scottish

227d

Ali Smith: The book that changed me as a teenager

“Liz Lochhead’s Memo for Spring… I found a book so slim it had no spine, just hinges, and was by a woman who was young, Scottish and a poet (at this point in time a rare combination). The poems in it were so good, gripping and clear, written in a kind of Scottish English I knew was close to my own, but I’d never read in any book”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/23/ali-smith-henry-james-had-me-running-down-the-garden-path-shouting-out-loud

#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #LizLochhead #AliSmith

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222d

Kirkcudbright Book Festival 2026
5–8 March

Kirkcudbright Book Festival celebrates local & national voices, local history, Scottish culture, children’s authors, crime fiction, nature and the environment & much more – full programme online now

https://www.kbtbookfestival.org/full-programme

#Scottish #literature #kidlit #crimefiction #naturewriting #ScottishCulture #bookfestival #Kirkcudbright

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222d

2026 is Agnes Owens’ centenary year, & Polygon will publish 7 new editions of her novels & short stories in collaboration with the Agnes Owens Archive – also launching this year. These new editions will be introduced by some of Scotland’s finest contemporary writers.

https://birlinn.co.uk/2026/01/08/polygon-to-publish-new-editions-of-the-works-of-agnes-owens-to-mark-centenary/

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #20thcentury #workingclass #workingclasswriters #AgnesOwens

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34d

The Cheviot, the Stag & the Black, Black Oil

Currently on the BBC iPlayer: the 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath’s iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the North Sea oil boom

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0193404/play-for-today-series-4-the-cheviot-the-stag-and-the-black-black-oil

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #drama #theatre

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226d

When you have walked through a town, as an infantryman
you’ll never go through streets the same way again.

There is shoulder-ache from rifle-sling, and sore
butt-bruise, of bolt, on hip and thigh…

—“Infantryman”, by Colin McIntyre (1927–2012) – born #OTD, 27 January

Published in FROM THE LINE: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/from_the_line/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoetry #WW2

Infantryman
by Colin McIntyre

When you have walked through a town, as an infantryman
you'll never go through streets the same way again.

There is shoulder-ache from rifle-sling, and sore
butt-bruise, of bolt, on hip and thigh.

The walk comes somewhere between slope and slow hike,
a wary step, splay-footed, as drawers cellular,
catch in the crotch, twist centrifugally around.

Our lot moved at slow deliberate plod, eyes down, look out,
Ted walked on the left, looks right; I took the right,
looked left. Well spaced out, bloody tired all the time.

Ted and I had a reputation, in Four Section, for hitting
the deck, together, quick as a flash, at the first shell.
Ted had a nose for crossroads ranged by guns.

Infantrymen grow fat in later years, from never walking.
Ted would have become quite gross. But Ted's dead.
Stepped on an AP mine in champagne country.
Cheers, Ted, you old sod, you.

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226d

“It is a bold move to be so morally unflinching, especially in the face of a perceived aesthetic orthodoxy that so often privileges distance and irony, but in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day when so many others have equivocated or turned away.”

—GLYPH by Ali Smith: bearing witness to the war in Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/27/glyph-by-ali-smith-review-bearing-witness-to-the-war-in-gaza

#Scottish #literature #Gaza #AliSmith #womenwriters

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226d

“If these children need me in days of sunshine,
how much more do they need me in days of darkness?”
—Jane Haining

You rose each day at 5 a.m. to go
to market for their food, sliced your leather
luggage into strips they’d use for soles
on worn-out shoes…

“In Days of Darkness”, a poem by Stuart A. Paterson for Holocaust Memorial Day

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/days-darkness/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Holocaust #HolocaustRemembrance #HolocaustMemorialDay

The poem is too long for ALT text. The full text is available via the link

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/days-darkness/

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226d

Reading Scotland with Gioia Angeletti: Early 19th-century Scottish Migration Literature
3 Feb, free online

Examining how Scotland’s experience of “internal colonialism” after the 1707 Union shaped its literary engagement with empire & migration during the long eighteenth century

@litstudies

https://www.scotland.uni-mainz.de/reading-scotland/

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #19thcentury #migration #empire #imperialism #colonialism #nationalidentity

