Lorna J. Waite | |
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Born | 27 August 1964 Kilwinning, Ayrshire |
Died | 12 August 2023 |
Occupation |
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Language | Scots and English |
Nationality | Scottish |
Education | MSc, PhD |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
Lorna J. Waite, PhD (27 August 1964 - 12 August 2023), was a Scottish academic, community activist and poet who, like Robert Burns, also from Ayrshire, wrote in both English and Scots.[1] She had an awareness of social justice from her childhood and wrote poetry about the impact of the closure of heavy industry on communities in the West of Scotland. Waite researched post-industrial folk memory in a Wingate scholarship (2002) and as her PhD thesis, and in a children's novel.[1]
She was awarded a New Writer's Bursary by the Scottish Arts Council and a writer in residence placement at Hugh MacDiarmid's cottage at Brownsbank in the Scottish Borders (2011). Waite was a Jessie Kesson Fellow at Moniack Mhor (2012). Waite wrote about the Scots' love of football and about Gaelic culture, and was also an art critic involved with a number of publications including the radical magazine, Variant [2] and participated in a wide range of art events[3] in collaboration with artists and writers and local communities.[4]