Association for Scottish Literature

asls.org.ukNew Writing Scotland 44Edited by Chris Powici, Allan Radcliffe & Anna C. Frater Published in: Paperback, 244 pages By: Association for Scottish Literature, Glasgow, August 2026 Price: £10.95 ISBN: 9781906841683 Cover image…

27 July

🎉PUBLICATION DAY!🥳 NAMING THE SNAKES New Writing Scotland 44 Eds: Chris Powici, Allan Radcliffe & Anna C. Frater The best new short fiction & poetry from forty-three writers who are Scottish by birth, residence, or inclination. Available now from all good bookshops! 💙📚 asls.org.uk/publications...

divinity.ed.ac.ukNew College Festival Programme | New College Festival, 6-7 November 2026 | School of DivinityBrowse this year's New College Festival Programme!

@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social’s New College Festival of Books & Belief invites speakers & writers from the UK & beyond to explore the relationship between literature & all aspects of belief. The sixth Festival will be held on 6–7 November – see link for programme: divinity.ed.ac.uk/new-college-...

Association for Scottish Literature reposted

Helen McClory

@helenmcclory.bsky.social

I have a new short story coming next month on BBC Radio 4. If you'd like, here's my last one there, The Bacchanal www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... read by Nalini Chetty.

bbc.co.ukShort Works - The Bacchanal - BBC SoundsA new short work from Helen McClory about a festival that has dystopian dark corners.

Association for Scottish Literature reposted

James Macpherson, of “Ossian” fame – poems derived partly from songs & legends in Gaelic oral tradition – was born #OTD, 27 Oct 1736. The “Ossian” poems were a global sensation, & are foundational texts of European #romanticism & of modern #fantasy literature A 🎂🧵 #C18 🖼️: Ingres, Le Songe d’Ossian

Another tough day in the Bluesky Don’t Censor Early 19th-century French Romantic Art Challenge

Ossian, the European National Epic Gauti Kristmannsson “The number of translations & imitations […] underlines the huge creative impulse of the [Ossian] poems, which can be seen as a major paradigm shift in the outlook of what is called high culture literature.” #C18 www.ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/m...

asls.org.ukInternational Companion 4Edited by Dafydd Moore Paperback, 198 pages Scottish Literature International, 2017 £24.95 / €29.95 / $29.95 ISBN 978-1-908980-19-9 Order from our bookshop Download from Project Muse Order from…

An excellent introduction to Macpherson & the “Ossian” poems is our own International Companion, ed. Dafydd Moore – available in print from good booksellers everywhere or online via @projectmuse.bsky.social Cover 🖼️: Karoli, The woes of Ossian #C18 #romanticism asls.org.uk/publications...

Prof Derick Thomson conducted extensive research into the Gaelic sources of Macpherson’s poetry. This dimension is still often overlooked by scholars & many seem to be entirely unaware of it. Dr @poncarova.bsky.social explores Thomson’s work in this field #C18 anglica-journal.com/article/1440...

thenational.scotUnlocking James Macpherson’s tales of OssianJAMES Macpherson went north in 1760 to find the storytellers from whom he could recover the epic tales of the ancient Gaels. He knew the Gaelic language and he met the local tradition-bearers. What he...

“He’s usually scorned by English-language readers as a charlatan. But he knew Gaelic, he travelled in the Highlands & he talked to Gaelic speakers. […] All works of art are made by artifice.” Prof Alan Riach on James Macpherson’s “Ossian” #C18 #romanticism www.thenational.scot/news/1845386...

Another likely reason why he was (& still is) sneered at was his huge popularity & success… Undoubtedly he padded his texts & added his own inventions – as writers do. But real or fake, whole swathes of the modern literary world still lie in his shadow #romanticism 🖼️: Runciman, The Death of Oscar

thedrouth.orgFRAGMENTS OF OSSIAN <br/> recast by <br/> Murdo MacdonaldEveryone, like Samuel Johnson, has an opinion on Macpherson's Ossian, but few of us ever manage to get a hand on an actual copy of the works. Fortunately, Murdo Macdonald does the bibliographic work f...

