About this Event
Celebrate the Scots language at the Hunterian Art Gallery and enjoy an evening of paintings and poetry readings. We are delighted to be joined by award-winning Scottish poet Len Pennie, who'll be reading from her debut poetry collection and instant Sunday Times bestseller 'Poyums'.
Len will be joined by poet and professor Alan Riach, who'll be reading a selection of works from The Hunterian Poetry Anthology. In conversation with Alan, Len will discuss her writing and the influence and importance of the Scots language. Audience Q&A to follow!
To follow, attendees will be invited to explore the Gallery, which will feature pairings of poetry with some our most beloved paintings from a range of poets and writers.
*Refreshments will be served*
Len Pennie sprang into the public eye in 2020 with her Scots Word of the Day, and quickly developed a following for her fierce, feminist poetry. Pennie is a poet who writes predominantly in the Scots language. She writes passionately about the promotion of minority languages, classicism, survivors of domestic abuse and the destigmatisation of mental illness. Pennie now has over 650k followers on TikTok alone, with hundreds of thousands more on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Alan Riach was born in Airdrie and educated at Cambridge and Glasgow. He went to the University of Waikato, New Zealand, as Associate Professor in 1986 and returned to Scotland in 2001 as Reader in the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, where he is now Professor. He is the author of works of criticism on the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid, editor of MacDiarmid’s collected works for Carcanet Press, and has written and edited several volumes on twentieth century Scottish literature. Riach has published six collections of his own poetry and has recently worked on English-language versions of 18th-century Gaelic poems.
“The keeper and reinventor of the Scots language in the 21st century”
IAN MCMILLAN
“I think Lennie is brilliant. She has such talent and passion and joy”
MICHAEL SHEEN
“I adore Lennie’s poetry”
NIGELLA LAWSON
“A poet who redefines what poetry is and who it is for”
LEMN SISSAY
“Pennie [ ... ] shows an impressive command of poetic technique [ … ] this intense and remarkable collection now marks her out as a poetic voice to be reckoned with – strong, tested, skilful, driven, and facing firmly towards the future”
Scotsman
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Hunterian Art Gallery, 82 Hillhead Street, Glasgow, United Kingdom
GBP 5.00 to GBP 8.00