Black Snow Falling was nominated for the 2019 CILIP Carnegie Medal, Historical Association’s Young Quills Award, and listed for Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award. It was Scottish Book Trust Book of the Month in December 2018. An earlier manuscript attracted Creative Scotland funding. The long verse narrative, Blue; a lament for the sea, was performed at Yale University GCRE (Graduate Conference in Religion & Ecology) 2023, Hidden Door Arts Festival 2022, and Voice PG Conference University of Glasgow. The immersive 20-minute spoken word show takes place amidst an abstract underwater film created for Blue by digital fine artist, Jonathan Kearney. Field research on the Isle of Iona was funded by the University of Glasgow College of Arts Research Support Awards. To an oystercatcher found at low tide was published on the Yale GCRE website, and Relative Change was published by Lucy Writers, (Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge).
In addition, Macwhirter’s 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 3.3.23; RSA for presenting a paper at the Mystical Theology Network 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 future presentation in 2023; University of Glasgow Seedcorn Funding from Scottish & Celtic Studies for an archival research trip to the Finlaggan Centre on Islay.
She is married to the writer and actor Rupert Smith, and has a daughter and two step-children.
PhD research supervisors: Professor Heather Walton and novelist Dr Carolyn-Jess Cooke.
Agent: Lindsey Fraser at Fraser Ross Associates
L.J. MacWhirter author 