Description
Born in the city of Coventry and now living near Glasgow, CD Boyland’s poems have been accepted or published by magazines and anthologies such as: 404Ink, Gutter, The North, The Poets’ Republic and New Writing Scotland. An innovative and exciting new voice in Scottish poetry, described as “dream-like, smoky and contemplative” in the Scotsman, he has performed as part of Stanza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival and at venues such as King Tuts Wah-Wah Hut and the Tron Theatre. In January 2021, he will make his first appearance at the Scottish National Slam Championship finals. ‘User Stories’ is his first pamphlet.
In pulling together this pamphlet, I started with a word, ‘user’, which led to lots of reflections – the difference between the user of a service and a user of other, more vulnerable people. The difference between ‘used’, as in ‘had the use of’ and ‘used’, as in ‘I used to’. The sense of loss inherent in those different meanings. All of that led me to these poems”.
Praise for User Stories
James T. Harding: Although sparse and razor-sharp in execution, CD Boyland nonetheless captures the strength of feeling of the best spoken-word poetry. As it explores the places cultural memory and big issues intersect, the pamphlet is constantly balanced on the edge between cynical and optimistic. That knife-edge feeling is more relevant now than ever before.
