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Shetland literature

Note: at present the content of this page is restricted to writers who have published their work in book or pamphlet form. There were and are many others contributing to local - and in some cases national - magazines and anthologies. I hope to be able to include at least some of these in later versions.

Some of the works listed are written wholly or partly in Shetland dialect. For more information about the dialect, go to the website maintained by John Magnus Tait.
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Basil Ramsay Anderson 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 James Stout Angus 

1830 - .

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Rhoda Bulter 

1930 - 1994. Prolific and popular writer of poems in the Shetland dialect. She recorded some of her poems on the cassette tape My Kinda Fül (London: Schulze Maclaren. SM111).

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 J. J. Haldane Burgess 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 John J. Graham 

1921- . In addition to his own writing, John has collaborated with T. A. Robertson to produce numerous works on Shetland's language, literature and folklore. From 1956 to 1998 he and his brother Laurence Graham edited the quarterly magazine The New Shetlander, publishing the early work of many of the other writers listed here.

Bibliography: With Laurence I. Graham: With T. A. Robertson: see the list under Robertson, below.

Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Laurence I. Graham 

1924- .

Bibliography: With John J. Graham: see above.

Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Robert Alan Jamieson 

Best-known of the younger Shetland writers, and one of the few to have tackled the novel as well as poetry. For more information, go to Jamieson's own site.

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Laureen Johnson 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Christine de Luca 

For more information see the author's own site.

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Jim Mainland 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 William Moffatt 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 John (Jack) Peterson 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Paul J. Ritch 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 T. A. Robertson (Vagaland) 

1909 - 1973. Taught English at Lerwick Central School 1937-1970, member of the Editorial Committee of The New Shetlander from 1956 (and a prolific contributor to the magazine), and Secretary of the Shetland Folk Society.

Bibliography: With John J. Graham:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Stella Sutherland 

1924 -. Writes mainly poetry, in both English and Shetland dialect. She has recorded some of her poems on the cassette tape Driftwood Chair (Peeriewise Publications).

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 Christian S. Tait 

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait

 William J. Tait 

1918 - 1982. Poet who wrote in Scots and English as well as Shetland dialect, publishing in a wide range of magazines and anthologies before the appearance of his only collection of verse.

Bibliography:
Anderson   Angus   Bulter   Burgess   Graham   Jamieson   Johnson
de Luca   Mainland   Moffatt   Peterson   Ritch   Robertson   Sutherland   Tait



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This page last amended 2nd May 2004.
Links are checked regularly, but if you find a problem, please email linda.sutherland@zetnet.co.uk