Assoc for Scottish Literature<p>Hugh MacDiarmid at 100</p><p>A special issue of STUDIES IN SCOTTISH LITERATURE, evolved from papers delivered at the conference ‘MacDiarmid at 100’, held on 31 August 2022 to mark the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s first appearance in print under that name</p><p>7/8</p><p><a href="https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol49/iss1/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol4</span><span class="invisible">9/iss1/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Scottish" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Scottish</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/literature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>literature</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/poem" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>poem</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/poetry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>poetry</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Scots" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Scots</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Scotslanguage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Scotslanguage</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/modernism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>modernism</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/20thcentury" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>20thcentury</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/MacDiarmid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MacDiarmid</span></a></p>
#scots
7 posts2 participants0 posts today
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Hugh MacDiarmid: A Portrait
Margaret Tait’s affectionate 1964 biography of Hugh MacDiarmid
6/8
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“Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”
—Oxford Union Debate, 3 Dec 1964
Extremism in Poiesis and Praxis: Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, and Barry Goldwater, Oxford 1964
—Corey Gibson on Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, & their common cultural-political agenda. Published in Modernism/Modernity 3/1 (2018)
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“It appears that this man writes rather good revolutionary poetry […]. He is a rabid Scottish Nationalist, but is in close touch with the [Communist] Party”
—1931 British Security Service report
read “Hugh MacDiarmid & the British State”, by Scott Lyall
4/8
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2015/06/hugh-macdiarmid-and-the-british-state/
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“What MacDiarmid keeps giving is a depth of understanding, an imperative to go out into the world and explore it, and the priority of the patience needed to appreciate it. That is his provenance, one hundred years since.”
—Alan Riach, on 100 Years of Hugh MacDiarmid
2/8
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/02/100-years-of-hugh-macdiarmid/
The Bottle Imp · One Hundred Years of Hugh MacDiarmid - The Bottle ImpIn the one hundred years since the name Hugh M‘Diarmid first appeared in print, I’ve spent the last thirty of them trying to make his work more available, in Scotland and internationally. Since 1992, when Carcanet began publishing MacDiarmid’s collected works under my General Editorship, his readership has grown and diminished and grown again; his […]
I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet – it’s the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt
That damns the vast majority o’ men.
—from “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”
A 
for Hugh MacDiarmid—born #OTD, 11 Aug 1892
1/8
Twa Cats anes on a Cheese did light,
To which baith had an equal Right,
But Disputes, sic as aft arise,
Fell out at sharing of the Prize…
—Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), “The twa Cats & the Cheese”
via the National Library of Scotland
An 18th-century Scots poem for International Cat Day
https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105690319
Whaur’s yer Willie Shakespeare noo?
11 Sept, Royal Society of Edinburgh – free, ticketed
How does Scots language come alive on stage – and what does it say about us?
Playwright Ian Brown & linguist Jeremy Smith explore the Scots & English language varieties woven into THE SCOTCH PLAY (1990) – Brown’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whaurs-yer-willie-shakespeare-noo-tickets-1489136991829
EventbriteWhaur’s yer Willie Shakespeare noo?How language shapes perspective, from the big stage to everyday blethers
WRITERS!
Submissions are invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, Gaelic, & Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!
Submit free via Submittable 
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 (monochrome only). We have a maximum recommended length of 3,500 words in total. The work must be neither previously published nor accepted for publication and may be in any of the languages of Scotland.
Continued thread
Listen to Ossian’s version of Robert Burns’ “Corn Rigs”, from their 1981 album SEAL SONG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU6f21Bdsbg&list=PLF04F88F9D6E44609
It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon’s unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie…
—Robert Burns, “Corn Rigs”
pages from Robert Burns: Selected Poems & Songs (OUP, 2013)
Today, 1 August, is Lammas Day
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324?cc=gb&lang=en&
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You can read a digitised version of the National Library of Scotland’s Kilmarnock Edition online
3/3
https://digital.nls.uk/poems-chiefly-in-the-scottish-dialect/archive/74571150?mode=fullsize
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From 2020 – Prof Kirsteen McCue, Prof Nigel Leask, & Dr Craig Lamont discuss the importance of the Kilmarnock edition of POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT for Burns, & the significance of the copy of the volume donated by Craig Sharp to Glasgow University’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies
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Robert Burns’s POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT was published #OTD, 31 July 1786.
Copies are 3 times rarer than the Shakespeare First Folio: Patrick Scott & Allan Young are tracking the histories of surviving Kilmarnock Editions
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https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/11/kilmarnock-burns-book-history/
The Bottle Imp · The Kilmarnock Burns and Book History - The Bottle ImpAllan Young and I have just published the first-ever attempt to track down all surviving copies of Burns’s first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Kilmarnock: Wilson, 1786), the Kilmarnock Burns. Mr Young started working on this project fifteen years ago, and I have been collaborating with him for the past two years. We […]
https://www.europesays.com/2288191/ Support for integration service for refugees and people seeking asylum | Scottish Government #asylum #AsylumSeekers #council #delivered #Equalities #Government #investment #July #Kaukab #march #Minister #Printable #programme #refugee #Refugees #Sabir #Scotland #scots #scottish #Service #Stewart #Support
The latest issue of NORTHWORDS NOW (#46, Summer–Autumn 2025) is available free online – featuring poems, short stories, articles & book reviews, in English, Gaelic & Scots
New writing, fresh from Scotland and the wider North
Sgrìobhadh ùr à Alba agus an Àird a Tuath
www.northwordsnow.co.ukIssue 46 | Summer-Autumn 2025 | Northwords NowNew writing, fresh from Scotland and the wider North
“Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye’re sleeping.”
—The Laird of Dumbiedikes, on his death-bed, to his son (in THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN, by Walter Scott)
28 July is World Conservation Day. Here’s “Dumbiedikes”, by James Robertson – you can listen to him read the poem online here:
Having discussed "fjärd", here's another landscape feature that's super common around Stockholm but apparently nowhere in the #English-speaking world: "häll". It's an almost horizontal, smooth, slightly convex expanse of gneiss or granite bedrock. It's what's left of a taller outcrop after the inland ice has ground it down. Maybe there's a #Scots word for it?
