Blue; a lament for the sea, a 20-minute verse narrative was selected for performance in 2023 by Yale University GCRE (Graduate Conference in Religion & Ecology), All Borders Blur Spoken Word Conference, and an earlier version at Hidden Door Arts Festival 2022. In Blue, a grieving woman swims off the Isle of Iona as she laments; the landscape responds… The immersive poem is spoken amidst an abstract underwater film created for the poem by digital fine artist, Jonathan Kearney, and more recently with a choreographer Sander Vloebergs who dances between the film and the words.
MacWhirter turned to poetry and hybrid forms during her PhD. Other published poetry includes Between the trees and To an oystercatcher found at low tide by Yale University GCRE and 4M Netlabel (live recording at Tràigh Mhòr, Iona). Relative Change was published by Lucy Writers (Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge), and forthcoming Negative Capability by Theology in Scotland.
In addition, MacWhirter’s creative-critical work has been recognised with the following funds: Yale Institute of Sacred Music – Initiative for Religion, Ecology and the Expressive Arts, and University of Glasgow College of Arts Research Support Awards (RSA) for presenting Blue and a creative-critical paper at Yale University 3.3.23; RSA for presenting a paper at the Mystical Theology Network, Nijmegen, 2022; Publishing Scotland Author International Travel Fund and RSA for presenting a paper and a panel discussion at Finconn ’22, Aalto University, Helsinki; International Medieval Congress (IMC) bursary for a paper presentation in 2023; University of Glasgow Seedcorn Funding from Scottish & Celtic Studies for an archival research trip to the Finlaggan Centre on Islay. Field research on the Isle of Iona was funded by the University of Glasgow College of Arts RSA.
She is married to the writer and actor Rupert Smith, and between them they have two daughters and a son.
PhD research supervisors: Professor Heather Walton and novelist Dr Carolyn-Jess Cooke.
YA Agent: Lindsey Fraser at Fraser Ross Associates
Liz MacWhirter Novelist & Poet 