sheena blackhall

 

‘Sheena Blackhall is probably the most prolific poet in Scotland, and one of the most rarely talented. She is the true voice of the North East, a sophisticated, engaged, technically gifted writer who moves with ease through different modes and registers. She’s at home with traditional ballad forms and Buddhist meditations, with collage and cut-up and the found poem – lyrical and bawdy and profoundly funny.’ – Alan Spence ‘Sheena Blackhall has the lyric voice of the early MacDiarmid and prime of William Soutar, and knows unerringly how to send that couthy, earthy tongue to the furthest of stars. She combines tradition and modern wit, ancient knowledge with feminine intuition, personal defiance and spirit, a grasp of language topped up with thorough scholarship.’ – Joy Hendry

 

 

‘Scottish poetry at its best has always combined a cosmopolitan outlook with a patriotic pride both national and local; and this is evident in Sheena Blackhall’s work. As well as extending the scope of Doric poetry, she has enlarged its literary range by using it for short stories and novellas; and even more importantly, she has played a major part in bringing it into the age of information technology. The Elphinstone Kist, a project of Aberdeen University’s Elphinstone Institute, was the inspiration of her and Leslie Wheeler; and this extensive and carefully-organised site has from its inception aroused the interest of school pupils at all stages in the North-East, and stimulated their enthusiasm for the mither tongue.’  Derrick McClure     

MY BOOKS