I am a writer, editor and teacher. My debut poetry collection, Given to the River, is published by Drunk Muse Press. Born in Dundee and brought up in Fife, I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University and an MA in Fine Art from the University of Edinburgh. I am an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institue of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

I write in English and Scots. My poetry has been published in Causeway/Cabhsair, Edinburgh Review, Eemis Stane, Frogmore Papers, Gutter, The Herald, Irish Pages, ISLE, Lallans, The Oxford Magazine, Poetry Scotland, The Scores, The Scotsman, The Spectator, SOUTH, and Painted, spoken; and in the anthologies Best New British and Irish Poets 2019–2021 (Black Spring Press), A Year of Scottish Poems (Macmillan), Be the First to Like This (Vagabond Voices), Double Bill (Red Squirrel Press) and Whaleback City (Dundee University Press). I was the winner of the Wigtown Scots Prize in the 2019 Wigtown Poetry Prize, a 2020 winner of the Scots Language Society’s Sangschaw competition, and a runner-up in the 2022 University of Edinburgh Sloan Prize for writing in Scots.

An experienced teacher of creative writing, academic writing and English literature, I am currently an honorary lecturer at the University of St Andrews. I have previously worked as a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh and as a lecturer at Texas State University. I have also tutored for the Scottish Universities International Summer School. A former editor of FORUM: The University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, I have also served on the editorial team at Texas Books in Review and Southwestern American Literature. As editor of Perjink Press, I was awarded (and twice shortlisted for) the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for publishing. I am also an Associate Lead Reader for the community project Open Book.

For the Scots Language Society’s Scotsoun label, I have recorded readings of my own poetry for the CD Auld Leids New Vyces. I have also recorded poetry by Marion Angus and Tam Hubbard, John Law’s translations of Neruda, and various Dundonian poets. I continue to take an active interest in art and design, as well as in traditional music and spoken word. I perform with – and sometimes play the Northumbrian smallpipes for – Mons Meg Rapper, Edinburgh’s rapper sword dance team. You can follow me on Bluesky @dorothylawrenson.