worlds of love, lust & loss, the personal and universal. They consider those aspects of life, amongst others, that can feel like ‘extra baggage’.

Wit, heartbreak, joy - if poems can be lacerating encounters, here they are. Dive into, ‘Extra Baggage’ and pull out some pure gems. These women are at the top of their game. (Mairi Murphy, poet)

The three poets in this collection have a lot in common. They’re gritty, tough, their observation is born of personal experience, not all of it pleasant. That is recommendation enough but there are many moments too of pure revelation. Donna Campbell’s pearls brimming with moon light that are the biproduct of pain, the stark beauty of Lesley Benzie’s poem about a father’s death ‘Fan she an her sester met their faither’s unbent gaze…’ and Linda Jackson picking up ‘petals of words from smart-dressed lovers’.

Such simple beauty is not easily achieved. At its best poetry can be both empathetic and transformative. This is it, at its best. (Hugh McMillan, poet)

Wanderlust Women: Extra Baggage features the 3 wanderlusters:

Lesley Benzie writes in Scots Doric and English, she has 2 poetry collections, Sewn Up and Fessen/Reared (Seahorse in 2020). That year she also received Highly Commended in the Federation of Writers Scotland and Runner-up in McCash Scots Poetry Competitions. In 2021 she was shortlisted in the Main and Scots categories of the Wigtown Poetry Prize. She is a contributor to the 2 collaborative collections, Wanderlust Women; 3 poets and Norlan Lichts (Rymour Books 2022) which was nominated for Book of the year in the Scots Language Awards, in which she is also nominated as the Writer of the Year.

Donna Campbell is a performance poet who has showcased her work widely across the UK. She has worked with the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, as co-producer of the show 2nd Stories, produced multi-media poetry events for the CCA, and was Project manager on the Full of Life exhibition and publication between Survivors Scotland and Project Ability. Her work has been published in various magazines/anthologies. She is part of the collective, Wanderlust Women, who toured U.K festivals and abroad with the publication Wanderlust Women. Her first poetry collection, Mongrel, was published (2021) and her second, Looking for Mae West, was launched (March 2023) both by Seahorse Publications.

Linda Jackson is the founding editor of Seahorse Publications, a polymath and the originator of a myriad of regular literary, arts and musical events in Glasgow and further afield. Her own work includes The Siren Awakes (2020), The Cabinet, Red Squirrel Press, 2021, and she has appeared in various anthologies. In early 2023, her poem about COPS 26 Film Noir at Kelvingrove won an award in Brighton's Flight of the Dragonfly. Her second poetry collection, also Red Squirrel is due out in 2023. The second memoir, Siren:Wild in Me will also be published in 2023. An academic in the past, her doctorate was a comparative study of Woolf and Nietzsche. She is a lecturer/writing tutor of many years, and is a lifelong singer/musician. www.lindajaxson.com