Sheena Blackhall

Sheena Blackhall is a writer, illustrator, traditional ballad singer and storyteller in North East Scotland. From 1998-2003 she was Creative Writing Fellow in Scots at the Elphinstone Institute. She has published four Scots novellas, 15 story collections and over 130 poetry collections, and has translated The Wizard of Oz, Jane Eyre, Of Mice & Men, Mr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Gruffalo, and The Gruffalo's Child into Doric.

She became Makar for Aberdeen and the North East (2009), and an Honorary Fellow of the WORD Centre for Creative Writing (2016). She won the Robert McLellan tassie for best Scots short story and the Hugh MacDiarmid trophy for best Scots poem multiple times. She also shared the Sloane Award with Matthew Fitt from St. Andrew's University.

Other prizes include awards from the Doric Festival, the Bennachie Baillies, and TMSA for ballad writing and traditional singing. She has twice been shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Poetry Pamphlet prize. In 2007, Lallans Magazine awarded her the William Gilchrist Graham prize for best Scots short story. She has also been shortlisted for the McCash poetry prize, and has won best Scots Poem at Wigtown. Her short story The Wall was the winning entry in Bipolar Scotland's 2013 competition, featuring in the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.