Richie McCaffery is originally from Warkworth in Northumberland but lived in Scotland for a decade where he completed a PhD in Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow (his thesis was on the Scottish poets of World War Two).
McCaffery is a critic and reviewer, and his essays, largely on Scottish poetry of the second half of the twentieth century, have appeared in Studies in Scottish Literature, The Scottish Literary Review, Journal of Scottish and Irish Studies, International Review of Scottish Studies, The Dark Horse, Northwords Now, Fras and Etudes ecossaises. In 2015 he researched, edited and introduced Finishing the Picture: Collected Poems of Ian Abbot (Kennedy and Boyd) and in 2018 he researched and co-edited (with Alistair Peebles) The Tiny Talent: Selected Poems by Joan Ure (Brae Editions). In 2020 he edited Sydney Goodsir Smith: Essays on his life and work (Brill).
His first pamphlet was called Spinning Plates (HappenStance Press, 2012) followed by Ballast Flint, a collaboration with the artist Hannah Rye, Ballast Flint was the runner-up in the 2014 Callum Macdonald Pamphlet Award. His first full collection Cairn appeared from Nine Arches Press in 2014, and the second, Passport, in 2018. In 2020 he published First Hare (Mariscat Press) and followed this in 2021 with Coping Stones, a pamphlet from Fras Publications.
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Further Information
Visit Richie McCaffery’s website The Lyrical Aye.