CCA: Liz Lochhead Masterclass, 19 January, 2016
Scottish Writers’ Centre
In Process Masterclass with Scots Makar Liz Lochhead
CANCELLED
Tue 19 January 2016
CCA
7pm, £6 (£3 concessions) + £1 booking fee, Free to SWC members, Clubroom
Ages 18+
Book Online / 0141 352 4900
Liz Lochhead was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire in 1947. She wrote her first poem, ‘The Visit’, after she entered the Glasgow School of Art in 1965 and attended an informal creative writing group run by Stephen Mulrine. In 1971 Liz won a Radio Scotland poetry competition, in 1972 she read with Norman MacCaig at a poetry festival in Edinburgh, and her first collection, Memo for Spring was published. She met Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and Tom Leonard in this period and later Tom McGrath and Alan Spence; in this group of talented young Scottish writers, she stands out as a rare female presence and this has been enabling and inspiring for the generations that followed.
The female voices she has deployed in her monologues and her many poems undoubtedly draw on a Scottish oral tradition that nods back to the ballads, is subverted by the music-hall and takes pleasure in a distinctive West of Scotland tradition of storytelling and humour. She has been instrumental in making space for women, and has spoken of the difficulty for female poets. Her voice though is not always that of a woman, or always that of a Scot. Following her friend Edwin Morgan first as Poet Laureate of Glasgow (2005) and as Scots Makar, she does not want to be confined by either her gender or her nationality.
The radio as much as the theatre has been an impetus to creation for Liz and it is her ability to speak with conversational intimacy within a public space that is one of the hallmarks of her work.
Centre for Contemporary Arts
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow G2 3JD
This section: Books, Talks, Poetry and Creative Writing Events, What's On Glasgow West End: cinema, clubs, theatre, music, events, festivals, community and more
Related Pages
- Children’s Walk for Gaza, Glasgow Green
- Take 2: Hotel Transylvania at GFT
- Steal This Story Please at GFT
- Wee Jock and the Beanstalk
- Fjord at GFT
- The Debut at GFT
- Black History Month 2026 at GFT
- NAZA at GFT
- Through the Word, Through the House Cafe, Poetry and Music
- To Absent Friends – Special Evening of Poetry
- Golden Friendships – Children’s Halloween Party
- Hallowe’en Market Glasgow
- Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2026
- Open Casting Workshop, A Play, A Pie and A Pint
- Hallowe’en at GFT, 2026
- The Jackie Marno-McGoldrick Art Prize and Exhibition 2026
- Scotland Loves Anime at GFT November 2026
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Citizens Theatre
- The Littlest Yak – Paisley Arts Centre
- Scotland’s first Stained Glass museum to be opened in lasting tribute to the works of Alf Webster

Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.