{{Short description|Scottish poet and playwright}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} '''Stewart Conn''' (born 1936) is a Scottish poet and playwright, born in Hillhead, Glasgow.<ref name=Galaxy>''Galaxy 2'' Maryhill Writers Group (2004) {{ISBN|978-1-873586-18-1}}</ref> His father was a minister at Kelvinside Church but the family moved to Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in 1941 when he was five.<ref name=Galaxy/><ref>{{cite web|title=Poetry > Poets > Stewart Conn |publisher=Scottish Poetry Library | url=https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/stewart-conn/ |accessdate =2 September 2020}}</ref> During the 1960s and 1970s, he worked for the BBC at their offices off Queen Margaret Drive<ref name=Galaxy/> and moved to Edinburgh in 1977, where until 1992 he was based as BBC Scotland's head of radio drama.<ref>{{cite web|title =Stewart Conn |publisher=British Council| url =https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/stewart-conn |accessdate =24 August 2019}}</ref> He was Edinburgh's first makar or poet laureate in 2002–05.
==Works== As well as several collections of poetry, his books include a collection of essays and memoir poems, ''Distances'' (2001), from Scottish Cultural Press. Most recently he edited ''100 Favourite Scottish Poems'' (SPL/Luath Press, 2006), a TLS Christmas choice, and ''100 Favorite Scottish Love Poems'' (Luath Press, 2008). He has won three Scottish Arts Council book awards, travel awards from the Society of Authors and the English-Speaking Union, and the Institute of Contemporary Scotland's first Iain Crichton Smith award for services to literature. His collection ''An Ear to the Ground'' was a Poetry Book Society Choice, and ''Stolen Light'' was shortlisted for Saltire Scottish book of the year. A special issue of ''Chapman'' magazine was devoted to the work of Stewart Conn, April 1, 2007. ''The Breakfast Room'' won the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards Poetry Book of the Year Prize in 2010.
Conn's play ''Hugh Miller'' was staged at the Netherbow Theatre on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1988, with Alec Heggie in the title role.<ref name = "List75">[http://archive.list.co.uk.s3-website.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/the-list/1988-08-26/24/index.html review of ''Hugh Miller'' by Julie Morrice], ''The List'', Issue 75, 26 August - 1 September 1988, pp. 22 & 26</ref>
==Poetry includes== Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: * 1967: ''Thunder in the Air'' Akros Publications * 1967: ''The Chinese Tower: A Poem Sequence'' M. Macdonald * 1968: ''Stoats in the Sunglight'' Hutchinson & Co. * 1972: ''An Ear to the Ground'' Hutchinson & Co. * 1987: ''In the Kibble Palace'' Bloodaxe Books * 1992: ''The Luncheon of the Boating Party'' Bloodaxe Books * 1999: ''Stolen Light: Selected Poems'' Bloodaxe Books * 2001: ''Distances: A Personal Evocation of People and Places'' Scottish Cultural Press * 2005: ''Ghosts at Cockcrow'' Bloodaxe Books * 2007 ''The Loving Cup'' Mariscat * 2010: ''The Breakfast Room'' Bloodaxe Books * 2012 ''Estuary'' Mariscat * 2014: ''The Touch of Time: New and Selected Poems'' Bloodaxe Books * 2016: ''Against the Light'' Mariscat * 2019: ''Aspects of Edinburgh'' Scotland Street Press <ref>{{Cite web |title=Scotland Street Press {{!}} Bookstore {{!}} Aspects of Edinburgh |url=https://www.scotlandstreetpress.com/product/aspects-of-edinburgh |access-date=2022-06-07 |website=www.scotlandstreetpress.com |language=en}}</ref>
== Plays include == * ''The Burning'' (1971) * ''Clay Bull'' * ''Greenvoe'' * ''Hugh Miller'' (1988)<ref name = "List75"/> * ''Mission Boy'' * ''The Aquarium'' * ''The King'' * ''Thistlewood'' * ''Under the Ice'' * ''Play Donkey'' * ''Herman'' * ''I Didn't Always Live Here''
== References == {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Conn, Stewart (2001), ''Distances: A Personal Evocation of People and Places'', Scottish Cultural Press, {{isbn|9781840170436}} * Lockerbie, Catherine, "Making Waves: Radio in Scotland", in Parker, Geoff (ed.), ''Cencrastus'' No. 20, Spring 1985, pp. 8 - 11, {{issn|0264-0856}}
==External links== *[https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/stewart-conn profile] at British Council website *[http://www.stewartconn.com Author website] *[https://www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com/archives Interview] at www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com *[http://www.kilmarnockacademy.co.uk/famoussconn.htm Kilmarnock Academy ''Famous Former Pupils''] *[https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/stewart-conn Biography] on Bloodaxe Books website *[https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/conn-stewart-1936 Encyclopedia Entry] *[https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/stewart-conn/ biography] at Scottish Poetry Library {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conn, Stewart}} Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:People educated at Kilmarnock Academy Category:Theatre in Scotland Category:20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights Category:People from Hillhead
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