Scottish Poetry Library

Scotland's

Bringing people and poems together

Find out about our latest resources, projects and events

A new poem from She Burns

To mark their 2026 residency at the SPL, She Burns writer Sarah MacGillivray wrote a new poem taking inspiration from the library's founder Tessa Ransford.

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Selina Tusitala Marsh & Peter Mackay

While in Scotland Selina recorded a podcast at the Scottish Poetry Library with Scottish Makar, Peter Mackay. She brought her official hand-carved New Zealand Laureate tokotoko stick with her, which accompanies her at all her public events!

Hear here

Your top 50 most read poems

We recently took a look at a snapshot of visits across the site's poem pages to see what readers are actually turning to, and the results are a lovely, slightly surprising mix of comfort reads, schoolroom favourites, and a few genuine curveballs.

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Etching the shape of silence

The poetry library partnered with Edinburgh Printmakers to showcase new poems and prints by a selection of our Young Makars.

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Meet the Games' Poet-in-Residence

Throughout the residency, RJ Arkhipov will write new poems inspired by the encounters, conversations and defining moments that emerge across the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Scotland's Next Generation Young Makars

Meet our new cohort of Young Makars hailing from all over Scotland: Autumn Walker, Fearghas MacLugh, Harry Ledgerwood, Lexi Ashcroft, Neave Scott and Robert Thorne.

Meet the Makars

Will this river offer a song?

We have commissioned poems on the theme of the Right of Rivers for the cultural programme of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Read the poems here

From Scotland to Charleston

The Makar bridging Gaelic and Gullah cultures in support of Scottish Connections

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Archives alive

Fascinating photos and celebrity selections from the SPL's history.

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SPL Yellow Freedom! Notebook

A5 hardcover lined notebook with fabric elastic closer thingie and rousing colour/quote.

Come all ye

Gies a Scots Poem Day 2026

This year’s Gies a Scots Poem Day is something special. 2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — a foundational work for contemporary poetry in Scots, and a poem without which, it’s...

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Nothing But The Poem - Selima Hill

Our regular podcast host Samuel Tongue rolls up his sleeves for one of his favourite poets, Selima Hill, examining two poems from her 1997 collection Violet

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To Scotland with love from Morocco

A Moroccan poet looks forward to the World Cup and writes of her love of playing football, and for Scotland

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Ris an do-dhèanta / At the Impossible

Scotland's Makar PeterMackay has dedicated a new poem to the Scotland Men's National Football Team ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Read and watch here

Rannan Chloinne

The children's poems that have been written for Rannan Chloinne will delight their young readers. In these verses you will find a range of subjects & sentiments – some frivolous, some that will lift your spirits & others that will give you pause, all of them in eloquent Gaelic.

Read the poems here