Reading Scotland
with Gioia Angeletti

Early 19th-century Scottish Migration Literature

Tuesday, 3rd February 2026
6.00–7.00pm (German time) on MS Teams

www.scotland.uni-mainz.de

Edited 226d ago

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220d

The Wigtown Poetry Prizes offer awards for poetry in all three of Scotland’s languages. The 2026 competitions are open for submission from today (2 Feb) until 6 May

https://www.wigtownpoetryprize.com/poetry-competition

#Scottish #literature #poetry #competition #writing #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #Scots #Scotslanguage

Wigtown Poetry Prizes

Founded in 2005, the Wigtown Poetry Prizes are some of the UK's best established writing competitions, offering awards in all three of Scotland’s languages with a prize pot of over £3000. The 2026 prizes mark 21 years of Wigtown Poetry Prizes and over £50,000 awarded to emerging and established poets.

The competition opens on 2 February and closes on 6 May 2026, with a prize-giving at Wigtown Book Festival in the autumn. We hope to see you there.

Wigtown International Prize: £1500
Runner-up: £200

Wigtown Scots Prize: £500
Runner-up: £200
Supported by Saltire Society

Wigtown Scottish Gaelic Prize: £500
Runner-up: £200
Supported by The Gaelic Books Council

Dumfries & Galloway Fresh Voice Award
Professional support including mentoring by Wigtown Festival Company and a retreat at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre

Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize
30 copies of a pamphlet of your work set by Gerry Cambridge
Supported by The Dark Horse Magazine

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221d

THAT PROMETHEAN SPARK
The Bottle Imp – Muriel Spark special issue

Muriel Spark was born #OTD, 1 Feb, 1918

“With a writing career that included biography, criticism, drama and short fiction as well as novels, Muriel Spark was never one to do things by halves…”

A 🎂 🧵

1/18

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/11/that-promethian-spark/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

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225d

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: The Read with Reece Shearsmith

Currently available on the BBC iPlayer: Reece Shearsmith narrates Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic work of gothic horror

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027pdf

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson #horror #gothic

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225d

Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen has written a poem to mark the 300th anniversary of the University of Edinburgh’s medical school. A short film of the poem, animated by students from Edinburgh’s College of Arts, is available to watch via The Scotsman

https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/watch-michael-pedersens-poem-to-mark-300th-anniversary-of-edinburgh-university-medical-school-5492523

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Edinburgh #EdinburghUniversity #MedicalSchool #HistoryofMedicine

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220d

Today, 2 February, is Candlemas. As well as being a Christian holy day, it is one of the four Scottish Quarter Days, when rents were due.

The Scots poem “At Candlemas” by Marion Angus (1865–1946) is a typically unsentimental look at how swiftly youth turns to old age:

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Candlemas #Scots #Scotslanguage #womenwriters #20thcentury #aging

At Candlemas
Marion Angus

Lang syne at Candlemas
At first cam o’ the mune,
I, a bit lassie,
Hame-gaun fae the toon,
Fell in wi’ a stranger
Frail as ony reed,
Wi’ a green mantle
Hapt aboot her heid.

Haste, I wad haste me,
The whinny road along,
Whinny, crookit road
Faur the grey ghaists gang.
Wi her een fu’ o’ spells,
Her broo runkled sair,
She micht weel be the witch
O’ the Braid Hill o’ Fare.

Here cams Candlemas,
A wan deein’ mune,
Eh! bit I’m weary.
Cauldrife wis the toon!

Yon’s a blythe bairnie
Soople as a reed,
Rinnin’ wi’ a hankey
Tied aboot her heid,
Hastin’, hastin’,
Limber-licht fit,
Doon the crookit road
Faur the grey moths flit.

Quo’ she, ‘Ye’r sma’-bookit,
Yer broo’s runkled sair,
Er’ ye the auld witch
O’ the Braid Hill o’ Fare?’

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220d

The haill clanjamfrie: What’s so braw aboot Scots
13 March, Royal Society of Edinburgh & online – free, ticketed

Through live readings of poetry & prose, alongside open conversation, this RSE Investigates event explores Scots as a powerful tool for creative expression & social commentary – with writers Len Pennie, Chris McQueer, & Michael Pedersen

https://rse.org.uk/event/the-haill-clanjamfrie-whats-so-braw-aboot-scots/

#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #writing #creativewriting

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219d

February dark is fields and fields long,
from this sill to the whin ridge and beyond,
wet as a dog’s nose, curious
where flame ticks against glass…

—Pippa Little, “Brown Nights”
published in nothing but a set of eyes for stars: New Writing Scotland 41 (ASL, 2023)

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws41/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #February

Pippa Little
BROWN NIGHTS

Last summer, late, I filled your tea cup,
bone and gold, with melted wax:
it sits in its saucer now, lit
pale rose, sets corners fluttering
as my breath teases the wick –

February dark is fields and fields long,
from this sill to the whin ridge and beyond,
wet as a dog’s nose, curious
where flame ticks against glass,

wanting only a warm –
out there owl outflies a bullet
and stones stir to ease their aching.
All-invisible: yet I can’t draw closed the curtain.

Brown nights and days these are,
slow as peat water snarled
in roan pipe and stell, a calling
far across the valley toward a ship of light

tomorrow I will let soil fill the trails
in both my hands: for now, this window lit
with your small pulse is single thing enough
to bare against the dark.

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219d

Ken MacLeod: Imagined Futures

Ken MacLeod joins the Plutopia News Network to discuss his work’s political themes: failed modern systems, rising nationalism, & the struggle to find common interest in a fragmented world. He also reflects candidly on the craft of writing, which he says still hinges on the hardest part: plotting & bringing a story to a satisfying, coherent conclusion.

https://plutopia.io/ken-macleod-imagined-futures/amp/

#Scottish #literature #ScienceFiction #scifi #writing #podcast

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219d

Saltire Sessions: Michael Pedersen

The Saltire Society talks to author, poet, & Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen about his work, his inspirations, & the power of collaboration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCTgutNfMB4

#Scottish #literature #poetry #writing #collaboration #Edinburgh

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219d

Robert Burns & the How-to of Barrel Gauging

“Alongside the expansion of the state in this period, scientific advances greatly enhanced methods for measuring and taxing goods, and in turn required officials proficient in these complex practices.”

James Fox looks at Robert Burns’s own copy of The Excise Officer’s Pocket Companion

https://howtobook.hypotheses.org/5697

#Scottish #literature #history #RobertBurns #18thcentury #BookHistory #HistoryofScience #HistoryofMathematics

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219d

Call for papers
(Mis)Placing Scottish Literature
UCSL PG Symposium 2026

8 May, University of Glasgow

What is Scottish about the texts we study? What makes a writer Scottish? When does a text become international? Is it all connected to book sales? What does parochialism mean in a global world? What does the nation mean when the international order disintegrates?

@litstudies

https://ucsl-scotland.com/2026-pg-symposium/

#Scottish #literature #callforpapers #identity

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224d

An raoir, mar a gheall an sanas,
bha na fèidh air an rathad,
sùilean lainnireach an solus a chàr…

—Uilleam Nèill, “Feidh”
Published in Making tracks: and other poems (Gordon Wright, 1988)

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #deer #20thcentury

Feidh
Uilleam Nèill

An raoir, mar a gheall an sanas,
bha na fèidh air an rathad,
sùilean lainnireach an solus a chàr.
Cha b’iad na fèidh ruadha nam beann àrda
ach an fheadhainn beag a th’ againn sa choilltean Ghallobha.
Thanaig sreath bàrdachd Dhonnchaidh ’nam inntinn:
“Chunnaic mi ’n damh donn sna h-eildean . . .”

Cha tigeadh dhomhsa ach facail bheaga ’na choimeas
mu na feidh bheaga seo:
“Ma ’s beag iad, tha iad grinn is neo-challaichte,
agus, gus an tig an saoghal gu crioch,
dileas d’an ghnè-san.”

Deer
William Neill

Last night, as the sign promised,
the deer were on the road,
shining eyes in the car’s light.
These were not the red deer of the high mountains,
but the little ones we have in the woods of Galloway.
A line of Duncan’s poetry came into my mind:
“I saw the brown stag and his hinds . . .”

