I see... MEN IN DRESSES

where: the Grassmarket

Cycling back from the cafe today I see men in dresses outside a bar in the Grassmarket. It's not unusual to see men in dresses in Edinburgh - for thousands of years Englishmen have celebrated their stag nights by coming to Edinburgh and putting on dresses and drinking ten pints - but these two are very fine examples so I ask if I can take a picture. At first they are a bit shy and unsure - no girl likes to seem easy, after all - but eventually I win them over. Soon they urge me to go into the bar and take more photos of men in dresses ("there's some terrible sights in there"), but I happen to be wearing a bright yellow fluorescent cycling jacket and waterproof trousers, and don't fancy my survival chances in a bar full of well-oiled stag-nighters.

I attend... WESTPORT BOOK FESTIVAL launch

Westport Book Festival runs from 13 to 16 August and is based in and around characterful Westport Street in Edinburgh. The area is known locally as the Pubic Triangle, because of its isosceles of lap-dancing joints, but strangely "The Pubic Triangle Book Festival" didn't attract many sponsors.

The programme launch party took place on Saturday night at the fine second-hand bookshop Edinburgh Books, with Directors Hannah Adcock and Peggy Hughes making pithy speeches to a packed shop under the benevolent gaze of a water buffalo called Clarence...

To mark the bosomy aspect of the festival's location ("Edinburgh's Soho - a heady mix of books, bespoke-tailoring, booze and bosoms") there were cakes in different bra sizes: A, B, C, D and Double D. Double D was a lot of cake. I went for a delightful B, but that doesn't mean anything. I like all sizes of cake.

Only slightly more important than the bosoms and the cakes are the authors at the festival. I'll write more nearer the time, but big poetry beast Douglas Dunn kicks things off at 3p.m. on Thursday 13 August, and the legendary John Hegley closes the festival on Sunday 16 August at 8p.m. Between these two are a host of poets, novelists and non-fiction writers, including me and Gregory Norminton on Thursday 13 August at 7.30pm.

It's a small, newish, special festival going from strength to strength, and includes what promises to be the world's first 'Literary Twestival' for Twitter addicts...

For tickets, programme and bra-sized-cake queries, check out the festival website.

I go to... the ANON relaunch

where: Scottish Poetry Library
when: 9 July

Anon ("the anonymous submissions poetry magazine") is something I set up in 2003. Recently it was taken over by new editors Colin Fraser (he tweets here) and Peggy Hughes (she blogs here), and the (re)launch party took place yesterday at the Scottish Poetry Library. Some ninety people came along to buy the magazine and drink the wine -- and steal the MP3 player in the Ladies' toilets that was transmitting Anon poems in a continuous loop (until stolen).

The new edition of Anon is beautiful -- you can buy it (or find out how to submit poems to the magazine) here.

"How does it feel to give away Anon"?" I was asked, and "Are you the biological father?" I explained that I had neglected Anon for a while - not enough nappy changes or trips to the zoo - so it's a relief to hand it on to far more capable parents. Colin and Peggy organised a tremendous relaunch that bodes well for the future of the magazine.