Janet Violet Paisley (12 January 1948 – 9 November 2018) was a writer, poet and playwright from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, writing in Scots and English. Her work has been translated into German, Russian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Spanish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Italian and Polish.

Career

Paisley was a member of the Working Party for a Scottish National Theatre, the SAC Scots Language Synergy, and the Cross Party Parliamentary Group for the Scots Language. She held three Creative Writing Fellowships, received two

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council (), was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the Scottish Government as well as National Lottery funds ...

Writer's

Bursaries A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some awar ...

and a Playwright's Bursary, edited New Writing Scotland and co-ordinated the first Scottish

PEN PEN may refer to: * (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI) * PEN International, a worldwide association of writers ** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International ** PEN America, located ...

Women Writers Committee. Her first play ''Refuge'' won the

Peggy Ramsay Margaret Francesca Ramsay (27 May 1908 - 4 September 1991) was an Australian-born British Talent agent, theatrical agent.Christopher Stevens ''Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams'', London: John Murray, 2010, p.409 Early life Peggy ...

Award in 1996. She was awarded a

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( ; ) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the execut ...

Award to write ''Not for Glory'' (2000), a collection of interlinked short stories in Scots set in a small village in Central Scotland. ''Not for Glory'' was one of the ten Scottish finalists voted for by the public in the 2003

World Book Day World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book, is an annual event organized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to promote reading, publishing, and copyright ...

'We are what we read' poll. The short film ''Long Haul'', written by Paisley, received a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

nomination in 2001. Paisley was the mother of seven sons, including the actor David Paisley. One son died in early childhood. Janet Paisley's literary archive is held at the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

Death

Janet Paisley died on 9 November 2018, at the age of 70.

Posthumous honours

On 1 December 2018 Janet was posthumously awarded an MG Alba Trad Music Award for Services to the Scots Language, sponsored by Scots Radio. The award was subsequently renamed the Janet Paisley Services to Scots Award in her honour.

References

External links

Archive of her Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paisley, Janet 1948 births 2018 deaths Scottish women poets Scottish women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Scottish writers 21st-century Scottish women writers Scots-language poets 20th-century Scottish poets 21st-century Scottish poets Scots-language writers