The Keelie Hawk: Poems in Scots

(Paperback)

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The Keelie Hawk is a landmark poetry collection from Kathleen Jamie, the current Makar (National Poet) of Scotland. For the first time, Kathleen Jamie has brought her astonishing lyric talent to the language of her homeland, with outstanding results. The Keelie Hawk is a deeply resonant collection written in Scots, with each poem accompanied by a translation into English. Its publication is a significant event in Scottish literature, not only a reclaiming by one of our finest poets of the mouth-music of literary Scots, but a furthering of that language: 'by making poems, a language develops', Jamie observes in a fascinating afterword.

Reviews

Jamies poetry offers a new way of seeing the world and a new form of intelligence about ourselves and other species . . . This generous, inquisitive book helps us re-engage with the world by unlearning our familiar sightlines. -- Kit Fan, The Guardian
[Kathleen Jamie] has perfect pitch, a natural sense of cadence and verbal melody that helps to give her work the feel of organic inevitability -- Michael Longley
An engaging and energetic collection that follows the cycle of a year, cycles within cycles, the migrations of birds and people. The many voices of Scotlands natural and social worlds combine to create an outstanding aural map of our times -- Jackie Kay on The Bonniest Companie
Both poem and translation are so engaging and vital whatever language Kathleen works in, she conjures it to life . . . Its an antidote to the dominance of Standard English, and broadens our scope for self-expression. -- John Glenday, author of The Golden Mean
Jamie illuminates the mysterious force of poetry in our lives as an unending shadow-play of art and nature, self and soul. * The Guardian *

Author Bio

Kathleen Jamie was born in the west of Scotland in 1962. Her poetry collection The Tree House (Picador, 2004) won both the Forward Prize and the Scottish Book of the Year Award. Mr and Mrs Scotland are Dead was shortlisted for the 2003 International Griffin Prize. Her most recent collection, The Overhaul, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2012 and won the Costa Poetry Award 2012. Kathleen Jamie's non-fiction books include the highly regarded Findings and Sightlines. She is Chair of Creative Writing at Stirling University, and lives with her family in Fife.