Anne Frater (b. 1967) is a Scottish poet. She was born in Stornoway ( Steòrnabhagh), in

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

on the Western Isles (

na h-Eileanan Siar The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

). She was brought up in the village of Upper

Bayble Bayble ( gd, Pabail) is a large village in Point, Outer Hebrides, Point (''An Rubha''), on the Isle of Lewis, east of Stornoway, Outer Hebrides, Stornoway. Bayble is also within the parish of Stornoway. There are around 400 people living in Ba ...

(Pabail Uarach) in the district of Point, a small community which has also been home to

Derick Thomson Derick Smith Thomson (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ruaraidh MacThòmais''; 5 August 1921, Stornoway – 21 March 2012, Glasgow) was a Scottish poet, publisher, lexicographer, academic and writer. He was originally from Lewis, but spent much of his life ...

and Iain Crichton Smith ( Iain Mac a'Ghobhainn).

Style

Her poetry makes an in-depth analysis of identity and nation as well as love, landscape and language. She mainly writes in free verse.

Early life

Frater graduated from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

with a first class honours degree in Celtic and French. She received a teaching qualification from

Jordanhill College of Education Jordanhill Campus is an historic estate within the boundaries of Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland, which developed as a country estate. It is best known and most recently used as the home to the Faculty of Education of the University of Strathc ...

(now part of the University of Strathclyde). In 1995, she was awarded a PhD from the University of Glasgow for her thesis on Scottish Gaelic women's poetry up to 1750.Frater, Anne (1997). Academic writing includes ‘The Gaelic Tradition up to 1750’ in Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan (eds), ''A History of Scottish Women’s Writing'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 1-14. She lectures at

Lews Castle College Lews Castle College ( gd, Colaisde a' Chaisteil , meaning literally "College of the Castle") is a further and higher education college in the Western Isles of Scotland. The main campus is in the grounds of Lews Castle, Stornoway. The College a ...

in Stornoway (UHI, University of the Highlands and Islands/Oilthigh na Gàidhealtachd agus nan Eilean), where she teaches on the Gaelic-medium degree courses, and is Programme Leader for the BAH Gaelic Scotland.

Bibliography

Her poems are included in

anthologies In book publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed work ...

of Scottish Gaelic poetry: Whyte 1991a, Kerrigan 1991, Stephen 1993, O'Rourke 1994, Crowe 1997, Black 1999, McMillan and Byrne 2005 and MacNeil 2011. She published in magazines such as '' Chapman ''and ''Verse''. Her first anthology, 'Fo'n t-Slige' (Under the Shell) was published in 1995, and her second collection, 'Cridhe Creige' in 2017. In March 2016, a selection of ten poems, ''Anns a’ Chànan Chùbhraidh/En la lengua fragante'' was premiered by her and Miguel Teruel, a translator, in a public reading at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

, Spain. The poems were read in Scottish Gaelic by the poet and the Spanish version by Teruel's translation.

References

1967 births Living people People from Stornoway Scottish women poets Scottish Gaelic women poets Scottish Gaelic poets 21st-century Scottish Gaelic poets {{Scottish Gaelic literature