Scotland’s “Makar”, A Laureate’s Writing
Winter (14+ hours) | This course is completed
Jackie Kay is Scotland’s current Poet Laureate or “Makar,” the official title. We will read three of her books over the course. Her memoir Red Dust Road, her novel Trumpet and a book of her poetry, Fiere.
Kay’s work is deeply humane and moving, full of warmth and humor. Her writing is both broad in scope and yet deeply personal—from the story of a famous Scottish Jazz trumpeter and the secret truth of his life, to Jackie’s own story of adoption, her life as a young black gay woman in a very non-racially diverse society, her search for her own birth-parents and her use of both Scots-language and Igbo, the language of her birth father, threading her poems. These are books to lift our spirits and warm our souls through the winter.
The classes will be collaborative, consisting of close reading and discussion, with biographical, cultural, geographical, and historical context provided.
- Trumpet by Jackie Kay (ISBN-13: 978-0375704635)
- Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (ISBN-13: 978-1509858392)
- Fiere by Jackie Kay (ISBN-13: 978-0330513371)
Anne Shivas
A poet and teacher of Scottish literature, Anne’s poems have received several awards, been placed in competitions, and published in journals in Israel, Scotland, and New Zealand. She received an MFA in poetry from Drew University in 2011. Her poem, An Old Woman Cooking Eggs, was chosen as one of the 20 Best Scottish poems of 2017. Her translation into Scots language of The New Colossus, the sonnet on the Statue of Liberty, was part of a translation project of the American Jewish Historical Society.
In 2017 Anne Shivas published her first collection of poems, Whit Grace. Whit Grace was formed over 20 years from a life that took her from Jerusalem, Israel during the first Gulf war, to a rhythmic rural life in Vermont, with long spells spent in North Berwick, Scotland. More information can be found at her website http://www.anneshivas.com