Christine De Luca
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
Christine De Luca (nee Pearson) is one of the foremost contemporary poets in Scotland, and she hails from Shetland. Her work has appeared in journals worldwide and she has read at many literary festivals.[1] , both in the UK and abroad. She grew up in Waas (Walls), the daughter of the much-loved headmaster of Happyhansel School, Sandy Pearson, and after studying in Edinburgh, worked in education for many years. She now lives in Edinburgh.
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Publications
In 1996 she won the Shetland Literary Prize with her first poetry collection Voes & Sounds, and again in 1999, with her second, Wast wi da Valkyries. A third collection, Plain Song, was launched in Shetland and Edinburgh in 2002. It was accompanied by a CD of the poems read by the author. These three collections were published by The Shetland Library.
The pamphlet, Drops in Time's Ocean, published by Hansel Cooperative Press in 2004, is based on eight generations of Christine's family, on her father's side which hails from Vidlin in Lunnasting. The Hansel Cooperative have also produced some of Christine's stories for children on a CD, along with the work of John Cumming, Iris Sandison and Jane Moncrieff.
Her most recent Dialect collection, Parallel Worlds, was published by Luath Press, Edinburgh in 2005. One of the poems in this collection, 'Makkin Sooth Eshaness', won the Rhoda Bulter Prize for Shetland Dialect, 2004. The Shetland Writing Prize is awarded annually for a particular genre of writing. In 2006 it was awarded for poetry. Christine's poem 'Seein Baith Sides' won the overall prize and also the prize for best poem in Shetland Dialect.
Translations
Some of her poems have been translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Austrian-German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Welsh, Bengali, Turkish and even English. She has read her poems at over 150 events including Book and Poetry Festivals, in: Edinburgh, St Andrews, Inverness, Wigtown, Shetland, Finland, Milan, Kolkata, Paris and at several Breton festivals including the Salon Insulaire on the island of Ouessant.
In addition to this, a bi-lingual volume of her poetry was published in 2007, Mondes Parallèles. It is a selection from her first four collections and newer work, translated by Jean-Paul Blot and the author, published by éditions fédérop.
Children's Stories
Christine has recently formed Inta Shetland, a group which works in association with Hansel Cooperative Press to translate classic literature into Shetland Dialect and, where possible, to offer dialect resources and support to local schools free of charge.
References
- ↑ www.christinedeluca.co.uk Christine's Poetry Events Calendar
External Links
Official site of Christine De Luca, Scottish Poet
