Opportunities to get writing and sharing poetry

Schools Workshops

We will be offering an increased number of workshops for pupils at Mackie Academy, including inviting guest poets from Scotland’s vibrant contemporary poetry scene to join in sharing their expertise and experience with Stonehaven’s budding poets. We are very grateful for the contribution of funding from the Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee Budget 2023/24 towards ensuring that this aspect of The Wee Gaitherin’s pre-festival programme can happen. Dates as follows: Friday April 28th - Hugh McMillan, Friday 19th May - Hugh McMillan, Wednesday 24th May - Neil Young, Friday 26th May - Julie McNeill, Wednesday 31st May - Lesley Benzie. For more info Click here.

Adult Community Workshops

We are also facilitating an entirely new series of free community-based workshops, hosted in partnership with Stonehaven Library / Live Life Aberdeenshire, inviting people at every level of interest and experience to join for any number of up to five workshops exploring writing poems of people and place. With special access to local history collections in the library’s archives, course facilitator Cáit O’Neill McCullagh will lead these sessions with the added interest of inviting participants to explore how lives and livings in Stonehaven’s pasts have shaped the present, and how these might inspire poems for its futures. As with the school workshops, we will be joined by guest poets. Julie McNeill, Martin MacIntyre and Lesley Benzie will join in working with participants to explore writing about these key themes in Doric, Gaelic and Scottish English, today. For more info click here.