It’s been a busy year at POTB so here’s a seasonal update for all our supporters and friends.

First, and most importantly, we published our latest magazine in April – POTB14. If you don’t have it yet, or even if you do, copies are still available. It’s an ideal gift for family and friends who enjoy good writing and art well presented. Just go to our online shop to order copies. If you really want to push out your own particular boat, you’ll also find a selection there of earlier editions and other goodies for sale. If you’d prefer to support a local vendor (and who doesn’t) you can also find a list of POTB stockists here.

Once again, the new edition was launched in the Phoenix Hall at Newton Dee in Aberdeen where a capacity audience, including our Patron Dame Anne Begg, enjoyed a small exhibition of POTB14 art and some of our writers reading from their work. Aberdeen’s Lord Provost was there – were you? If so you may have been immortalised (well, sort of) in our launch photo album. Check it out.

We followed up the launch with a first for us, an event at the wonderful Belmont Filmhouse. Around sixty people enjoyed the venue’s hospitality with a free evening of readings accompanied by refreshments from the Belmont bar. We’re planning more reading events around the North East in 2018 and will keep you posted on the details when they’re available.

In another new venture for 2017, we’ve added a regular blog to the POTB website. It seems like a long time ago now, but we kicked off with Poems for Valentine’s Day. Never tried ‘Curried Kisses’? You can on the POTB blog.

Putting a new edition to bed always raises the perennial question for POTB – our next edition. That’s a subject for 2018. But in the meantime the team at POTB wish you a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year when it comes, and thank you for your support and interest in the North-East Scotland’s magazine of new writing and the visual arts.