Happy 115th Birthday Kathleen Raine!

Commemorating what would have been her 115th birthday, an expert panel from diverse disciplines celebrated the poet and scholar Dr Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) with a particular focus on her deep-rooted connections with Scotland.

Chaired by Kirsten MacQuarrie, whose forthcoming novel The Rowan Tree is inspired by Raine and the belief that Scotland must radically re-appraise her life and legacy, the panellists were:

• Professor Grevel Lindop, poet, biographer, essayist and Chair of The Temenos Academy, the educational charity founded by Raine in 1991 and evolving from her journal Temenos

• Dr Jenny Messenger, journalist and author of Kathleen Raine: Classics and Consciousness (forthcoming with Bloomsbury's Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing series

• Rebecca Rowe, a composer whose new work 'Within The Living Eye' with Glasgow School of Art Choir as part of the ground-breaking Composeher project sets six Kathleen Raine poems to music

• Dr Caroline Watson, a scholar whose PhD focused on Raine and who presented her research at the 2022 International Conference: A Homage to Kathleen Raine at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

With careers and contributions encompassing poetry, prose, music, academia and more, it was agreed that Kathleen Raine must be considered one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Hopefully the discussion here will help convince you too.

Kathleen Raine's poetry copyright of the Estate of Kathleen Raine. Re-used with permission from Faber & Faber Ltd.