Gaelic writer TORCUIL MacRATH is the subject of a profile by Peter Urpeth this month. This essay on the American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau first appeared in the Gaelic literary journel Gairm, and is reprinted with the author’s permission.

TORCUIL MacRATH of Grimshader celebrates his 80th birthday this year. He remains one of Gaeldom’s most original poets and scholars yet his work is little known outside of Lewis and among the readership of the now silent Gaelic literary journal, Gairm. PETER URPETH met the Bard in his Grimshader home on the Isle of Lewis.

Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir reports on the work of the Gaelic Storytelling project

JOHN BURNS is a poet and loves poetry, but he’s not happy about the state of the art.