Iona Lee

I am a writer, artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. I’ve been a prominent member of Scotland's live poetry scene for ten years, appearing on radio and television, and reading my work at venues and festivals all over the UK and Europe. My writing has also been published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies. My highly anticipated debut poetry collection, Anamnesis (Polygon, 2023), was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and appeared on SNACK Magazine's list of the top ten books to be published in Scotland in 2023. 

I have a BA in illustration from the Glasgow School of Art, and an MFA in Art & Humanities from DJCAD, where I specialised in philosophy. I have lead both poetry and illustration workshops, with the likes of the Scottish Poetry Library, Toonspeak, and Hermat Gryff Woman’s Aid.

While I consider myself a poet first and foremost, poetry is not simply literature. It’s also visual and musical. I often collaborate with musicians, and am the front woman of the band Acolyte, which fuses poetry and spoken-word with live music and theatre. I won the John Byrne Award for a film poem, 'Away With the Fairies', a retelling of the Tam Lin myth.

(Photo credit: Trackie McLeod)