Author Description

Alastair Mackie (1925 - 1995) was a poet of the later Scottish Renaissance who wrote much of his original work in Scots, the language of his childhood. He also translated poetry from several languages (French, Italian, German and Russian) into Scots and wrote original work, periodically, in English. As well as being a supreme poetic technician, Mackie was both a powerful satirist and a shrewd observer of the times. He is credited with advancing Scots as a living literary language - Mackie adapted and developed the language to write about contemporary themes. Mackie was not a poet looking back at a historical tongue - he was a native speaker who used the raw power of his first language, a spoken language uncorrupted by use as the tool of any bureaucracy or political hierarchy. While Scots may be a challenge to present to an audience in its written form, Mackie's poetry when read by Scots speakers is a breathtaking reminder of the immediacy and power of a people's language, formed and adapted by historical and social circumstance.