| Poet Chrissie Gittins is touring schools in the Highlands between 31 August and 14 September 2005.
Poet, playwright and short story writer Chrissie Gittins will be visiting nine isolated rural primary schools and one secondary school along the western seaboard of the Highlands from Durness to Skye between 31 August and 14 September 2005. She will be spending a day at each school, giving poetry readings and workshops. In the primary schools she will be working with every child (which ranges from 9 children at Torridon to 85 children at Kyle), and at Portree High School she will be working with a selection of classes. She will also be giving two adult poetry readings – one at Lochcarron Library and another – which will be the final event of the tour – at the An Tuireann Arts Centre on Skye.
The project is funded by the Highland Council, the schools themselves and the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL).
Chrissie Gittins' children's poetry collection Now
You See Me, Now You… (Rabbit Hole Publications)
was shortlisted for the 2003 CLPE (Centre for Literacy
in Primary Education) Poetry Award and contains two
poems which won Belmont Poetry Prizes. Her adult collection
Armature (Arc Publications) was called "one
of the more striking debuts of 2003," by Jane Yeh
in Poetry Review. She has appeared at the Northern Children's
Book Festival, at the Royal Festival Hall and at Poets
House, New York. She is part of the Poetry Society's
poetryclass training team for teachers and has worked
with children and young people for the Arvon Foundation,
Tate Britain, the Refugee Council, Southwark Council
and Croydon Libraries. In 1999 she visited eleven primary
and secondary schools in and around Inverness, courtesy
of The Highland Council after appearing at the Edinburgh
Festival; in 2003 she visited four primary schools in
and around Inverness in tandem with appearing at the
Highland Festival.
Tour dates
Wed 31st August,
Durness Primary School, Sutherland.
Thurs 1st September, Scourie and Achfary Primary Schools,
Sutherland.
Fri 2nd September, Achiltibuie Primary School, Wester
Ross.
Mon 5th September, Scoraig Primary School, Wester Ross.
Tues 6th September, Poolewe Primary School, Wester Ross.
Wed 7th September, Torridon Primary School, Wester Ross.
Thurs 8th September, Applecross Primary School, Wester
Ross.
Mon 12th September, Kyle Primary School, Lochalsh.
Tues 13th September, Kyleakin Primary School, Skye.
Wed 14th September, Portree High School, Skye.
9th September
Reading for adults at Lochcarron Library, Howard Doris
Centre, Lochcarron, Wester Ross, 7.30 p.m. Tel: 01520
722 679. Free.
14th September
Reading for adults at An Tuireann Arts Centre, Struan
Road, Portree, Isle of Sky, 7.30 p.m. Tel:01478 613
306. £6
The poem below, which she wrote while she was staying
in Assynt last autumn, was published by Macmillan this
summer in Works 4, edited by Gaby Morgan and
Pie Corbett. Macmillan have donated a copy of Works
4 to each school she is visiting as part of this
project.
Figure
When I arrived Suilven
wore a scarf of cloud
across her shoulder.
Next day, pouting at Canisp,
a chestnut beret at half cock.
Her skirts were low
with mist on Thursday.
Today, her shape,
with sun, is kissed.
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