Lorna Callery-Sithole

Lorna Callery-Sithole is an award-winning, working-class, poet, spoken-word artist, and Slam Champion from Pollok who was mentored by Tom Leonard during her MPhil in Creative Writing for which she earned a distinction. Her work has appeared in Magma, Glasgow Review of Books, New Writing Scotland, Best Scottish Poems, and Causeway/Cabhsair. Her collections include: 'Pigeon with Warburtons' (Speculative Books, 2019), 'Colour Theory' (Hybrid Dreich, 2022), and 'Facing Our Past: Shining the Light' (National Trust for Scotland, 2022). Her poem ‘pigeon with Warburtons’ was selected as one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Best Scottish Poems 2012, and her poem ‘LOST SOUNDSCAPES 2020’ was included in Magma: Poems for Schools, which was sent to the four Governments of the United Kingdom as recommended texts for schools across the country. She is co-founder of ‘Versaye!’ spoken word cabaret promoting emerging talent alongside established writers. She was Reader in Residence at HMYOI Polmont from 2008-11, which led to her working in prisons for ten years, and was Poet in Residence for the National Trust for Scotland in 2022, tasked with exploring the links between the Stirling Maxwells and enslavement in the Caribbean. She is currently Spoken Word Editor for the Glasgow Review of Books.