Writer talk: Alastair McIntosh

Alastair McIntosh is a writer, poet, speaker, researcher and activist, and author of Soil and Soul. Originally from the Isle of Lewis he now lives in Govan near to the GalGael Trust, for which he is a founding trustee.

“Most of my work is constellated by a passion for community… I see the lack of it, or damage to it, as a prime driver of the the lack of meaning, emptiness and loneliness that underlies many of the world’s most pressing problems. Human ecology is therefore central to my work because it is the study of, and participation in, human community in relation to the wider natural environment. It therefore encompasses the great issues of our times, including the roots of war, poverty, meaninglessness and climate change.

For me, community is much more than just another name for society. It has three pillars – relationship with one another, relationship with the natural world, and relationship with the psychospiritual underpinning of all life. “Soil, soul and society” are therefore themes that weave through all my work. Integrating these requires bringing about a rich connection between our inner and outer lives. As such, both action and reflection interlace through all that I do and in the ways that I work with others.”

We invited Alastair McIntosh to take part of UNFIX Festival of Performance and Ecology with a performance-lecture: ‘Awakening an Ecology of the Imagination’.

UNFIX is a Festival organised by Paul Michael Henry.
It took place at the Center of Contemporary Arts CCA in July 2015.

This event was made possible thank you to the Live Literature Funding from Scottish Book Trust.