We are delighted to be welcoming Scotland’s new Makar to Taigh Chearsabhagh for Book Week Scotland. Pàdraig MacAoidh / Peter Mackay is a native Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Lewis. He is an academic, writer and broadcaster whose work is influenced by the diverse linguistic heritage of his birthplace.
Peter will read a selection of his work for us at our poetry evening on Wednesday 19th November, 7.30pm. This special Book Week Scotland event is free and all are welcome to come along – book your free ticket below.
In addition to the poetry evening, Peter will also lead a writing workshop in Taigh Chearsabhagh on Wednesday 19th November, 1.30-3.30pm. Places must be booked in advance: Book Week Scotland Writing Workshop
With an MA from Glasgow University and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Mackay has worked at the Séamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen’s University Belfast; Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin; and at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, where he was writer in residence. He has also worked as a journalist and television news producer for the BBC.
He is the author of a monograph on the work of Sorley MacLean (RIISS, 2010), and has co-edited collections of essays on modern Irish and Scottish poetry and on Scottish Gaelic literature. He is currently working on a book on Wordsworth and Séamus Heaney, and has edited, with Ian S. MacPherson, An Leabhar Liath / The Light Blue Book, an anthology of Scottish Gaelic love and ‘transgressive’ poetry, published by Luath Press in 2016, and the winner of the Donald Meek Award. His own poetry first appeared in a pamphlet, From Another Island (Clutag Press, 2010) and the collection Gu Leòr / Galore, published by Acair in 2015.
Book Week Scotland – now in its fourteenth year – is an annual celebration of books and reading that takes place across the country in November, taking place this year from 17th – 22nd November. This year’s theme is friendship, and during the week, visitors to the cafe will be asked to add a line to our ongoing community poem about friendship; what it means to them.
If you would like to support our continued programming and enable us to keep offering free events, please consider making a donation to Taigh Chearsabhagh.
