Language: Gaelic
Murchadh Moireach
Murchadh Moireach (Murdo Murray) from Lewis kept a war diary, written in both Gaelic and English, during the First World War, and wrote poems on his experience of the trenches.
William Neill
William Neill's diverse poetry, in Scots, Gaelic and English, was first published when he was in his fifties; he saw it as 'a standing up for the small tongues against the big mouths'.
Niall O’Gallagher
Niall O’Gallagher is a Gaelic poet and translator.
Maggie Rabatski
Maggie Rabatski is Hebridean by birth and upbringing and she writes in both Gaelic and English.
Uilleam Ros
Uilleam Ros, known as the Gairloch Bard, was the schoolmaster in the township during his short life. More than a local bard, he is regarded as the leading Gaelic love poet of the eighteenth century.
Iain Rothach
The death of Iain Rothach (John Munro) in Flanders in 1918 deprived 20th century Gaelic literature of a promising young writer who used free verse in a new style of Gaelic poetry.
Seonaidh Charity
Sìleas na Ceapaich
Sìleas na Ceapaich was the daughter of a Chief of the MacDonalds, perhaps best known for her elegant lament ‘Alasdair a Gleanna Garadh’.
Iain Crichton Smith
Iain Crichton Smith was raised on Lewis and much of his poetry is grounded in the strict Presbyterian culture of the island, and his protest against it. He wrote both in Gaelic and English, novels, short fiction and poetry.
Derick Thomson
No Gaelic poet has had more influence on the generation that followed him than Derick Thomson. As poet, publisher, and editor of the literary quarterly Gairm, Thomson shaped the development of Gaelic writing in the post-war period.
Christopher Whyte
Christopher Whyte has been an influential and controversial figure in Gaelic writing. His poetry together with his work as editor, translator and critic, have challenged assumptions about Gaelic poetry, while mapping out new territory for other poets to explore.