I was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis but moved away from the island as a young child to grow up in Glasgow and then Dunoon, a small coastal town on the Firth of Clyde, where I still live with my husband and two children. After studying politics, classics and philosophy at Glasgow University I worked in various jobs including adult literacy with creative writing, working with homelessness and people with addictions, and tour guiding at Inveraray Castle. I trained as a BACP Registered Person-Centered Counsellor and Psychotherapist and now run my own private practice.

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I have been writing poems since my early twenties and had my first poem published in the Glasgow Herald when I won an Edwin Morgan poetry competition judged by the man himself. It was an amazing encouragement to meet him  and, as a poor student, win the princely sum of £300 which of course I spent entirely on expensive poetry books such as the complete works of Anna Akhmatova and a beautiful hardback collection of Emily Dickinson's poems which I still treasure.

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Since then I've had published a pamphlet (Calder Wood Press) and two full collections of poetry (Eyewear Publishing). My poems have appeared in many magazines and journals such as Poetry Magazine (Chicago), Poetry Ireland Review, Edinburgh Review, Northwords Now, The Scotsman, Poetry Salzburg Review, Manchester Review and Envoi. 

I won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2013 and the Melita Hume Poetry Prize (judged by Jon Stone) for my first full-length collection, Tree Language. I was mentored for nine months by Vicki Feaver through the Scottish Book Trust. 

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I have read my work at StAnza poetry festival, the Aye Write Glasgow book festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. I have also read my work at events in London and Paris. 

My poems have appeared in several anthologies including Our Real Red Selves and Be the First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry (Vagabond Poets).