“Sometimes reading a Japanese poet I seem to be reading Ossian… Basho expresses here what Macpherson was to call ‘the joy of grief’, a phrase that encapsulates the sense of cultural loss and struggle that underpins European #romanticism” —Prof Murdo Macdonald www.thedrouth.org/fragments-of...

asls.org.ukOccasional Papers series no. 26Edited by Ian Brown and Clarisse Godard Desmarest Published in: Paperback, 294 pages By: Scottish Literature International, September 2023 Price: £19.95 / €24.95 / $27.95 ISBN 978-1-908980-39-7 Order…

(Incidentally, for more on Napoleon’s Ossian fanboyisms, see Clarisse Godard Desmarest’s chapter “Napoleon and Ossian: Celtomania & the Construction of French Nationhood” in our WRITING SCOTTISHNESS – from any good bookseller or online via @projectmuse.bsky.social) asls.org.uk/publications...

Macpherson did not, as he claimed, find his texts in “ancient manuscripts” – though there are some, e.g. The Red Book of Clanranald & the Book of the Dean of Lismore. But #C18th attitudes dismissed the oral tradition which formed the bedrock of the poems #romanticism 🖼️: Scheffer, La Mort de Malvina

Ossian fans included Goethe, Diderot, Blake, Coleridge, Jefferson, Bonaparte, Mendelssohn… Ossian-inspired art was created across Europe. Children were given Ossianic names such as Oscar & Fiona (will children still get named “Daenerys” in 250 years?) #C18 #romanticism 🖼️: Abildgaard, Ossian Singing

"Studies in Hogg and His World"

Today, Macpherson is often called a “faker” & “forger”. But much of the anglophone hostility towards him is because, shortly after the Jacobite rebellions, he staked a claim for the existence of a #Gaelic high culture #C18 #romanticism 🖼️: Girodet, Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes

Association for Scottish Literature reposted

Project Gutenberg

@gutenberg.org

A forgotten 1890 first edition of Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four arrived among ordinary charity-shop donations in England; staff spotted its significance and it sold for £11,520 timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/a-f... The Sign of the Four at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2097 #books

Association for Scottish Literature reposted

@studiesinhogg.bsky.social

20 Aug

The James Hogg Society is delighted to announce Hogg’s Worlds Now at the University of Glasgow, 2–4 July 2027. We invite proposals on Hogg’s life and writing, Scottish Romanticism, and new ways of reading Hogg and his world. Full CFP: tinyurl.com/Hogg2027 #ScottishRomanticism #Romanticism #CFP

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29 Oct @uniofstandrews.bsky.social – free Dr Sarah Sharp of @standrewsenglish.bsky.social discusses “The Doctor, the Digger & the Dead: Bodysnatching in 19th-Century Scottish Writing” #C19 #litsudies #gothic #horror ishr.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/event/sarah-...

thelancet.comRobert Louis Stevenson's The Body SnatcherThe core of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous story The Body Snatcher probably derives from an urban legend from the Edinburgh region. It was written in the Scottish village of Pitlochry, where Stevenso...

19h

Ruth Richardson in The Lancet discusses how “The Body-Snatcher” shows Robert Louis Stevenson’s “acute analysis of degrees of guilt; the complicit socialisation of maleness… the dark silences that can exist in social relations that pass as bonhomie” #C19 #horror www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

theguardian.comStephen Fry: ‘Sherlock Holmes altered the course of my whole life’Nearly a hundred years after Arthur Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes story, the writer and broadcaster unravels the mystery of the detective’s enduring appeal

“Why do these characters… seem to attract reinvention and retelling so much more than any other fictional creations? … What’s so special about the denizens of Baker Street?” —Stephen Fry on the enduring appeal of Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective #Booksky 💙📚 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

WRITERS! New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on poetry. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue. #writers #writing Pls RT 👇 asls.org.uk/new-writing-...

Association for Scottish Literature reposted

Cezary Jan Strusiewicz

@ostrichson.bsky.social

"The Anarchy" by William Dalrymple is an amazing book about the East India Company, a topic I cared little about until I read this. This needs to be a TV show like yesterday.

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In Gránada, in Gránada, They dumbed the mou o a makar, In Gránada, in Gránada, They strak doun Garcia Lorca… —“In Gránada, in Gránada”, by Sydney Goodsir Smith (1915–1975) – a major figure in the #C20th Scottish renaissance, born #OTD, 26 Oct #poem #poetry asls.org.uk/publications...

