Anne Frater (born 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 Radiohe ...

on the Western Isles (

na h-Eileanan Siar The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

). She was brought up in the village of Upper Bayble (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).

Early life

Frater graduated from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

with a first class honours degree in Celtic and French. She received a teaching qualification from Jordanhill College of Education (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 Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

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.

Career

She lectures at Lews Castle College 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. Her poems are included in

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

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 ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

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

Style

Her poetry analyses identity and nation as well as love, landscape and language. She mainly writes in

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frater, Anne 1967 births Living people People from Stornoway Scottish women poets Scottish Gaelic women poets Scottish Gaelic poets 21st-century Scottish Gaelic poets