Mark Thomson
Home address:
20 Duthie Street, Kirriemuir, Angus, DD8 5DJ, ScotlandMobile:
07984 088132Website:
www.markthomsonpoet.co.ukBRAW network:
noLL funded:
yesPublisher:
Luath PressBiography:
I was born and bred in Dundee and grew up during the 70’s and 80’s on one of the many housing schemes built on the periphery of the city. I left school with no qualifications and went straight into a factory job. I moved from factory to factory finally ending up on a building site as a labourer. For one reason or another one day I jacked it all in, and started writing. It was the best thing I ever did.
I am a now a creative writing and poetry teacher and have worked nationally across Scotland, whilst the age range of my students varies, they are often vulnerable children or young adults at risk of exclusion from society. I encourage people to place themselves at the centre of their own learning and take inspiration from their own experiences. I am passionate about the Scots language and my own Dundonian dialect and use this to demonstrate to others how to find, use and be proud of their own thoughts, words and identity.
I have worked with community and national projects and been involved in television and radio shows as well as continuing with live performances.
About writer's work:
My work centres around what I know, my own experiences, growing up in a city in places now described as areas of deprivation. I look at School experiences where I was constantly criticized for talking in dialect as well as being left handed. My poems reflect what it was like, leaving school at 16 with no qualifications and the narrow aspirations that come from being part of a strong but restrictive working class culture that did not accept anything other than working 8 to 4.30 and going to the pub in an evening. Subject matters of drugs and alcohol are a common theme as are Family, friends, home and Scotland. I often find myself returning to these themes, whether it’s comfortable to explore or not.
I always write poetry but am also currently working on a novel based around the demolition of the multi-stories houses in Dundee. I am also working on a children’s book. Both of these books are written in dialect.
Language:
ScotsAge groups:
9-12, Teens, AdultsBooks written
A Debut collection celebrating all things Dundonian, its people, its mills, its schemes, but above all its dialect. Demonstrating the flexibility of his native language in dealing with subjects ...
From Robert the Bruce to Alex Ferguson, find out what happens when Scotland's most famous figures overrun the present day. Picking up from where they left off, will these vividly drawn characters ...
