Ann Mackinnon writes poetry in both Scots and English, and is widely published in magazines and anthologies. In 2014 she received a New Scottish Writers’ Award for writing in Scots which enabled her to complete a pamphlet, Nae Flooers, published by Tapsalteerie and shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. In 2022, she featured in the anthology Modren Makars: Yin, also published by Tapsalteerie. She has been placed in the McCash Poetry Competition twice, was joint-winner in 2019 and was nominated for the Writer of the Year in the Scots Language Awards in 2022.

 

The poems in this collection were mainly written during lockdown. Ann started to read The Great Tapestry of Scotland: The Making of a Masterpiece by Susan Mansfield and Alistair Moffat (Birlinn, 2013) and became fascinated by the story of its production. She liked the fact that there were so many women involved in the making of the Tapestry and the forgotten women of history were represented in the panels themselves so her poems tell the women’s stories. Each week Ann took a different panel and wrote a poem about it, using her own slant on the stories depicted in the tapestry.

 

‘Ann has fulfilled her clever idea of memorialising The Great Tapestry of Scotland, and at the same time showing us in her beautiful, vivid and often moving poems, both in Scots and English, how the panels awakened in her both emotional and personal memories.’

 

—Catriona Malan

 

‘The Great Tapestry of Scotland is a ambitious celebration o millions o years o life an love an loss in da paert o da wirld we caa Scotland. In Warp and Weft, Ann Mackinnon answers dat ambition, wi poyims at rax aa da wye fae duo helical DNA tae da very makkin o da stons at shø makks ta sing sae sweetly across as da livin leids o da laund.’

 

—Christie Williamson

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