Christine De Luca lives in Edinburgh and writes in English and Shetlandic, her ever-threatened mother tongue. Her work is wide-ranging and her enthusiasm for words and language never dims.
Over the years she has particularly enjoyed collaborating with both musicians and visual artists: musicians such as the traditional fiddler Catriona Macdonald (a fellow Shetlander) and with Tommy Smith, jazz saxophonist and leader of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Tales of the Tribe - Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (snjo.co.uk). You’ll hear a snippet or two of our own Kalevala in Shetlandic.
Her most recent completed collaboration with a visual artist is with Victoria Crowe. The exhibition, film and book Another, Time Another Place was produced during covid lockdown. https://scottish-gallery.co.uk/exhibitions/another-time-another-place This followed a major Crowe retrospective in the City Art Centre, Edinburgh in 2019. She is currently collaborating with the artist Brigid Collins https://brigidcollinsart.com/
At Finnbrit, in Tampereen lyseo on 16.3 at 18:00 she will introduce you to poems from her latest collection Veeve – some in English, some in Shetlandic, and will read a selection of poems she wrote in response to paintings by Victoria Crowe. We hope to be able to make this a visual as well as an aural event! The poems have since been set to music and recorded.
The light, landscape and the natural world have always been sources of inspiration and contemplation for the artist and the poet. In Victoria Crowe´s paintings trees are at the centre and during convalescence and isolation in lockdown she paints the trees from her window: they are real but ethereal. We are reminded of the fragility of things and of our ecologically-threatened future; but there are also hints of hope and we are encouraged to seek the mystery and wonder in our most familiar surroundings.
© Veronicka Rocks
Brief biography
Christine De Luca writes in English and Shetlandic, her mother tongue. She was appointed Edinburgh's Makar for 2014-2017. She has had eight poetry collections published, the most recent of which, Veeve (2021), is currently longlisted for The Highland Book Prize. Previously, Dat Trickster Sun, (2014), also from Mariscat, Edinburgh, was shortlisted for the UK-wide Michael Marks Award. She also has five bi-lingual volumes published (French, Italian, Icelandic, Norwegian and English) and a tri-lingual pamphlet of poems of Eugénio de Andrade (Portuguese, English and Shetlandic). As well as in the UK, she has taken part in book festivals in many parts of Europe and also in Canada.
Christine enjoys collaborating with musicians – most recently with jazz composer Tommy Smith – and artists, most recently Victoria Crowe.
Besides that she has also written stories for children and a second novel will be published later this year by Luath Press. She is a member of Shore Poets, Edinburgh.