Poetry Reading ­– Scots, Gaelic & word butters beyond:  

Len Pennie & Peter Mackay in conversation with Coinneach MacLeod (Scots & Gaelic)

Poets Len Pennie and Peter Mackay share readings that move between Scots, Gaelic and other forms of wordplay.

Chaired by Coinneach MacLeod, the event celebrates the richness of Scotland’s languages and the ways poetry can preserve, challenge and renew them, with readings from two writers whose work engages closely with language and identity.

Len Pennie is a poet who writes in both Scots and English. She writes passionately about the promotion of minoritised languages, survivors of domestic abuse and the destigmatisation of mental illness. Her two poetry collections poyums and poyums annaw were instant Sunday Times bestsellers. poyums won Scots Book of the Year in 2024 and was the winner of the British Book Awards Discover Book of the Year in 2025.

‘S ann à Leòdhas a tha Pàdraig MacAoidh, agus chaidh dà leabhar bàrdachd leis fhoillseachadh le Acair – Gu Leòr (2015) agus Nàdur De (2020) – agus pamflaid le Clutag Press, From another island (2010). ’S e àrd-ollamh aig Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn a th’ann agus ann an 2024 chaidh ainmeachadh Makar na h-Alba.

Peter Mackay is a poet, broadcaster, translator and lecturer. He has two collections of poetry with Acair – Galore (2015) and  Some Kind of (2020) – and a pamphlet, From another island (2010), with Clutag Press. He is a Professor in the School of English at the University of St Andrews and in 2024 he was appointed Scottish Makar.

Originally from the Isle of Lewis, Peter Mackay now lives in Edinburgh. A native Gaelic speaker, he is the first Gaelic poet to hold the role of Makar.

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