Valerie Gillies

Valerie Gillies was born in Canada but grew up in Scotland. She studied at Edinburgh University and was also a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Mysore in India. Her poetry reflects her many interests, including Scottish history and identity and the environment. She is influenced by Scottish traditions and writes ballads, reels and songs. Her first collection was Each Bright Eye (Canongate, 1977) and her most recent The Cream of the Well: New and Selected Poems (Edinburgh: Luath, 2015).