Sheena Blackhall is a scriever, airtist, traditional sangster an story teller. She is weel kent fir her poetry, scrievin fir bairns, an her canny wey anent the leid an cultur o the Nor East o Scotland.
Her fine wirk ower the years publishin mair nor 150 buiks o poetry as weel as translatin intae the North East Scots tung sic classics o literature as The Winnerfu Warlock o Oz, Jean Eyre, The Fey Case o Dr Jekyll an Mr Hyde, The Gruffalo an John Steinbeck’s O Mice and Men, haes brocht recognition tae her baith at hame, an furth o Scotland athort the warld. Mony o her tales hae been broadcast oan Radio Scotland an twa o her plays hae bin televised.
Born an educatit in Aiberdeen, Sheena qualified as a primary schule dominie. She took a degree in psychology wi the Open University, graduatin in 1995, an gained an M.Litt wi distinction fae Aiberdeen University in 2000. Fae 1998 tae 2003 she wis Creative Scrievin Fellow in Scots at Aiberdeen University’s Elphinstone Institute, an in 2007 she wis Creative Scrievin Tutor at the Institute for Irish an Scottish studies.
Alang wi Research Associate Les Wheeler, she co-edits ‘The Elphinstone Kist’, a Doric wabsite providin a biordinar Scots Leid resource. The twa pittin in years o dedicatit wirk tae gaither thegither a treasure kist o information includin poetry, fiction, drama, sang wirds, lang syne reminiscence, an days-in-the-life o sindrie North-East fowk fae ile-wirker tae hairdresser. Contributors range fae weel kent scrievers tae schule bairns. The ‘E-Kist’ is fir aabody tae yaise an a searchable dounloadable resource.
Forby her mony awards sic as the Robert McLellan tassie fir best Scots short story an the Hugh MacDiarmid trophy fir best Scots poem, Sheena wis makit the Makar fir Aiberdeen an the North East in 2009 an an Honorary Fellow o the WORD Centre fir Creative Scrievin in 2016. She also shared the Sloane Award wi Matthew Fitt fae St. Andrew’s University.
In 2019, Sheena Blackhall’s outstanding contribution to Scottish cultur wis highlighted at an event in Banchory cried “Celebratin’ Sheena”.
In the wirds o the Doric leid, she is a gallus quine.