Arcadia Scotland was delighted to welcome Kathleen Jamie, Scottish poet and author, to the Arcadia Edinburgh Center for an event and reception for the Arcadia Scotland students studying in Scotland. This was perhaps of special interest to our students taking the Arcadia taught travel writing course to learn about the power of place in non-fiction writing. Kathleen gave a number of readings from Sightlines and some of her other work, the book we selected for the semester, and discussed her writing in conversation with myself with the help of some wonderful questions from the students. 

The chance to meet one of the national poets of Scotland (we call them Makars) was wonderful and to hear both Kathleen’s readings and reflections on her writing was absolutely incredible.  Instead of trying to describe some of the insights about how an author captures that interface between our consciousness and the world, best to hear from Kathleen herself - see the talk below: