Selected Projects
Edinburgh Poetry Tours
Guided walks featuring readings of historical and contemporary poems, for festivals and groups including TradFest, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh College of Art, Society of Authors in Scotland, Edinburgh City of Literature Trust, 2007–date. https://edinburghpoetrytours.co.uk
Free Press
With Studio Alec Finlay and Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen. Working with a group of disadvantaged young people in Aberdeen and on a residential trip to Mar Lodge to explore urban and ‘wild’ environments by way of walking, journalling and writing a manifesto. (2019)
Year of Herbert 2018
Edinburgh, with Zielony Balonik: the Scottish-Polish Book Group and the Scottish Poetry Library. Workshops for four Edinburgh secondary schools, a reading as part of a concert, and a CLDP session for teachers, focussing on the work of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert (1924–1998)
Ghosts of War
A tour and poetry writing session with primary and secondary school pupils at Edinburgh Castle, for National Museum of Scotland and Historic and Environment Scotland, which ran annually 2006–2018 (2012–2018 with Lorna Irvine).
Living Voices
A national programme developed by the Scottish Poetry Library and the Scottish Storytelling Centre, offering older people, in care home and library settings, activities that use a mix of poetry, story and song. I worked as a facilitator and trainer during Phases 1 and 2 (2013–15), and as Co-ordinator for Phase 3 (2016–17). http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/living-voices
River Connections, poems for the Inverness riverside floodwall and redevelopment, with Mary Bourne, 2014–15
Some Bat-squeak Echo of Other Time, an investigative placement for Artlink at the National Library of Scotland, working with library staff and visually impaired participants to explore the library building, leading to a performance featuring extracts from fiction, 2014
The Written World
12 teachers’ resources on poems from around the world, as part of a collaboration between the Scottish Poetry Library and the BBC to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; including poems by Moniza Alvi, Leopold Senghor, Derek Walcott and Wang Wei
Selected Publications
As Day Breaks: poems for the ‘Iolaire’ centenary
(An Lanntair, 2019) poems from workshops with primary school pupils on the Isle of Lewis
Floating the Woods (Luath, 2018) poems
Heroines from Abroad (Carcanet, 2018) translations of poems by Christine Marendon
The Road North: a journey around Scotland guided by Basho’s oku–no–hosomichi (Shearsman, 2014) a long poem, written with Alec Finlay
Snapdragon: poems by Arne Rautenberg (The Caseroom Press, 2012) translations
A Renga for St James (Jarrolds, 2009) a 42-verse renga written in Norwich, July 2009; folding poster, also realised on riverside building-site hoardings
On the flyleaf (Luath Press, 2007) poems