Sradagan san Iarmailt: Peter Mackay & Anna Frater

21 May 2026 6:00 pm

Join us at Hillhead Library for a bilingual poetry event with An Comunn Gàidhealach’s Crowned Bard, Anne Frater, and Scotland’s Makar, Peter Mackay. They will be reading from and discussing the new anthology of contemporary Gaelic poetry, Sradagan san Iarmailt / Sparks in the Firmament (Francis Boutle Publishers, 2025).

This wide-ranging anthology, edited by Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, showcases the talented cohort of Gaelic poets who have come to prominence since the turn of the millennium, including Anne Frater and Peter Mackay.

Anne Frater was brought up in the Point district of the Isle of Lewis. Her poems were first published in Gairm magazine (1986) while she was a student at Glasgow University, and she has since published two collections of her own, Fon t-Slige / Under the Shell (Gairm, 1995) and Cridhe Creige (Acair, 2017). She worked at Lews Castle College for many years, teaching Gaelic literature, and in 2025 she was awarded the Bardic Crown by An Comunn Gàidhealach at the Loch Abar Mòd.

Peter Mackay is a native Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Lewis. He is a poet, translator, broadcaster and academic, whose work is influenced by the linguistic heritage of his birthplace. In between editing many literary works, he has published his own poetry collections, Gu Leòr / Galore (Acair, 2015) agus Nàdar De / Some Kind Of (Acair, 2020). He is currently Professor in Literature at the University of St Andrews, and was named Scotland’s Makar in 2024.

This event takes place on the first floor of Hillhead Library, and does not have level access.