Sheena Blackhall is a writer, illustrator, traditional ballad singer and storyteller in North East Scotland. From 1998-2003 she was Creative Writing Fellow in Scots at the Elphinstone Institute. She has published four Scots novellas, fifteen short story collections and over 200 poetry collections, which are listed here (most recent first). In 2009 she became Makar (poet laureate) for Aberdeen and the North East, and Makar for the Doric Board in 2019.
Friday, 12 August 2016
The Poems: Crossing the Bridge
Title: Crossing the Bridge.Poems & Tales in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall.Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire.
Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen. Cover: Detail from the sculpture Along the River During the Qingming Festival, by Zheng Chunhui.Cost: £3.00. Copyright: S. Blackhall August 2016.Chinese artist Zheng Chunhui recently unveiled a large wooden sculpture that measures 40 feet (12.286) meters long. Four years in the making, the tree carving is based on a famous painting called “Along the River During the Qingming Festival,” a historical holiday reserved to celebrate past ancestors that falls on the 104th day after the winter solstice. The piece is displayed in Fujon Province. Walking the Mat and The Merket Cross were written in a follow-up writing project to the recent city production, Granite. The pamphlet also contains details from The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.Most of these poems were written in the Summer of 2016, others were written under commission by the Forestry Commission of Scotland, for a project on Bennachie. Some tales have been accepted for publication by Lallans. The Scots Owersett of 'Drakestail,' a classic French faily tale published by Charles Marelle in 1888 under the title 'Bout-d'-Canard" in Affenschwanz et Cetera was published in New Writing Scotland 34, entitled Talking about Lobsters.