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  • Christine De Luca
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Christine De Luca

b.1947

Christine De Luca © Veronica Rocks
POEMS LISTEN BIBLIOGRAPHY LEARNING RESOURCES

Christine De Luca has published six full collections of poetry in English and Shetlandic. The Shetland Library brought out the first three between 1994 and 2002, two of which won the Shetland Literary Prize (since discontinued) and Luath Press published two more collections between 2005 and 2010. Dat Trickster Sun, published by Mariscat Press in 2014, was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets.

Much of Christine’s work has been translated into other languages. Mondes Parallèles (éditions fédérop, 2007) won the poetry Prix du Livre Insulaire and Trauben published an Italian Trickster Sunas Questo sole furfante in 2015.  In 2017 came Heimferðir/Haemfarins, with translations into Icelandic by Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson, and Glimt av opphav /Glims o origin with Norwegian versions by Odd Goksøyr. In turn Christine has translated other poets into Shetlandic; she is particularly interested in links with Nordic countries and has participated in collaborations working in minority languages of Europe. She has read at festivals in Norway, Finland, France, Italy and India.

Christine has had fruitful collaborations across the arts, most recently with jazz musician Tommy Smith and with traditional fiddler Catriona Macdonald, and has been an active member of Shore Poets in Edinburgh for many years. Her first novel came out in 2011. She is one of the founders of Hansel Co-operative Press which was established to promote literary and artistic work in Shetland and Orkney.  She is active in promoting work with Shetland children and has written dialect stories for different age groups.

Christine De Luca was Edinburgh’s Makar (poet laureate) for the years 2014 to 2017.

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Read the poems

  • Sam but different
  • Early conversations
  • Upbeat @ Seventy
  • Soondscapes
  • A Month on the Mile
  • The Morning After
  • Discontinuity
  • A Child’s Calendar of Feasts
  • A Little Nap Rap
  • Voluntary Redundancy
  • Corpus Vile
  • Time circles
  • Paes eggs
  • Whatsoever things are lovely
  • St Ninian’s Isle
  • Brekken Beach, Nort Yell
  • Conjuring words
  • Gaet-markers
  • Existential paraglidin in Turkey

Listen

n/a

Selected Bibliography

Voes & Sounds: poems in English and Shetland dialect (The Shetland Library, 1994)
Wast Wi Da Valkyries: poems in English and Shetland dialect (The Shetland Library, 1997)
Plain Song: poems in English and Shetland dialect (The Shetland Library, 2002)
Parallel Worlds (Luath Press, 2005)
North End of Eden (Luath Press, 2010)
Dat Trickster Sun (Mariscat Press, 2014)
Edinburgh: Singing the City: poems for Edinburgh and its citizens (The Saltire Society, 2017)

Further Information

Christine De Luca’s website

Companion images by Gabriel Lalonde

Hansel Cooperative Press

Shore Poets

From the Library Catalogue

Publications about Christine De Luca
Publications by Christine De Luca

Learning Resources

SQA Key: National 5        Higher
  • Poet in the Past: Poetry and Architecture

    A classroom resource pack about writing poems about historic buildings. P3 to S4. Pack includes printable worksheets.
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Umbrellas of Edinburgh

July 2017
In a special edition of our podcast series, we take a tour of Edinburgh through its poets' eyes. Featuring Ryan Van Winkle, Christine De Luca, J.L. Williams and more.
Listen to the Podcast

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