Poetry

Mandy has two collections of poetry: Castings, published by Two Ravens Press in 2007, and letting light in, published by Essencepress in 2005 but sadly now out of print. However, you can buy a hand-crafted booklet of her nature writing, called Earth Wondering.

Hopefully it will not be too long before another poetry book will be available. Mandy's next collection will consist mostly of poems about Assynt. She was awarded a Scottish Arts Council writer's bursary in 2009, to do a 'literary dig' of this fascinating area, and among the results were new poems - many delving back into the past or into the politics of land ownership, and many inspired by wildlife and nature.

A clutch of poems have come out in recent literary magazines.

• A Passion for Assynt, a long poem responding to Norman MacCaig's A Man in Assynt, was in the autumn 2010 issue of Northwords Now. There is also an audio version on the website.
• Two poems, Midges and Dog, were in issue 151 of Orbis in 2010 and Midges was one of the readers' choices.
• 'The Makar's Bucket', a poem commissioned to welcome Liz Lochhead to the position of Scotland's Makar, or national poet, was published in the spring issue of Poetry Scotland. 
• 'Brisbane Billy' was in the March 2011 issue of Prole.
• 'Delighted' and 'Once our tongues' is in Obsessed with Pipework in summer 2011. 
• 'Assynt in Snow' is coming out in the summer 2011 issue of Equinox.
• At the same time, Pank is publishing 'The Gorse is out behind Glencanisp'.

Mandy has had 124 other poems published in previous years, and over time we'll try to get as many links here as possible to the many magazines who have carried her work. Meanwhile, we'll try to keep up with current and future publications.