Liz Lochead is a Scottish poet and dramatist from Newarthill in North Lanarkshire. She studies at Glasgow School of Art and then lectures in fine art for eight years before becoming a professional writer.

Writing and theatre

In the early 1970s, Lochhead joins Philip Hobsbaum’s writers’ group alongside Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and Tom Leonard. Her stage work includes Blood and Ice, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1987), Perfect Days (2000) and a Scots adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe (1985). She also adapts the medieval texts of the York Mystery Plays, which are performed by a largely amateur cast at York Theatre Royal in 1992 and 1996.

Radio work

Lochhead writes for BBC Radio 4, including Blood and Ice, The Perfect Days, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off and The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: Mortal Memories.

Poetry

Her poetry is noted for vigorous speech idioms. Collections include Memo For Spring (1972), Dreaming Frankenstein: and Collected Poems (1984), True Confessions and New Clichés (1985) and Bagpipe Muzak (1991).

Awards and honours

Her adaptation of Euripides’ Medea wins the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2001. In January 2011, she is named the second Scots Makar, or national poet, succeeding Edwin Morgan.

Collaborations

She collaborates with Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra.