We’ve invited writers and artists into a shared actual or digital space, asked questions about their recent work, probed themes, form and language; we’ve also started a reading group to discuss poetry, essays and short stories. These different sorts of conversations were recorded, and you can click on the thumbnails to play the recording in full size.
This is an edited film of the book launch of The Silver of Old Mirrors which took place at the University of Dundee Main Library, 10 December 2025.
This is a recording of an Imagined Spaces Reading Group discussing Diane Seuss' Modern Poetry (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2025). The group focused primarily (though not exclusively) on five specific poems in the collection: "My Education", "Romantic Poetry", "Poetry", "Against Poetry" and "Bluish". Some of the areas of concern in the discussion ranged over the difficulty (or not) of reading poetry; the humour in Seuss' work, the tension in the collection between an autodidactic "cobbled" together intellect vs a poet steeped in literary traditions (qualities that also apply to readers); the rhetorical, prose-like quality of the verse; the poem's sonic qualities; the use of line breaks and how that affects how readers read; and the role of persona and voice in the collection.
Eleanor Livingstone, poet and former director of Stanza, International Poetry Festival at St Andrews, in conversation with the Australian poet, Sarah Holland-Batt, on poetry festivals, language and metaphor. Holland-Batt also introduces her new Bloodaxe collection, The Jaguar.
Essayist Chris Arthur and artist Graham Johnston talk about workspaces.
A conversation about who and what were influences for Arthur’s and Johnston’s artistic practice.
This is an edited recording of a conversation for imaginedspaces.org between artist, Graham Johnston, and essayist, Chris Arthur, which took place in the spring of 2024, on finding inspiration and sources for making art and writing.
This is an edited recording of an event, "Essaying across the Hemispheres" that took place at the University of Dundee, June 24th, 2024.
Gail Low in conversation with Kirsty Gunn about Gunn’s new short story collection, Pretty Ugly at the Belfast Book Festival.
Jess Chandler of Prototype Press introduces the novel and Amy Arnold reads from a section of Lori & Joe. Both take questions about the writing and publication of the novel. The ensuing discussion touches on the form of the novel, on the attentiveness to ordinary domesticity, on life-writing and fiction, and on music.
Annalee Davis is a visual artist, cultural activist and instigator, educator and writer. She works at the intersection of biography and history, focusing on post-plantation economies by engaging with a particular landscape on Barbados. In this event, Davis presents her work, after which there is a more informal discussion and Q&A . The conversation is chaired by Professor Alison Donnell.
How might a piece of short fiction be "essayistic"? A discussion with Anna-Louise Milne on her Cahiers Series publication, A General Practice, hosted by Kirsty Gunn, 24 May 2022. For a review of the pamphlet, please click here.
Clare Hunter talks about and reads from her book, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, with Loretta Mulholland.
A conversation with the Lithuanian writer Aldona Tüür on the publication of her debut novel, Kiltų nuoma (Kilt Hire) hosted by Kirsty Gunn, May 2022.
A conversation with Kirsty Gunn about fragments, the short story form, the present tense(ness) in fiction, and about how a short story might be just be "essayistic" in spirit. Hosted by Gail Low, November 2021.
What exactly is essaying? This exercise was part of an extra-curricular class on writing essays more creatively with students, hosted by Gail Low and Kirsty Gunn
Author Kirsty Gunn and her husband, publisher David Graham, in conversation on “literature and the publishing industry”
A conversation with the novelist and essayist, Meaghan Delahunt, on the publication of her 2020 novel, The Night-Side of the Country, hosted by Kirsty Gunn& Gail Low, and recorded in June 2021. The novel deals with gender violence, asks how we bear witness to voices that have been marginalised, and who gets to tell stories in a #metoo era?
