Had a fab time with IASSL at the 4th World Congress of Scottish Literature last week, which featured friends, sun, presentations and (a surprising amount of?) geese! Many thanks to Nottingham English for hosting and to all who attended for their kind words and thoughts💡

Thrilled to be in Switzerland for the rest of this summer thanks to the SGSAH engagement fund 🇨🇭Kicking it off by taking a French language course Lettres UNIL (Inactif) for the next 4 weeks ☀️On y va!

#medievaltwitter collectively whoops for Christine de Pizan! Dr Charlotte Cooper-Davis #OpeningCeremony

Wid ye look at that! 🏆 A host ae fantastic nominees fur oor Scots Language Awards! We'll be sharing info on aw the nominees o'er the next while. We git stairted wi these talented writers n braw books for adults an bairns - who's git your vote? 📚 scotslanguageawards.com

While the bureaucracy of French archives continues to confound me (seriously, why is it like this) you do have to admit they know how to choose their settings 🇫🇷📚

It was such an honour to get to help out Scottish Book Trust with judging this year's Young Scots Writer o the Year Award ✒️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 a deserving winner here, but if the quality of this year's entire longlist is anything to go by Scots publishing has a very bright future ahead of it!☀️

I had a great time writing this modern Scots poetry list for Scottish Book Trust a couple of months ago! A lovely share to celebrate #NationalPoetryDay2024 📚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

One of the most shocking opening paragraphs I have ever read about British governance. #Grenfell 🎩 James B London Review of Books

Did you know that as well as bringing joy, knowledge and a sense of community to our lives, libraries also improve our health? The health and wellbeing offer from libraries is estimated to bring a cost saving to NHS Scotland of £3.2 million a year. 📚 #WorldMentalHealthDay

Spent the morning talking about Mary, her relationship with her son and its connections to Europe for the ‘King James and Europe’ workshop at the College des Écossais (albeit online). A shame I couldn’t be in Paris, but at least the Glasgow weather is holding its own 🍂

I hate early modern Halloween, what do you mean you’re a wandering womb

We are now hearing quick rundowns of the SGSAH Blog and SGSAH Research sites from student blogger Ebba Strutzenbladh and Digital Curator Emily Hay Don’t forget to keep your questions coming if you’re joining us via zoom 🖥️ Royal Society of Edinburgh

Why access to libraries and books are a human right for children. scottishbooktrust.com/articles/why-a…

CFP special issue, 'Cultures of Care in Scottish Women's Writing' 💜. Please share widely! 🙏

🌳 The Darnley Sycamore has been inspected by our tree specialist following last week’s devastating storm damage. The tree is in better health than expected. With careful management over the next 3-4 years we are hopeful it will be with us for decades to come 🙌 (1/2)

Had a wonderful time speaking at #RSA2025 this morning alongside Charlie Spragg and Gabriel Lonsberry on our panel “Keeping Up Appearances: Royal Bodies in Jacobean Britain” (even as a Marian interloper!) 👑

The British attitudes towards multilingualism is an embarrassing and outdated colonial artefact. Most countries embrace multilingualism - and a significant number focus on English as a secondary language. If we want to be “global leaders” maybe we should speak like it?

Earlier this month Scottish Lit PhD students held a fantastic PG Symposium on 'New Directions' for the field University of Stirling - many congrats to the organisers and speakers! More pics at the link. UCSL is now recruiting new PG reps, so please do get in touch... ucsl-scotland.com/2025/02/13/202…

Had a lovely time today at Understanding King James VI & I Conference presenting on James’ use of his mother in his English succession 👑 Main takeaway from the day? My aggressive hand gestures whilst presenting…