Thomas Clark (born 13 July 1980) is a Scottish poet and writer. He is best known for his work in Scots language and his writing about

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Scots language

A native speaker and Scots language specialist, Clark has published several books of translations, including a Glaswegian rendering of

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

and an award-winning Scots translation of

Diary of a Wimpy Kid ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' is an American illustrated children's novel series and media franchise created by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. The series follows Greg Heffley, a middle-schooler who illustrates his daily life in a dia ...

. In 2015, he released ''Intae the Snaw'', a collection of Scots translations which was praised by writer

Matthew Fitt Matthew Fitt (born 1968) is a Scots poet and novelist. He was writer-in-residence at Greater Pollok in Glasgow, then National Scots Language Development Officer. He has translated several literary works into Scots. Early life Fitt was born in 1 ...

as "Brilliant... Tammas Clark takes the bonnie broukit bairn that is the Scots and blaws new life intae the hail clamjamfrie" and by poet Rab Wilson as "an important collection that timeously re-establishes the pouer, virr an smeddum o the Scots language!" In 2019, Clark won the first ever Scots Bairns' Book o the Year award at the inaugural Scots Language Awards. His translation of

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...

into Scots subsequently won the award for Scots Book o the Year in 2023. Previously editor of Scots at

Bella Caledonia ''Bella Caledonia'' is an online magazine publishing social, political and cultural commentary. It was launched in 2007 and came to particular prominence during the campaign period of the Scottish independence referendum that was held in 2014. ...

, Clark is now a regular columnist at The National. In 2021, he acted as co-translator on the Scots language version of the web browser

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

Football writing

A former footballer, Clark was appointed Scottish football's first ever poet-in-residence in 2015, taking up a position with

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...

side Selkirk F.C. ''Selkirk FC vs the World!'', a collection of pieces written by Clark about the club, was published in 2016. It was followed in 2017 by a comic novel following the misadventures of a former Selkirk midfielder, ''Your Pal Andy''. In 2016, Clark performed ''O Johnny Moscardini!'', his poem celebrating Scots-Italian footballer

Giovanni Moscardini Giovanni Moscardini (; 1897–1985), also known as Johnny Moscardini, was an Italian Scottish footballer who played as a forward for Lucchese, Pisa, Genoa He scored 7 goals in his 9 games for the Italy national team. Born in Falkirk, he was o ...

, ahead of the first ever Moscardini Cup football match in Barga.

Bibliography

* ''Alice's Adventirs in Wunnerlaun'' (2014) * ''Intae the Snaw'' (2015) * ''Selkirk FC vs the World!'' (2016) * ''Your Pal Andy'' (2017) * ''Diary o a Wimpy Wean'' (2018) * ''Peppa's Bonnie Unicorn'' (2019) * ''Diary o a Wimpy Wean: Rodrick the Radge'' (2020) * ''Diary o a Wimpy Wean: Up Tae The Oxters'' (2020) * ''A Series o Scunnersome Events: The Boggin Beginnin'' (2021) * '' Animal Fairm'' (2023) * ''Nae Pets Allowed'' (2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Thomas 1980 births Living people 21st-century Scottish male writers 21st-century Scottish translators 21st-century Scottish poets 21st-century Scottish novelists 21st-century Scottish essayists 21st-century Scottish sportsmen Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Men's association football players not categorized by position Hawick Royal Albert F.C. players Lallans poets People educated at Hamilton Grammar School People from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scots-language writers Scottish columnists Scottish male essayists Scottish male novelists Scottish male poets Scottish men's footballers Scottish librarians Scottish sportswriters Selkirk F.C. players