Poet Biographies

was born in Glasgow in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a Scottish white couple and grew up in a suburb of Glasgow. This experience inspired her first collection of poetry, 'The Adoption Papers' (1991).Her most recent publications are 'Red Dust Road', (2010) an account of her search for her birth parents, and 'Fiere' winner of the Costa Book Prize for Poetry, 2011. She also writes extensively for stage, screen and children.Jackie Kay became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2006. In 2011 she was a National Poetry Judge along with John Glenday (q.v.)  and Colette Bryce. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester.http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?

                                                                                   poetId=5682 

Photo: Denise Else

                                                    Liz Lochhead

        Makar, Scotland's National Poet, Liz was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire           and is a famed playwright as well as poet.  She studied at Glasgow 

          School of Art and taught art at schools in Glasgow and Bristol. She was 

          Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University (1986-7) and Writer in 

          Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. Her first 

          collection of poems, 'Memo for Spring', was published in 1972 and won 

          a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. In 1978 she travelled to Canada, 

          after being  selected for a Scottish Writers Exchange Fellowship. 

          Amongst her many plays are  'Dreaming Frankenstein' and  Scots' 

          versions of 'Medea' and 'Tartuffe'. 'The Colour of Black and White: Poems

          1984-2003' (Polygon, 2003) and 'A Choosing: Selected Poems'  (Polygon,

          2011) are her most recent poetry collections.

          Liz Lochhead lives in Glasgow. She was awarded an honorary degree 

          by  the University of Edinburgh in 2000 and was appointed Makar in 2011. 

          She works tirelessly to  promote poetry in Scotland and throughout

          the U.K., supporting other poets and poetry projects for children and 

          young people. 

Photo by Norman McBeath

                                      Aonghas MacNeacail                                              

 born in 1942 in Uig, on the Isle of Skye. As well as a poet, he is a

 broadcaster, journalist, script-writer, librettist and translator. A native Gaelic speaker,  he writes in  Gaelic and English but in 2010 won the MacCash prize for a poem in Scots (under a  pseudonym). He won the Scottish Writer of the Year Stakis Prize for his third collection 'Oidenchadh Ceart' ('A Proper Schooling') in 1992 and he launched a new collection of  selected poems 'Laughing at the Clock/Deanamh gaire ris a' chloc' (Polygon) this year to mark his 70th birthday. 

In 2006 he won the Wigtown Gaelic Prize and in 2005 was one of the prize-winners in the  Gaidhlig/Gaelige Strokestown Poetry Competition In Ireland, a competition he was later to  co-judge two years' running, 2010 and 2011.   He played the not insignificant  role of God in Alistair Gray's play 'Fleck' at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2011.  An experienced tutor of writing, he leads workshops at all levels and for all ages.    

 http://www.aonghasmacneacail.co.uk/

Photo: Kevin MacNeil

Other Poets Performing:

  Patricia Ace

  Her  pamphlet  'First Blood' is published by HappenStance, 2006.  She won the

  Aesthetica  prize in 2008 and the Plough Prize in 2010. Her first collection,

  'Fabulous Beasts', is due out shortly with Freight Books, 2012.  She has an MLitt

  in C/W  from Glasgow  University (2008) for which she received a distinction.

  Of Welsh/West Indian parentage, she grew up in the Middle East and

  Canada and now lives in Crieff, Perthshire where she works as a yoga-teacher.

Eunice Buchanan 

writes in English and Scots. Her poem 'Old Woman in the Attic' was published on a Scottish Poetry Library postcard in 2003, she was a runner-up in the BBC Wildlife Poetry Competition 2004 and won the McCash Poetry Prize in 2005.  She also been the winner of the Lallans poetry and short story prizes.  She has an MPhil  and PhD in Creative Writing from Glasgow University.  A retired primary school teacher, she now spends half the year in Scotland and the other in Australia.