Scotland’s outgoing national poet will leave ‘powerful legacy’, says Swinney

The First Minister has thanked Scotland’s national poet for her “stellar work” as she comes to the end of her three-year tenure.

Kathleen Jamie, the national poet for Scotland, or Makar, is stepping down from her role, and the Scottish Government is preparing to find a suitable successor.

The multi-award winning poet’s work spans four decades, and she is the fourth person to be appointed the Scottish Makar since the role was created in 2004, having succeeded Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead and Edwin Morgan.

Scotland’s national Makar currently serves a term of three years, though previously bards would hold the position for five years.

During her tenure, she has written poems for the Cop26 summit, the opening of Parliament and wrote about the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Ms Jamie, who is 62, recently had her work featured at an Edinburgh International Book Festival event, attended by First Minister John Swinney, during which composer David Paul Jones took some of the Makar’s poems and set them to music.

Mr Swinney said: “I want to thank Kathleen Jamie and pay tribute to the stellar work she has done over the last three years as Scotland’s fourth modern Makar, and as a national ambassador for poetry in Scotland and overseas.

“Her term as Makar will leave a powerful legacy. She encouraged the public to become engaged with the role by writing a series of collective poems curated from individual lines of poetry submitted by the people of Scotland.

“This allowed a large number of people to contribute to the important role of Makar.

“Kathleen has also recently completed a collective poem using lines from prisoners throughout Scotland on the theme of hope, which I am very much looking forward to reading when it is published shortly.”

Ms Jamie said is has been a “huge honour to be Scotland’s fourth modern Makar”, stating she “greatly enjoyed the role”.

Ms Jamie said: “I have performed at the opening of Parliament, written poems to commemorate the Cop26 Summit and the life of the late Queen and I have toured libraries from Kirkwall to Coatbridge, tapping into the rich seam of grassroots poetry activities taking place across Scotland.”

She added: “We wrote a national nature poem, a letter to the people of Ukraine, and a letter to world leaders.

“I was happy to be asked to extend this to the prison population and develop a poem on the theme of hope.

“The role of the Makar is vital in engaging a vast audience with poetry.

“Rather than speaking to or for the nation, I am most proud of enabling the nation to speak for itself, and keep poetry at its heart.”