Nothing would come to me but little words compared with his,
about these little deer:
“If they are small, they are graceful and untamed
and, till their world comes to an end,
faithful to their kind.”

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85d

“Permission is a gift no one can steal and can begin from something very simple. Teach them to sing. Give them the finest things you can find. Give them music.”

—Janice Galloway on Kenneth Hetherington, her music teacher at Ardrossan Academy

17 June is Thank a Teacher Day

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/13/janice-galloway-my-hero-kenneth-hetherington

#Scottish #literature #music #musicteacher #teaching #teachers #ThankATeacherDay

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217d

Four crabs from the cold firth
alive for a shilling. The largest
reared in the pot, in spite of
the fierce water, but soon
we cracked his limbs with our teeth
and wheedled with spoons and fingers
for the last shreds of flesh
from the crannies of his briny body…

—Angus Calder, “Crab”
from WAKING IN WAIKATO (diehard, 1997)

Angus Calder (1942–2008) – journalist, historian, editor, critic, & poet – was born #OTD, 5 Feb

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/crab/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury

Crab
by Angus Calder

Four crabs from the cold firth
alive for a shilling. The largest
reared in the pot, in spite of
the fierce water, but soon
we cracked his limbs with our teeth
and wheedled with spoons and fingers
for the last shreds of flesh
from the crannies of his briny body.

In that brittle maze
I found no features to remind me
of our brains, our livers
or our smooth bellies, yet doubtless
their functions were held by some part
of the paste of his cavities.

Spread, soup and risotto –
only the gills were rejected.

In the days we ate him
I did not forget
his moment on the floor
to amuse the baby, when she
gloated at the slow clash
of his last menace,
nor that shape which made me think
of a soft soldier
fried in the cockpit of a tank.

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115d

Pale yellow letters
humbly straggling across
the once brilliant red
of a broken shop-face
CONFECTIO…

—Edwin Morgan, “To Joan Eardley”
Joan Eardley (1921–1963) was born #OTD, 18 May

🖼️ Joan Eardley, “Sweet Shop, Rotten Row, 1960–1961”, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

https://www.gla.ac.uk/collections/#/details?irn=59156&catType=C

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #art #visualart #painting #20thcentury #JoanEardley

"To Joan Eardley"
by Edwin Morgan

Pale yellow letters
humbly straggling across
the once brilliant red
of a broken shop-face
CONFECTIO
and a blur of children
at their games, passing,
gazing as they pass
at the blur of sweets
in the dingy, cosy
Rottenrow window –
an Eardley on my wall.
Such rags and streaks
that master us! –
that fix what the pick
and bulldozer have crumbled
to a dingier dust,
the living blur
fiercely guarding
energy that has vanished,
cries filling still
the unechoing close!
I wandered by the rubble
and the houses left standing
kept a chill, dying life
in their islands of stone.
No window opened
as the coal cart rolled
and the coalman’s call
fell coldly to the ground.
But the shrill children
jump on my wall.

“Sweet Shop, Rotten Row”. A painting by Joan Eardley. Oil paint is applied thickly, in blotches of colour. A mustard-yellow sign bearing the letters CONFECTIO sits above a blurred shop front, showing a green window on the left and a red door on the right. Three almost abstract figures of children – two girls and a boy, probably – are dashing past the shop from left to right in a swirl of pinks, browns, and blues. The leftmost child has long black hair streaming out behind her head, adding to the sense of swift movement.

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217d

Build me a bridge over the stream
to my neighbour’s house
where he is standing in dungarees
in the fresh morning…

—Iain Crichton Smith, “Neighbour”
published in NEW COLLECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2011)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549607/new-collected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #IainCrichtonSmith

Iain Crichton Smith
Neighbour

Build me a bridge over the stream
to my neighbour’s house
where he is standing in dungarees
in the fresh morning.

O ring of snowdrops
spread wherever you want
and you also blackbird
sing across the fences.

My neighbour, if the rain falls on you,
let it fall on me also
from the same black cloud
that does not recognise gates.

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224d

Take Four Books: Ali Smith
Available on BBC Sounds.

Ali Smith speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, GLYPH. Together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.

@bookstodon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qgmj

#Scottish #literature #AliSmith #womenwriters

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