About the poet
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Liz Niven writes poetry in English and in Scots and was born and brought up in Glasgow. Her first broadcast story was for BBC Radio 4's Morning Story. |
For several years she broadcast with the BBC Radio Solway Arts programme, hosting a Writers' Workshop and in between having three children, she taught English and Learning Support.
Her first poetry pamphlet collection was 'Past Presents' with AKROS, followed by 'A Drunk Wumman Sittin oan a Thistle' from Markings Publications. Full length collections followed with 'Cree Lines', 'Stravaigin' and 'Burning Whins'.
Liz has held various residencies ranging from a one day Valentine's Day poet residency in a WHSmith store, to three years as Scottish Arts Council Writing Fellow in Dumfries & Galloway. She was also a Cultural Co-ordinator for creative writing for three years. As Poet-in-residence at Inverness Airport, she wrote about the Western Isles and a documentary of her work, 'Poet on a Plane', was broadcast on STV and Grampian Television. Commissioned work has included a Scottish Natural Heritage public installation of poetry in granite, wood and stone in Galloway's River Cree.
Liz has edited and compiled many educational texts for the Scots Language in Education including 'Kist/A Chiste' and 'Touchstones', both of which received the Saltire/TES award, as well as 'Haud Yer Tongue', a teachers' workbook to accompany five video programmes by Channel 4 TV for Schools.
For three years she was Scots Language Development Officer for south west Scotland's schools during which time she published an extensive range of materials to support the language in Education. These included the first European Dossier for the Scots language in Education for the European Bureau.
In 2006, Liz was awarded the McCash/Glasgow University Scots Language prize for the third time. She has travelled extensively in relation to her own poetry, being invited to participate in Poetry Festivals in Slovakia, Lithuania, and Beijing and through the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages to Denmark, the Netherlands and Barcelona.
Liz now lives in Dumfries and divides her time between her own writing, delivering workshops and undertaking regular residencies and sessions for the Scottish Poetry Library, the Poetry Society in London and Scottish Book Trust. She is currently working on a new poetry collection, as well as editing, with Brian Whittingham, 'New Writing Scotland' for the ASLS and an antholgy of plays for schools for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies and Hodder and Stoughton. |