For want o luve we live on hate, For want o Heven praise the State, For want o richts we worship rules, For want o gods the glibbest fules… —Sydney Goodsir Smith, “Prolegomenon: The Deevil’s Waltz” #Scots #poem #poetry asls.org.uk/publications...

thenational.scotSorley MacLean and Sydney Goodsir Smith – poets we need todayIN 1940, Sorley MacLean (1911-96) published a little pamphlet with Robert Garioch, 17 Poems for 6d (sixpence) but he had gone to fight as a soldier in North Africa during the Second World War while hi...

“[Sydney Goodsir Smith] could walk into a room and almost helplessly turn everything on, and Whitman-like, spread, and liberally squander his own beneficence, and celebrate that of all around him” —Prof Alan Riach on Sydney Goodsir Smith & Sorley MacLean #poetry www.thenational.scot/news/1668367...

“Luve’s arcane delirium”: A Reading of Sydney Goodsir Smith’s UNDER THE EILDON TREE —Richie McCaffery, Scottish Literary Review 5/1 (2013) – available via @projectmuse.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/article/509727

Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley MacLean) – one of the greatest European poets of the 20th century – was born #OTD, 26 Oct A 🎂🧵 Watch “Sorley MacLean’s Island” via @natlibscot.bsky.social – Sorley MacLean in conversation with fellow writer Iain Crichton Smith #poetry movingimage.nls.uk/film/3141

youtube.comThe Poetry of Sorley MacLeanYouTube video by ASL

The Poetry of Sorley MacLean Dr Emma Dymock discusses the poetry of Somhairle MacGill-Eain / Sorley MacLean at our 2014 Schools Conference #poem #poetry www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsfK...

soundcloud.comSomhairlePreview of our debut album NW, release 26th October 2015. Buy the album: niteworksband.bandcamp.com/album/nw The album launches at SWG3 in Glasgow on Saturday 24th October. Tickets: residentadvisor

“But we know now another set of words: clearance, empire, profit, exploitation… We have a history of resistance, but now mainly in the songs we sing. Our children are bred for emigration” “Somhairle” by NITEWORKS, from their 2015 album “NW” #Gaelic #music #electronica soundcloud.com/niteworks/so...

Thar na sìorraidheachd, thar a sneachda, chì mi mo dhàin neo-dheachdte, chì mi lorgan an spòg a’ breacadh gile shuaimhneach an t-sneachda: calg air bhoile, teanga fala, gadhair chaola ’s madaidhean-allaidh… —Somhairle MacGill-Eain, “Coin is Madaidhean-allaidh” (“Dogs & Wolves”) #Gaelic #poetry

asls.org.ukAn Cuilithionn 1939Somhairle MacGill-Eain Sorley MacLean Edited by Christopher Whyte Published in: Paperback. By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Glasgow, 13 June 2011. Price: £12.50 ISBN 978-1-906841-03-4…

“A poem which – in a single Neruda-esque sweep – takes in the beauties of the country & the sufferings of its poor & then sets both against a vastly wider historic background … A triumph.” —The Scotsman AN CUILITHIONN 1939, ed. by Christopher Whyte #poem #poetry asls.org.uk/publications...

“In this poem, MacLean, as a Gael, stands firmly at the centre of his world, &, consciously, close to the end of his world. As a poet, he shows us that the particular horizon & times that happen to encircle him, encircle us all.” ‍—Seamus Heaney #poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/hallaig/

youtube.comSorley MacLean reading his poems at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, 12 February 1986YouTube video by A.B. Jackson

A poetry reading by Somhairle MacGill-Eain in #Gaelic & English, given at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social’s School of Scottish Studies in 1986 & recorded by Alexander Hutchison #poem #poetry www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mi9...

“Our way of life is besieged by the forces of international big business, our country’s beggared by bad communication, the iniquities of land ownership, the failures and unconcern of central government…” —Sorley MacLean, from the film “Sorley MacLean’s Island” ☝️ #Gaelic #history

nws.submittable.comNew Writing Scotland Submission ManagerNew Writing Scotland publishes works by writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing, or inclination. Prose (fiction and nonfiction); poetry; drama; screenplays; and graphic artwork (mon...

