Summer-Autumn 2025

JENNIFER MORAG HENDERSON and DANIEL RYE focus on the Faroes, ANDREW SCLATER and others widen Nordic horizons, SHANE STRACHAN maks his wye roon Arbroath, KIRSTY GUNN essays the big music of Pìobaireachd, LESLEY GRAHAM and SHARON BLACK reach out from France, JAMES ROBERTSON muses on Brownsbank and residencies, PLUS many more stories, poems, news, reviews and a reader offer.

Tuath a’ togail dhrochaidean bàrdail eadar na trì dùthchannan Gàidhealach tro cho-obrachadh is eadar-theangachadh. Nua-bhàrdachd, nua-òrain is bàrdachd-baile nan Eilean, na Gàidhealtachd is nam bailtean mòra, cho math ri grad-fhicsean is sùil gheur bhreithneach RODY GORMAN air saothair DHÒMHNAILL MHICAMHLAIGH nach maireann

Editorial

As regular readers have come to expect and enjoy, this issue includes work by writers whose names are well known and others you may never have heard of before. In that way, I hope this shares some of the element of surprise that comes with editing Northwords Now – finding poetry or prose that sings from the page.

There’s a Faroese flavour to some of the early pages, thanks to Jennifer Morag Henderson’s account of links between Norn – the old Shetlandic tongue – and Faroese, and how this has been used by the contemporary Faroese folk-rock band Hamradun. Following on, there’s work by Torshavn-based classical musician and poet Daniel Rye and a sprinkling of short poems by Ålesund-dwelling Scot, Robin Fulton Macpherson. Later, Scots poems by Donald Adamson, long resident in Finland, and Andrew Sclater – who combines Galloway, Norway and France in his background – further expand the Nordic horizons, while Lesley Graham and Sharon Black boost the French connections.

An essay on Pìobaireachd and Place by Kirsty Gunn – a writer who ranges between Scotland and New Zealand - is redolent of the Highland games that are such an important part of summer community events across the region but also follows on from her award-winning novel The Big Music. You can hear some of this very music, played by Kirsty’s father, on our homepage for this new issue.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to James Robertson’s review of the late Lorna Slater’s poetry collection Radiant Point and his plea for support to fund restoration of Brownsbank Cottage, once the home of Hugh McDiarmid and Valda Trevlyn Grieve. Like James and several others, Lorna was a Brownsbank fellow some years ago, benefitting from a long-term writer’s residency there. Few such residencies are available across the whole country these days. It’s time that Scotland’s literary community spoke up for the creation of more and joined James and other writers trying to protect a place that should be viewed as an irreplaceable part of our national and cultural heritage.

Kenny Taylor, Editor