Last week we had a very productive meeting with poet Jean Atkin, who has researched and written some beautiful poems about the loss of farms within the area of the Dark Skies Park. The skies are so dark in the Park because of the very low population and many once working farms have been abandoned.
A book of her poetry called 'The Dark Farms' is being published shortly and she will be reading some of them at the Wigtown Book festival 28 Sept - 7th Oct.
See http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com
"Jean Atkin’s new collection of poems focuses on the Galloway Forest Park, its depopulated glens, shrinking agriculture and extraordinarily dark skies. This is poetry about the ghosts of sheep, countless stars and generations of paths obliterated by pine forests. Jean Atkin is a previous winner of the Ravenglass Poetry Prize. She worked on The Dark Farms for eight months during 2011, walking the forest, talking to residents and reading old books and maps"
We are hoping to collaborate with Jean and incorporate some of her writing into new work we are making to be highlighted as part of the Dark Skies programme at the Wigtown Book Festival
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