Moniaive Writers: The Artist’s Tale

We are delighted to introduce The Artist’s Tale which focuses on a book of images by much loved artist and print maker Silvana McLean alongside poems by Moniaive poets. Silvana lived and worked in Moniaive, near Thornhill in south-west Scotland until she died in 2018 leaving a remarkable body of work, latterly inspired by visits to the Western Isles and residencies in Shetland and Iceland. She said she ‘aspired to paint the way a poet writes’ so it was a small step for Moniaive poets to respond to her multilayered, fluid and meditative work, tapping into Norse and Icelandic tales alongside elements of Silvana’s artistic process.  Annie Wright and Peter Roberts, two poets whose work appears in the book, read a selection of poems from The Artist’s Tale with Silvana’s accompanying images. The book was published by The Lit Room Press in 2019 which extends grateful thanks to Silvana’s husband Alastair for permission to use her pictures.