'Hame' is where the heart is for Learning and Teaching Scotland
Entitled ‘Hame’, this unique collection of poems showcases the very best young literary talent Scotland has to offer and was officially unveiled today at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library Theatre by acclaimed Scottish author, Jackie Kay.
The collection is a result of a competition held by LTS earlier this year to raise the profile of Scotland’s literacy culture amongst school pupils. One hundred poems were selected to appear in the Hame anthology out of almost 6,000 entries received from children across the length and breadth of Scotland.
Claire Gilchrist, literacy development officer at Learning and Teaching Scotland, comments: 'The competition called for imaginative poems that expressed the idea of ‘home’ and we were absolutely thrilled with the fantastic response we received.'
'Through Curriculum for Excellence, we want to encourage pupils to explore and learn from the vast range of Scottish literature that is out there and to delve into the country’s rich heritage.'
Renowned author Jackie Kay, who also wrote the foreword for the Hame anthology, says: 'I was struck by the confidence in the poems, the clarity and the candidness. They fill you with optimism about a new Scotland and I’m proud to have been asked to officially unveil this marvellous anthology today.'
The Hame poetry anthology is available to view on the LTS Literacy website. Movie clips of some of the young poets reciting their winning entries will also be featured online at this address and via a link on the Scottish Poetry Library website from September.
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For more information contact:
Kirsten Blackie
Learning and Teaching Scotland
T: 0141 282 5036 M: 07535 657 117
Notes for Editors:
1. Learning and Teaching Scotland is the lead organisation involved in the development and support of the Scottish curriculum and is at the heart of all major developments in Scottish education www.LTScotland.org.uk
2. The LTS Homecoming website also features additional Homecoming resources that can be used with pupils of all ages and an interactive map for schools to showcase what they are doing to celebrate Scotland’s heritage.
3. Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up within a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The collection won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992.
Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and her collection of poetry for children, Red, Cherry Red (2007) won the 2008 CLPE Poetry Award.
Jackie lives in Manchester. In 2006, she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.