Christine De Luca is a Shetlander, living in Edinburgh. She writes both in English and Shetlandic, her mother tongue. The Shetland Library published three poetry collections: Voes & Sounds in 1994, Wast Wi Da Valkyries in 1997 and Plain Song in 2002. The first two won the Shetland Literary Prize, since discontinued. More recently (2004), Hansel Cooperative Press has published a sequence of poems, ‘Drops in Time’s Ocean’. Luath Press has published her fourth collection, Parallel Worlds (2005).

Many of her poems appear in anthologies including Modern Scottish Women Poets (Canongate, 2003), The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2005) as well as A Shetland Anthology (Shetland Publishing Company, 1998). She has had fruitful collaborations across the arts and has been an active member of Shore Poets in Edinburgh for many years.

She enjoys translating other poets into Shetlandic, and some of her poems have been translated into Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Austrian German and Welsh.

Currently she is working on children's storybooks and CDs in Shetlandic.

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Related links

› www.christinedeluca.co.uk

› Christine De Luca in Nordic-Celtic Connections

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Books I love

An old favourite
'I would never have started writing poetry had it not been for Norman MacCaig. His Collected Poems is well thumbed.
"Not an ounce excessive, not an inch too little…"'

A new favourite
'I only discovered Michael Longley's poems relatively recently. I dip into Snow Water frequently.'

A current interest

'A current obsession is the future of Shetlandic - hence my involvement in producing storybooks and CDs in Shetlandic for children. The future vitality of minority tongues is a cause for some concern.'

Christine De Luca, May 2005

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Featured poem

Existential paraglidin in Turkey

Tinkin on da haert’s topography
- heichts wir climmed, jimpit aff a,
aa but miracklin wirsels,
brinks o banks wir teetered apön –
wir blyde da day we hae na da pooster
fur paraglidin. Da aeriel photos
takk wir braeth awa, shaa
da hale pictir. Aert-fast, wir laerned
da bird’s-eye view da herd wye,
bit bi bit, graftin a life tagidder,
backwirds, makkin hit fit.

tinkin on: thinking about; heichts: heights; wir: we have, we are, our; climmed: climbed; jimpit: jumped; aff a: off: miracklin: severely injuring; wirsels: ourselves; banks: cliffs; apön: on; blyde: glad; da day: today; hae: have; na: not; pooster: vigour; takk: take; awa: away; shaa: show; hale: whole; aert-fast: firmly fixed in earth; herd: hard; wye: way; tagidder: together; makkin: making

Christine De Luca © 2005