I'm thrilled to receive a £1,200 award of funding from the Saltire Society towards my next poetic venture. Eight writers and artists from over 100 applicants were selected for 'To See Oursels - Re-imagining Scotland', celebrating 90 Years of the work of the Saltire Society. The projects will seek to spark conversation around the theme… Continue reading £1,200 Award for ecological poetry inspired by John Muir
Quiet on social media and busy everywhere else... I'm close to submitting my PhD after five years of research and writing, on and off. My PGR student profile will disappear from University of Glasgow's pages ( although I will still be there as an Affiliate lecturer). So, for posterity, here it is. Research Title: When… Continue reading Open book
Based in Scotland, I travel anywhere to perform, speak or lecture at festivals, conferences, schools and other events. Please get in touch below to discuss your needs. N.B. Scottish events / residencies can be part-funded via the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature Programme – author profile. Blue: a lament for the sea Spoken Word by Liz MacWhirter, Film… Continue reading New event bookings
At the 2023 Yale University Graduate Conference of Religion & Ecology (GCRE) I performed Blue: a lament for the sea. I also gave a paper on the development of its poetics. Many thanks to Yale Institute of Sacred Music for their honoraria payment for my performed reading, and to the whole team at GCRE. The… Continue reading Yale University
International Piers Plowman Conference London ‘My herte can thinke’: exploring intersections between the embodied mysticism of Julian of Norwich, trauma theology and the emotions through creative practice research. Responder: Nicholas Watson, Harvard University, Medievalist and Literary Critic. 7.7.23. Yale University Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology ‘Blue: a lament for the sea’ a creative-critical paper. 3.3.23. International Medieval Congress Leeds University ‘Blue:… Continue reading Research papers round-up
When creative writing needs to spring from the land and the sea, notes and desk research are not enough. It took another research trip to the Isle of Iona in September 2022 to complete Blue, a cry across the waves. I’m very grateful to the College of Arts for supporting this trip with an RSA Award.… Continue reading Field notes from Iona
UPDATED OCTOBER 2025: OUT NOW, A POETRY PAMPHLET PUBLISHED BY STEWED RHUBARB PRESS £6 Blue: a lament for the sea is one woman's journey through the interstices of land and sea, grief and love. The medieval Gaelic myth of the Isle of Iona escaping an apocalyptic flood infuses this contemporary lyric epic in free verse.… Continue reading Blue; a lament for the sea
Mid-way through my PhD is proving to be an exciting, generative time. Not least for the opportunities to give papers at international conferences such as Finncon in Finland. My visit to Aalto University in Helsinki was supported by a College of Arts Research Support Award and Publishing Scotland’s Author International Travel Fund. ‘Hope and Resilience’… Continue reading A poesis with dreamy medieval poetics at ‘Finncon’, Helsinki, 2022
The second year of my PhD started with two funded trips enabling inspiring research on location, following desk research at home during the pandemic. For context, my PhD is a creative and critical response to ontological suffering in a pre-modern context that resonates with contemporary interest; that is to say, among other themes it draws… Continue reading Research funded by the University of Glasgow
Liz MacWhirter Novelist & Poet 