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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Further Information
From the Library Catalogue
Learning Resources
Poet in the Past: Poetry and Architecture
A classroom resource pack about writing poems about historic buildings. P3 to S4. Pack includes printable worksheets.