ABOUT COLIN
Colin Bramwell is a poet, performer and musician from the Black Isle, in the north of Scotland.
Welcome to Colin's website. Here you can find details of upcoming projects and events, hire Colin for anything poetry/performance-related, or just reach out and say hello.
Blog posts on literary matters forthcoming: watch this space.
POETRY
Colin's first unpublished collection, Jigsaw, was the runner-up for the 2020 Edwin Morgan Prize: a pamphlet, The Highland Citizenship Test, will be published in early 2021 by Stewed Rhubarb Press. His poetry was twice-shortlisted for the Wigtown Poetry Prize in 2019, and has been published in Gutter and The Speculative Book, among other places.
Colin is an active member of the Scottish live poetry scene, and has been invited to perform at most of the major poetry nights in Scotland, including Sonnet Youth, Loud Poets, Vespers, and Poetry at Inn Deep. He has also performed his work at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and StAnza.
Translation is central to Colin's poetic practice. Together with Wenchi Li, he translates the work of Yang Mu: in 2018 he won the BCLA John Dryden Translation Competition for his Yang Mu translations. Colin also translates poetry from a number of languages (principally Spanish, Portuguese and German) into Scots. He has delivered readings of, and lectures on, poetry translation in the UK, Ireland, and Taiwan.
PERFORMANCE
Since graduating, Colin has worked broadly in the intersection between poetry, theatre and music. He has written and performed four spoken-word theatre shows at various festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe. His latest show, Umbrella Man, received very positive reviews from critics and toured to Prague, Adelaide, New Zealand and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.
Colin also works in the sphere of live comedy as an improviser and musician. He is currently musical director for the Men with Coconuts, one of the UK's leading improvised comedy troupes. As well as touring globally with Coconuts, Colin books poets for Slamprov, a monthly improv-poetry crossover night based in Edinburgh at the Scottish Poetry Library.
On occasion, Colin can be found performing poetry with Beats on Book, a Manchester-based jazz and spoken word group. Beats on Book completed their first UK tour in 2018 - another will be scheduled, once the world's a bit less virusey.
