SABHAL MÒR OSTAIG TO HOST LEADING SCOTTISH LITERATURE CONFERENCE
INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS GATHER IN SKYE LATER THIS MONTH
Scholars from across Scotland, Europe and North America will gather at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig between 26-28 June for the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association for Scottish Literature (ASL).
The conference, which is open for public registrations on Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s website, is entitled ‘Our three-voiced country’: Twentieth-century cross-currents in Gaelic and other Scottish writing and will examine the shared influences and interconnections between Gaelic and other Scottish writing from the Celtic Revival and the Scottish Renaissance to the beginnings of the new millennium.
Professor Meg Bateman from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig said:
“We are delighted to welcome colleagues to this conference that follows two others that led to the publication of two influential ASL volumes: Crossing the Highland Line: Cross-currents in Eighteenth-Century Scottish Writing (2009) and Gael and Lowlander in Scottish Literature: Cross-currents in Scottish Writing in the Nineteenth Century (2015). A forthcoming volume based on selected papers from this conference will complete this sequence.
“There will be two plenary lectures, in one of which Professor Murdo MacDonald will examine William Crosbie’s illustrations to Sorley MacLean’s Dàin do Eimhir (1943); in the other, Kevin MacNeil will look at colour, shape and moral vision in the work of Iain Crichton Smith.
“Other highlights include Donald S. Murray from Lewis analysing the bilingual basis of creativity and a delegate from China looking at Chinese translations of Gaelic poetry. There are papers on writers in Scots and English, amongst them, Nan Shepherd, Helen Cruikshank and Billy Henderson.”
The full programme and registration, which is open to the public, can be found here 2026 ASL Annual Conference – Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
The fee for the whole weekend is £60 or £80 and there are daily and sessional rates of £20 and £30, including tea, coffee and lunch.
Everyone is more than welcome.
