MacLaverty to read at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Renowned writer Bernard MacLaverty will be among those reading at a literary event at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig next week on Skye. It will be the second in an ambitious series of three literary evenings entitled’Agus Dàin Eile’ (And Other Poems), which bring together internationally renowned writers from around the UK with established and up-and-coming Gaelic writers.
The event will be held on Thursday 29 March at 7.30pm at Àrainn Ostaig at Sabhal Mòr in Sleat, and alongside MacLaverty will be the young Gaelic post Niall O’Gallagher and poet Miriam Gamble from Northern Ireland. The first event was held at the beginning of this month with the writers Alan Gillis, Rody Gorman and David Eyre, and the final’Agus Dàin Eile’ evening will be held on 19 April with poetry readings from Frances Leviston, Paul Batchelor and Meg Bateman.
Peter MacKay, Sabhal Mòr’s writer in residence and event organiser said:’In the’Agus Dàin Eile’ series we want to bring some of the most exciting writers in English and Gaelic together to read on the island, and give new Gaelic writers a platform to read their own work. We’re very pleased to have such a diverse and challenging trio reading next week: the novelist and short-story writer Bernard MacLaverty and the poet Miriam Gamble (from Northern Ireland originally, but both now based in Scotland), and Niall O’Gallagher an up-and-coming poet in Gaelic. Bernard, especially, is known not just for his prize-winning writing, but also for his lively and entertaining readings.’
Kath MacLeod, Sabhal Mòr’s Arts Development Officer:’Writer in Residence Pádraig MacAoidh has drawn together a very interesting series of literary evenings with a mix of well known and emerging talents from Scotland and beyond. Also as part of his role here at Sabhal Mór Ostaig to encourage and support the development of creative writing skills, Pádraig runs a fortnightly writing group open to anyone in the community. For further information please contact Pádraig at sm01pm@groupwise.uhi.ac.uk.’
Prize-winning author Bernard MacLaverty has published five collections of short stories and four novels, two of which, Cal and Lamb, have been adapted for screen. MacLaverty is from Belfast originally and now lives in Glasgow with his family. His novel Grace Notes was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997.
Niall O’Gallagher is a reporter for BBC Alba and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, and has a PhD in Scottish Literature. He was awarded a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2009.
Miriam Gamble is a poet and critic, originally from Belfast. Her first collection The Squirrels are Dead (Bloodaxe, 2010) won a Somerset Maugham Award; she has also won an Eric Gregory award, the Ireland Professor of Poetry award and the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. She lectures in creative writing at Edinburgh University.