Sangschaw open for entries

Our annual writing competition, the Sangschaw, is open for entries until the 31st of January. See our Sangschaw announcement for details.

News

About us

The Scots Language Society was founded in 1972 with a single mission: to promote the Scots language and literature by publishing the only magazine dedicated to new Scots writing.

Over five decades later, that remains our mission. Besides Lallans, we run an annual Scots-language writing competition, the Sangschaw, and we have also published a unique collection of Scots-language recordings in our Scotsoun series of CDs.

Furthermore, we have annual Conferences, where we gather together our members and hear talks on Scots-language culture and hear Sangschaw winners reading their own work.

Meet the Committee

• Rab Wilson President

  Rab Wilson is a poet who scrieves predominantly in the Scots language. He was born and remains in New Cumnock, East Ayrshire. He is also a playwright, newspaper columnist and commentator on the Scots language.

• Alan Millar Lallans Editor

• Joe Carstairs Secretary, Webmaster

  Joe has been in the Society since 2019. He is a Scots language learner and believes passionately that the Scots language belongs to everyone. He is from Perth but now lives in Edinburgh, where he lived since 2018.

• Tony Beekman Treasurer

  By day, Tony puts in a shift as the Community Learning and Development Worker for a central Scottish council. He is also a trade union shop steward. Tony is a lifelong learner of philosophy and likes to reflect on it in the pub over a pint or a dram. This helps him to write short stories which he is chuffed to see in Lallans occasionally.

• Derrick McClure Honorary President

  Derrick is a retired academic with a record of scholarly publication in the Scots language field. He served as Preses of the SLS for several years, and as Chairman of the Forum for Research in the Languages of Scotland and Ulster. Much of his recent work has consisted of literary translations into Scots, several of which have been published in Lallans.

• Elaine Morton Ordinary Member

  Elaine is a past editor of Lallans and remains on the Committee to oversee the Sangschaw competition. Edinburgh is home and she has been with the Society since 1998. She would be pleased to see more women on the Committee, so, girls, don’t be shy to come forward!

• Tracy Harvey Ordinary Member

• Andy Matthews Ordinary Member

  Born, brought up and schooled in Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath. Worked as a Veterinary Surgeon for equine and ‘out of hours’ farm animals, in clinical practice and in academia, based mainly in Ayrshire, until retiring to Angus. Retirin’ lat him rekennle a lifelang interaist in Scots Leid an Leeterature, tae the stent o pittin pen tae paper, an haein an auld cowan’s ettle at the screivin o’t.

Public­ations

We are one of the leading publishers of new Scots literature. Our most important publications are Lallans and Scotsoun.