Here you can learn more about the staff, Board, Honorary Presidents and the Poets Advisory Group of the Scottish Poetry Library.
Our people
Our staff
Asif Khan
Director. Contact Asif about strategic partnerships, sector advocacy or becoming a patron.Aly Barr
Deputy Director/Head of Operations. Contact Aly about matters related to the running of the Library building or staffing.Rebecca Oliva
Head Librarian. Contact Rebecca about the collections, acquisitions and exhibitions.Colin Waters
Communications Manager. Contact Colin the SPL's social media, web site, press enquiries, and the Scots Makar Jackie Kay.Beth Cochrane
Events and Volunteers Manager. Contact Beth about poetry events, creative writing workshops and venue hire enquiries.Hannah Lavery
Learning & Engagement Co-ordinator. Contact Hannah about supporting schools and community groups engaging with the SPL. (Hannah will take up the learning role from January 2019.)Matthew Fellion
Library Assistant. Contact Matthew if you have an inquiry about the collection, events or online shop.Samuel Tongue
Projects Co-ordinator. Contact Sam about National Poetry Day, Tools of the Trade, publications or new project ideas.Our Board
Below you can learn more about the members of the SPL Board. Members of the SPL Board are elected by Friends of the SPL, having been nominated by a Friend with a Friend as seconder. These nominations are put to the vote at the Annual General Meeting in November.
The SPL Board includes a wide range of expertise, from writing, librarianship, publishing and digital to legal, financial and human resources. The Members are committed to ensuring that the Library remains financially sustainable and fulfils its mission to bring people and poems together.
You can read our company governing documents, plans and accounts via this link https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/Company papers/
Jane Ryder, OBE (Chair)
Appointed 2017. Chair of Historic Environment Scotland and Board member of other public bodies. Former Chief Executive of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and former Chair of Arts and Business Scotland.Martyn Wade, OBE
Appointed 2012. Former National Librarian and Chief Executive, National Library of Scotland.Dr John Gillies, OBE (Company Secretary)
Appointed 2016. Honorary Professor, Department of General Practice, Population Health Sciences; Senior Adviser, Global Health Academy; Co-Director, GHA Compassion initiative; Deputy Director, Scottish School of Primary Care.Dr Kyra Pollitt
Appointed 2014. Kyra translates and interprets between signing and speaking communities. She was awarded a PhD for her thesis Signart: (British) sign language poetry as Gesamtkunstwerk (2014).Nuala Watt
Appointed 2017. Writer and lecturer.Stuart A. Paterson
Appointed 2017. Poet.Marcas Mac an Tuairneir
Appointed 2017. Poet.Gordon Munro
Appointed 2017. Councillor, City of Edinburgh Council.Rory Anderson QC
Appointed 2017. Lawyer.Dr James Ripley
Appointed 2018. Academic Librarian.Dr Fiona Forbes
Appointed 2018. Retired Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.Newsletter
Sign up for Scottish Poetry Library's regular email newsletter.Our Honorary Presidents
From time to time, the Board of the SPL asks distinguished poets to become Honorary Presidents of the Library.
The current Honorary Presidents are Douglas Dunn, Liz Lochhead, Michael Longley and Aonghas MacNeacail.
Previous Presidents have been George Bruce, Seamus Heaney, Norman MacCaig, Sorley MacLean, Naomi Mitchison, Edwin Morgan, Iain Crichton Smith, Derick Thomson, and Tessa Ransford
Poets Advisory Group
Katie Ailes
Katie Ailes (chair) is a poet and scholar originally from Pennsylvania who lives in Edinburgh. She is pursuing her PhD in English at Strathclyde, focusing on spoken word poetry. Ailes performs with the spoken word collective Loud Poets.
Henry Bell
Henry Bell is a writer and editor from Bristol. He lives in Glasgow and edits Gutter Magazine. He was mentored by St Mungo's Mirrorball's Clydebuilt mentoring programme and has edited books including A Bird is Not a Stone (Freight).
Diana Hendry
Diana Hendry has published six collections of poetry, the most recent being The Seed-Box Lantern: New & Selected Poems (2013) and together with Douglas Dunn and Vicki Feaver, Second Wind. A new collection, The Watching Stair, is due from Worple Press in 2018.
Nadine Aisha Jassat
Nadine Aisha Jassat is the author of Still, a feminist poetry pamphlet. She has performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as speaking at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Aye Write, and Glasgow Women’s Library’s Festival of Women Writers.
Caroline Johnstone
Caroline Johnstone is originally from Northern Ireland, now living in Ayrshire. She has been published in The Galway Review, Belfast Life, the New Voices Press, and the latest Federation of Writers (Scotland) anthology. She is a member of the Federation of Writers (Scotland).
Rachel Rankin
Rachel Rankin is a poet from Coatbridge who currently lives in Edinburgh, where she is a student on the MSc Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She has had both poetry and book reviews published in a variety of journals, including Gutter, Antiphon, and The Riveter.
Calum Rodger
Calum Rodger is a Glasgow-based poet, performer, scholar, tutor, editor and events organiser. Current roles include but are not limited to Co-Director of the Scottish Universities’ International Summer School, tutor in Poetry & Poetics at the University of Glasgow.
Harry Smart
Harry Smart has published three collections of poetry with Faber (Pierrot, Shoah, and Fool's Pardon). He continues to publish poetry in magazines and online.
Jay Whittaker
Jay Whittaker is the author of the pamphlet Pearl (Selkirk Lapwing Press, 2005) and a full-length collection, Wristwatch (Cinnamon Press, 2017). Her poems have also been published by Envoi, Orbis, Frogmore Papers, amongst others.The SPL is piloting a new initiative designed for poets to share their ideas on how the library engages and works with poets across Scotland. Participants contribute topics for discussion in the meetings. Following the group’s meetings, detailed notes from the discussion are shared with SPL staff to be taken into account when determining and implementing SPL activities in line with the new business plan ambitions for 2018-21.
SPL Poets Advisory Group (Meeting: 9 June, 2018)
SPL Poets Advisory Group (Meeting: 9 December, 2017)