MTOT Supporting Writers

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In association with the Scottish Book Trust, we have a number of writers and poets connected to the Mother Tongue Other Tongue launch project in Scotland, some of whom will be helping deliver workshops to schools participating in the competition in 2014-15.  Find out more about them below.

  • Ken Cockburn
  • Marcas Mac an Tuairneir
  • Tawona Sithole
  • Catherine MacPhail

Ken Cockburn

photo of Ken Cockburn

I was born in Kirkcaldy in 1960, went to school there and in Edinburgh, then studied French and German at Aberdeen University, and Theatre Studies at University College Cardiff. In Wales I worked with various touring theatre companies, returning to Scotland in 1990. I worked for some years in art galleries, and from 1996 to 2004 at the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh. As SPL Fieldworker I drove the library van to schools, libraries, community halls and prisons across Scotland, lending books and running workshops. With Alec Finlay I established and ran pocketbooks, an award-winning series of books of poetry and visual art (1999-2002), and was a director of platform projects, its successor company, until 2006. Since 2004 I've worked freelance, as a poet, editor, translator and writing tutor. 

As a poet I've written a lot about places, both in Scotland and abroad. The 'flyleaf' poems focus on particular books, considering content, the circumstances of reading, and other associations. My collaborations with Alec Finlay have led me to work with particular forms, especially mesostic poems, 'football haiku' (three-word poems), and the short linked verses of communal 'renga' events. As a translator from German I've worked on poems by classic authors such as Goethe, Fontane and Celan, as well as contemporary poets such as Arne Rautenberg, Christine Marendon and Thomas Rosenlöcher. A residency at the John Murray Archive, National Library of Scotland developed my interest in alphabet and found poems. Thanks to a Creative Scotland Vital Sparks award, in 2010/11 I undertook, with Alec Finlay and others, The Road North – a 'translation' of Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North to the landscapes of Scotland.

I run poetry writing workshops for primary and secondary school pupils, students and adults, and am happy do one-off events or longer residencies.

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