Peter Mackay was appointed Scotland’s Makar in 2024.
He is a Senior Lecturer in Literature in the School of English at the University of St Andrews, and an expert in Scottish Gaelic literature.
Peter’s books include two monographs, This Strange Loneliness: Heaney’s Wordsworth (McGill-Queen’s 2021) and Sorley Maclean (RIISS 2010). An anthology he edited with Iain S MacPherson, An Leabhar Liath: 500 years of Gaelic Love and Transgressive Verse (Luath 2015) won the Donald Meek Prize for Gaelic literature and the Saltire Scottish Research Book of the Year; another anthology co-edited with Jo MacDonald, 100 Dàn as Fheàrr Leinn / 100 Favourite Gaelic Poems won the Duais Ruaraidh MhicThòmais in 2021.
His poetry collections Gu Leòr / Galore (Acair 2015) and Nàdur de / Some Kind of (Acair 2020) were shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year; Nàdur de was also longlisted for the Highland Book Prize.
An AHRC / BBC Next Generation Thinker, Peter is a frequent broadcaster on Radio 3 and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal.
