Poetry Jukebox Launch: Fragments of Scotch Poetry

THE POETRY JUKEBOX IS COMING TO SCOTLAND!!!

Join us for an evening of readings and lively discussion as we explore the rich cultural and linguistic links between Scotland and Ulster.

From December 2025, the Scottish Poetry Library will host the Poetry Jukebox, which features new recordings of poems responding to the work of Robert Burns and his contempraries in Ulster.

Our event features four of the commissioned poets: Scotland’s Makar Peter Mackay (the first Gaelic writer appointed to the role), former Makar Kathleen Jamie, Stephen Dornan and Angeline King.

Poet Maria McManus will chair the event. McManus co-curated this edition of the Poetry Jukebox with Professor Frank Ferguson.

The Fragments of Scotch Poetry project was produced by the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, and is supported by the Department for Communities and Poetry Ireland.

About the Poets

‘S ann à Leòdhas a tha Pàdraig MacAoidh, agus chaidh dà leabhar bàrdachd leis fhoillseachadh le Acair – 'Gu Leòr' (2015) agus 'Nàdur De' (2020) – agus pamflaid le Clutag Press, 'From another island' (2010). Tha e ag obair mar òraidiche aig Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn agus o 2024 tha e air a bhith Makar na h-Alba. // Peter Mackay is a poet, broadcaster, translator and lecturer. He has two collections with Acair – Galore (2015) and Some Kind of (2020) – and a pamphlet, From another island (2010), with Clutag Press. Originally from the Isle of Lewis, he lives in Edinburgh and works in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. In 2024 he was appointed Scottish Makar.

Kathleen Jamie is a poet and essayist. Her poetry collections include The Overhaul, which won the 2012 Costa Poetry Prize, and The Tree House, which won the Forward Prize. The Bonniest Company won the 2015 Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. Her non-fiction essays are collected in the three highly regarded books: Findings, Sightlines, and Surfacing, all regarded as important contributions to the 'new nature writing'. In 2024 she published Cairn, ‘a view from the strange here-and-now’, and The KeelieHawk, a collection of poems in Scots. Between 2010 and 2020 Kathleen was Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Stirling, and from 2021-24 she served as Scotland’s Makar, or National Poet.

Angeline King is the author of three novels, Snugville Street (2015), Dusty Bluebells (2020) and The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew (2024). She was Writer in Residence at Ulster University from 2020 to 2023, during which time she completed a PhD in English. Her poems and short stories have been published in a range of national and regional publications, including the Honest Ulsterman, Irish Times, Bangor Literary Journal and Familia. Concurrent with her Standard English work, Angeline has made a significant contribution to Irish and

Scottish literature through a small canon of Ulster-Scots writing. Angeline’s background is in business and languages.

Stephen Dornan was born and grew up in Newtownards and Comber, County Down. He lives in the north-east of Scotland and feels at home on both sides of the North Channel. He has written academic essays on Robert Burns and Ulster-Scots literature. He has published poetry in a number of journals and magazines including Irish Pages, Ullans, Honest Ulsterman, Modern Poetry in Translation and Eemis Stane. His work has also appeared in the Belfast Telegraph and the Irish Times. His collection of poems Tha Jaa Banes was published by Ulster-Scots Academy Press in 2020 and was nominated for Scots book of the year at the Scots Language Awards. He won the Frances Browne Ulster-Scots Poetry competition, and The Linen Hall Ulster-Scots Poetry Competition in 2022.

Maria McManus’ poetry collections are Reading the Dog, We Are Bone, and Available Light, pamphlets, The Cello Suites and Ellipses. Collaborations include Wretches, Ellipses, and Tierra Salida (libretti), BIND, Epilogue, TURF, and Roots (poetry/dance) and Medusa’s Notebook (immersive digital poetry). She founded Quotidian with Poetry Jukebox. She is a member of Irish PEN and is Deputy Chair of Poetry Ireland.