.jpg)
Marcas Mac an Tuairneir (Mark Spencer Turner) has been a force on the Gaelic and wider-Scottish literary scene for over a decade. He holds and MA Hons in Gaelic and Hispanic Studies and an MLitt in Irish and Scottish Literature from the University of Aberdeen, as well as postgraduate MA in Television Fiction Writing from Glasgow Caledonian University. A multi-lingual writer he works in Scottish Gaelic, English, Irish and Polari. He began his literary career with poems first published in Cabhsair / Causeway, going on to see work in New Writing Scotland, Irish Pages, Poetry Scotland, Gutter, and many others. In 2013 he published his first collection, Deò, with Grace Note Publications, and since then has seen further three collections in print, as well as a co-authored pamphlet. His third collection Dùileach (Evertype) was shortlisted for the Derick Thomson prize in 2022. His fourth, Polaris (Leamington Books) was shortlisted for the same prize and for the Saltire Society’s Scottish Poetry Book of the Year award in the same year, as well as The Derick Thomson Prize and a Saboteur Award in 2023. After two sell-out print runs, an expanded edition of Polaris is expected in 2025 with up to fifty new poems. His poetry has been translated into Bangla, Catalan, Cornish, French, Irish, Japanese, Ladino, Occitan, Polish, Scots, Scots-Yiddish, Spanish and Welsh.
Mac an Tuairneir has been nominated four times for a National Gaelic Award for his contributions to Gaelic Arts and Education, and his lifelong contribution to Gaelic Arts and Culture was recognised with this award in 2023. Shortlisted for the Wigtown Gaelic Poetry Award seven times, he was named the winner in 2017 with ‘Òran na Cille’, which went on to form the basis a ColmCille 1500-funded multi-artform project, including poetry, translation, music, and film, linking Gaelic-speaking communities in Scotland, Ireland, and Man, on 2021. More recently, Mac an Tuairneir was the first ever poet to feature on both Gaelic and International Wigtown shortlists with separate poems in 2024, and the first co-winner of the International Prize, alongside Magi Gibson, in the same year. He has also received accolades from The William Blake Society, the Association of Scottish Writers, The Federation of Writers (Scotland), The Baker Prize, and the Highland Literary Salon. His filmpoem ‘An Leabhar II’ was the first and only of its form to be included in the Scottish Poetry Library’s ‘Best Scottish Poems’ in 2021. Mac an Tuairneir was awarded the Lewis and Harris Association Gold Medal for Poetry at the 2023 Royal National Mòd in Paisley.
Through the 2020s, Mac an Tuairneir has developed a reputation as one of Scotland's finest Gaelic-English translators. A volume of translations of poetry into Gaelic, Cruinneachadh, was published by Drunk Muse Press in 2023. He was also the Scottish Gaelic Translator for Anton Floyd's 'Depositions' in a new Celtic Languages and Scots edition from Glóir (2024). His work has been anthologised widely, most notably in ‘An Leabhar Liath’ and ‘Aiblins’ (Luath Press), 'Out There' (Freight Books) and ‘An Ubhal As Àirde (Francis Boutle). Most recently, Mac an Tuairneir has engaged with children's literature, translating two of Lawrence Schimel's Rainbow Books into Gaelic - the first LGBTQ childrens' books to appear in the language. 'Madainn Mhath! / Oidhche Mhath!' is available now from Tippermuir Books. He is the editor of 'Sradagan san Iarmailt', a comprehensive anthology of poetry by Gaelic writers who have established themselves on the literary scene since 2000, forthcoming from Francis Boutle Publishers.
The Gaelic Editor of The Poets’ Republic / Poblachd nam Bàrd from its second until its eleventh issue, having nurtured and mentored a host of emergent Gaelic poets in the role, since 2020, Mac an Tuairneir has been the Gaelic Editor of Northwords Now. From 2021 until 2023, he was Chair of the Federation of Writers (Scotland), and has sat on the Executive Board of the Saltire Society and the Board of the Scottish Writers (Centre). He was formerly a board member, and then Gaelic Service Development Officer, at the Scottish Poetry Library. He was the Federation of Writers (Scotland) Makar in 2024, and is currently poet-in-residence at The Balmoral, a Rocco Forte Hotel in Edinburgh.
A Mòd Gold Medal Finalist in 2016 and 2021, Mac an Tuairneir was also a Traditional Gold Medal Finalist in 2019. He has also pioneered the GaelPop genre in Scotland, creating radio-friendly music in the Gaelic language, which speaks to contemporary experience, alongside a host of songwriting and production collaborators. His Creative Scotland-funded début album Speactram established him as a feature of the international music scene, with contemporary Gaelic songwriting referencing the tradition and the bangers of the eighties and nineties, produced by Nick Turner, Adam Holmes, Gary Keane and Rod Thomas (Bright Light Bright Light). His songs have been lauded at consecutive Royal National Mòds and have featured on albums by the likes of Mary Ann Kennedy and Rachel Walker, with whom he regularly collaborates. He was shortlisted for the Gaelic Singer of the Year Award, at the 2022 Scots Trad Music Awards.
Mac an Tuairneir was the recipient of the New Gaelic Playwright Awards from Playwright Studio Scotland and The Gaelic Books Council in 2016 and, under the mentorship of Alison Lang, went on to develop his first full-length play script Turadh. This script went on to win the Stornoway Gazette Trophy for a new Gaelic play at the Royal National Mòd, the second time Mac an Tuairneir had been the recipient of the award. Mac an Tuairneir’s theatrical début was in 2011, as a co-writer of ‘Take Me If You Need Me’, staged at Òran Mòr as part of the Pay, Pie and a Pint productions. His directorial début came in 2016 with Diuchdadh, a multi-artform, Gaelic-medium production showcasing traditional and contemporary music, visual art and his short verse-play of the same name – a two-hander, performed by Aonghas MacLeòid and Catrìona NicNeacail. Mac an Tuairneir’s other award-winning play is Tilleadh, written in la ronde structure and set during the First World War, which is yet to be staged, but was also the winner of the Stornoway Gazette Trophy at the Royal National Mòd.