Some thoughts on Eunice Buchanan (18 May 1931-15 June 2026) by her publisher, the poet and novelist James Robertson. This is an edited version of a piece that was read out at a service celebrating Eunice’s life, held in Australia on 27 August 2026. I was first made aware of Eunice’s writing in 2012, three […]
Iona Lee reflects on her residency in Greenland in July 2026I arrived in Greenland on Monday evening, hopping from grey Edinburgh to gloomy Reykjavik and on through to a bright blue Nuuk – the world’s northernmost capital. The plane descended over an endless tundra of thick cotton clouds that I eventually realised was in fact […]
Sarah MacGillivray, writer and performer behind She Burns, wrote this poem after Tessa Ransford’s ‘Wounded Dancer’ to mark the start of She Burns’ year as Artists in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library from July 2026. Tessa founded the Library in 1984, and something of her spirit — generous, illuminating, unafraid — runs through these […]
Every poem on our website has a life of its own once it leaves the shelf — some are visited a handful of times a year, others are read again and again, day after day. We recently took a look at a snapshot of visits across the site’s poem pages to see what readers are […]
Welsh-Scottish poet and writer RJ Arkhipov has been appointed Poet-in-Residence for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. Delivered in partnership with the Scottish Poetry Library, the residency will place poetry at the heart of Glasgow 2026, inviting Arkhipov to respond to the people, places and stories of the Games through a new body of work. Throughout […]
Scotland’s Makar Peter Mackay visited Charleston, South Carolina to explore Scottish Connections
Every time I play football, dopamine and adrenaline take over everything. Life sharpens. My mind and body switch into high-performance mode. Everything becomes vivid, charged, accelerated. Ideas flash like sparks.
Staff at the Scottish Poetry Library have been practising their high school French for the last few months, thanks to our French intern, Lilie. As well as some very tasty croissants, Lilie left the library with the gift of a temporary in-house exhibition: French Poetry: A history of words.
Tom Murray reflects on his time as a mentor in support of our Young Makars programme.
Creative Development Officer Taylor Strickland writes about the 10th anniversary of a unique poetry path Jon Plunkett’s normally warm Belfast accent cools. Over a call, he reveals the more challenging aspect to his role as director of Corbenic Camphill Community, a registered charity that aids adults with learning disabilities through an emphasis on creativity and […]
How a Scottish poet turned a humble office machine into a radical instrument of visual art — and helped define one of the twentieth century’s most daring literary movements. This exhibition ended in June 2026. Alan Riddell (1927–1977) was born in Townsville, Australia, and educated in Scotland, where he received his MA from the University […]
Sam Illingworth is a poet and Professor at Edinburgh Napier University whose work and research focuses on using poetry as a medium through which to develop dialogues between different publics. What happens when scientists pick up pens instead of pipettes? When researchers trade data for dactyls? This anthology offers one answer. These poems emerged from […]