#WritingCommunity! Submissions invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 45! We want poetry & prose in English, #Gaelic, & #Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 13 Dec Submit free via Submittable👇 nws.submittable.com/submit

eventbrite.co.ukVoices fae Victorian DundeeExploring Dundee’s Multilingual Literary Heritage

Voices fae Victorian Dundee 7 Nov, Dundee Central Library. Free, ticketed Showcasing Scots & Gaelic literature in Dundee Central Library’s collections of #C19 newspapers, books, & ballads, & live performances of work from & inspired by Dundee’s literary history www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/voices-fae...

asls.org.ukAnnual Volume 45 (2015)Edited by Kirstie Blair Hardback, 256 pages ASLS, Glasgow, 2016 Price: £14.95 ISBN 978-1-906841-28-7 Order from our bookshop The People’s Journal, “A Penny Saturday paper devoted to the interests of…

The 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭, “A Penny Saturday paper devoted to the interests of the Working Classes”, provided a platform for the voices & experiences of ordinary men & women Discover more in 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 t𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭: Newspaper Poetry in Victorian Scotland #C19 #poetry asls.org.uk/publications...

He’s no artist. His taste in clothes is more dowdy than gaudy… —Norman MacCaig, “Sparrow” published in The Many Days: Selected Poems of Norman MacCaig (Polygon, 2010) #poem #poetry #birds birlinn.co.uk/product/the-...

In front of me a girl with bare feet, in a beribboned dress, picks white flowers in a field somewhere near Pompeii… —Stewart Conn, “Springtime” from IN THE KIBBLE PALACE, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 1987 #Pompeii was destroyed possibly #OTD, 24 Oct, 79CE #Roman #archaeology #poem #poetry

museoarcheologiconapoli.itFrescoes - mann napoli | museo archeologico di napoliThe collection of frescoes from the Vesuvian area makes up a real manual of Roman mural painting, from the 1st century BC up to the 1st century AD.

👆 “Flora”, from Stabiae, Villa of Ariadne inv. 8834, is held in the frescos collection of the Museo Archaeologico di Napoli www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/en/portfolio...

scottishpoetrylibrary.org.ukAye RobotPoet and academic Professor Alan Riach writes about the unusual road that led to his latest poetry collection What the Sea Gives. There is an Irish-Gaelic term uisge fa thalamh which might be directly...

Aye Robot In 2023, Google’s AI invented a list of 12 “new collections” by Scottish poets (it invented some of the poets, too). Now Alan Riach has published 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 – the collection the AI said that he wrote three years previously #poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2026/10/aye-...

And see not ye that bonny road That winds about the fernie brae? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae… —from the ballad “Thomas the Rhymer”. The Fairy Queen shows Thomas of Ercildoun the crossroads to Heaven, Hell, & Elfland #BookWormSat #poem #poetry #folklore

gutenberg.orgMinstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3 (of 3) by Walter ScottMinstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3 (of 3) by Walter Scott. Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.

“Thomas the Rhymer” is Walter Scott’s ballad of Thomas of Ercildoun, a 13th-century Scottish laird & prophet from the Scottish Borders. Scott developed & expanded upon a tradition dating back to the medieval period. You can read the whole text here via @gutenberg.org www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45778

My brother is skull and skeleton now empty of mind behind the brow in ribs and pelvis empty space bone-naked without a face… —William Montgomerie, “Epitaph” For 2nd Officer James S. Montgomerie of the SS Carsbreck, torpedoed off Gibraltar, 24th October 1941 #BookWormSat asls.org.uk/publications...

“Andrina comes to see me every afternoon in winter, just before it gets dark…” —In George Mackay Brown’s short story “Andrina”, Bill Torvald, an elderly Orcadian sea captain, is visited regularly by Andrina, a kind young woman who looks after him. Except nobody knows who Andrina is… #BookWormSat

birlinn.co.ukSimple Fire: Selected Short Stories | Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher - buy books onlineGeorge Mackay Brown was a master of the short story form and produced a steady stream of short fiction collections, starting with A Calendar of Love (1967) and include A Time to Keep (1969) and Hawkfa...

“Andrina” is included in A SIMPLE FIRE: Selected Short Stories by George Mackay Brown, edited & introduced by Malachy Tallack (Birlinn, 2021) birlinn.co.uk/product/simp...