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Event
Celtic Commonwealth
Three poets performing in different strands of Gaelic from Scotland and Canada. Live music from local three piece Mara and a bar will be part of the hoolay!
Authors: Lewis MacKinnon, Meg Bateman and Babs Nic Griogair
Lewis MacKinnon: A respected scholar on both sides of the Atlantic, he was born in Cape Breton and raised on the eastern Nova Scotia mainland. As well as being a respected poet, MacKinnon is the Executive Director of the Government of Nova Scotia's Office of Gaelic Affairs. Composing in one of Nova Scotia's Gaelic dialects, MacKinnon has published two poetry books, Famhair agus Dàin Ghàidhlig Eile (Giant and Other Poems) and Fleodragan-cabair (Raft). He has composed songs and music and taught Gaelic language since the late 1990s.
In 2011 MacKinnon was crowned the Bàrd of The Mod in Scotland. It was the first time in its more than 120-year history that a non-Scot was named poet laureate.
The role of Bàrd is an honour given to an individual who has contributed to the Gaelic literary world and carries an ambassadorial role for the language and culture. It normally extends to a period of three years. In 2013, MacKinnon was awarded Scot of the Year Award which was initiated in 1993 to honour individuals who have achieved distinction through their contribution to Canadian society or the international community at large
Meg Bateman: Vivienne Margaret Bateman is a Scottish academic, poet and short story writer. Born in Edinburgh she studied Celtic at Aberdeen University and completed a PhD in medieval Scottish Gaelic language religious poetry going on to teach Scottish Gaelic at the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Bateman's Scottish Gaelic poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies such as Other Tongues (1990) and Twenty of the Best (1990). She has also translated Gaelic poetry into English in An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets (1991) and The Harp's Cry (1993). Her 1997 collection Aotromachd agus dàin eile/Lightness and other poems - her first to have facing English translations - movingly deals with the fragility of love and human relationships.
Presently Meg lectures at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, on Skye, and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at St Andrews University. In 2011, Bateman's first ever published Scottish Gaelic short story, entitled Chanadh gun d'chur i às dha, appeared in the short story collection Saorsa published by CLÀR as part of the Ùr-sgeul series of new Scottish Gaelic fiction.
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LocationWoodlands Centre (View)
Castle Grounds, Lews Castle Grounds
Isle of Lewis HS2 0XP
United Kingdom
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| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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