Ms Sheena Blackhall

Biography

Sheena Blackhall BSc (Hons, Psych), Dip.Ed, M.Litt (Distinction), is a Scots writer, illustrator, and traditional ballad singer/songwriter. She is also a registered storyteller. From 1998-2003 she was Creative Writing Fellow in Scots at Aberdeen University's Elphinstone Institute. To date she has published three Scots novellas, 'Minnie',' Loon', and 'the Quarry'. With Les Wheeler she co-edits The Elphinstone Kist, www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist, a Doric website with feely downloadable resources designed for use across the North East community and its Diaspora beyond.

Her awards include the Robert McLellan prize for Scots short stories, the Hugh MacDiarmid prize for Scots poetry and the Sloane Award from St Andrew's University shared with Matthew Fitt. Blackhall has published 10 short story collections and over 50 poetry volumes, and was short listed in 2005 for the Callum MacDonald poetry pamphlet award. Currently, she is working on a 3 volume cd collection of her poems and songs. A full list of her publications can be found on www.screivins.blogspot.com.

Many of her stories have been broadcast on Radio Scotland; two of her plays have been televised. Recent commissions include writing a film commentary and a cantata.

In 2003, while working at the Elphinstone Institute, she represented Scotland as a guest of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington as a storyteller and singer. A Buddhist, her interests are photomontage, psychology, surrealism, and ballads. Recently, she has been a guest writer working at Aberdeen University's Institute for Irish and Scottish studies. Blackhall has travelled extensively in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Egypt researching material for poems. In 2007 she flies to China to work on her next poetry collection.