Goonie by Michael Mullen

SHORTLISTED FOR FORWARD PRIZE BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2025
 
Goonie is the raw and joyful debut collection from award-winning Scottish poet and spoken word artist Michael Mullen.

Whether exploring queerness through fierce lyrical poetry or celebrating Mullen's beloved Scotland through vernacular vignettes, Goonie's main preoccupation is with how we form community around us and how community, in turn, forms us.

Many of the themes are encapsulated by the title poem as the narrator readies themself to take the stage and perform for their older relatives wearing an old goonie (a nightdress): 'Ma aunt raising her vodka Iron-Bru, a tumblr ae noxious flame, a toast / tae me, n ma frilly jig. Awk A jist lettum wear witever he wahnts tae wear.'

In Goonie, the oral tradition of Scots combines with whip-sharp Glaswegian humour to bring alive in language and form the full spectrum of human connection: working class friends gathering round a fire, a living room ceilidh, an chat in the hairdresser's chair, a queer awakening. These poems show the power of acceptance, togetherness and creative expression.

All aspects of Mullen's life as a performer, a poet, a queer son, a Scot, a working-class boy, come together on the page to form a collection that casts a sceptical eye on identity whilst also championing it. Ultimately, Goonie address the ties that bind: it is a testament to how love - of ourselves, our heritage, our landscape, each other - transforms everything.
 
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'Brilliant and boisterous . . . A superb salute to life and the Scots language'  ― Sunday Post

'Whether he is writing in Scots or standard English, Mullen's descriptive-imaginative faculties are captivating and painterly, well beyond what one would expect of a debut . . . Goonie's music is consistently and hypnotically lush in an unabashed celebration of queerness . . . This [is a] stunning collection . . . One to watch' - Guardian