Colin Will started writing poetry in the early 1960s, as one of the Edinburgh Beats. Then he got a proper job as a librarian, and wrote nothing between 1965 and 1985. Since then he hasn’t been able to stop. He worked mainly in science until he retired from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2002. He has chaired the Boards of the Scottish Poetry Library, the StAnza Poetry Festival, Tyne & Esk Writers and the CoastWord Festival. He ran Calder Wood Press for twenty years, publishing poetry and short stories. He also edited the online poetry magazine Open Mouse for about the same length of time. He’s now Editor at Sheila Wakefield’s Postbox Press, which includes editing Postbox short story magazine. He lives in Dunbar.

 

He has had over five hundred poems published; in the nine books of poetry described in the Introduction; in forty printed magazine titles; thirty online sites and fifty poetry anthologies. He was therefore delighted that editor Elizabeth Rimmer brought her skills, sensitivity and hard work to bear on the selection, editing and sequencing of the poems in Swept Together.

 

From reviews of previous books:

 

‘Colin Will has been a successful poet for more than half of his seventy-five years; his experience in both life and writing is evident in this collection. He shuns the obscurity and abstract expressionism adopted by some poets, giving instead a raw and unapologetic insight into many traditional poetic themes such as nature and love as well as some very unexpected ones.’

 

—Nicholas Smyth

 

‘But it is Colin Will’s verbose masterpiece written in the style of Star Wars’ Yoda that deserves the Bafta. Simply titled “The Last of the Little Green Men”, Will fashions fragmented and philosophical verse. The allusion is so spot-on that one easily conjures the lime-hued, fox-eared creature.’

 

—P. I. Boots

 

‘They are also consistent, developing a core set of themes over almost a hundred and fifty pages with great skill and even handedness, bringing up a clutch of rich ideas and turning them over in new ways and new light. But most importantly, when the bottle is empty and the last drop drunk, they are worth reading they stick in the mind.’

 

—James Roderick Burns

 

‘I feel “drenched in admiring butter” myself as I write about Colin Will’s new collection of poetry The Night I Danced with Maya. The poet/speaker finds his advanced age only enhances his pleasure in life, and he seeks to convey that zest for life to others.’

 

—Eileen Murphy

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