Nettles: A Launch and Showcase with Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars

The Scottish Poetry Library invites you to the launch of Nettles, the debut collection of Nazaret Ranea, accompanied by readings from four of the young poets taking part in the Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars scheme: Mattea Gernentz, Elissa Hunter-Dorans, Ben Mann and Caitlin Sherret.

Nettles is a collection alive with questions of belonging, memory and identity, reflecting on life lived between languages and cultures. Peter Mackay, Scotland’s Makar, described it as: “These are poems that imagine much we are not ‘meant’ to see or feel… They are powerful poems, and unnerving ones.”

With readings, conversation and time to connect, this event offers a chance to hear some of the most exciting emerging poets working in Scotland today.

Bios:

Nazaret Ranea is a poet born in Málaga, Spain, and based in Edinburgh since 2017. Named one of Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars, her debut collection, Nettles, explores themes of migration, language, family, and the natural world. Her poems have appeared in over sixty publications worldwide, in both English and Spanish. She is the creator of the zines My Men and My Women, and the editor of the anthology For Those Who Tend the Soil. Nazaret has shared her work on BBC Radio Scotland and at festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and StAnza Poetry Festival, where she was the 2025 Poet in Residence for the Translation Award. You can find more of her work at www.nazaretranea.com

Elissa Hunter-Dorans is an Edinburgh-based writer and artist from the Highlands, writing in Gaelic and English. She was the Scottish Poetry Library’s first Next Generation Young Makar for Gaelic poetry, and she has performed at StAnza, The Edinburgh Fringe, and Push the Boat Out. She is the Gaelic editor for The Poets’ Republic by Drunk Muse Press and was the Gaelic judge of the 2025 Wigtown Poetry Prizes. She has a fascination with religious and folk visual culture and is currently studying History of Art at the University of Edinburgh.

Mattea Gernentz is an art curator and writer from Tennessee based in Edinburgh. She is completing SGSAH-funded PhD research at the University of Glasgow on women Impressionists and their connection to French parks and gardens. Mattea has been selected as a Clydebuilt 16 Poet; Next Generation Young Makar; and Writer-in-Residence at the Château de la Haute Borde, Casa Regis, and Château de Sacy. Her writing has been featured in various publications, including Gutter Magazine, Interpret, Gilded Dirt, Ekstasis Magazine, Solum Press, and Little Living Room, in addition to exhibitions and anthologies.

Caitlin Allmond Sherret is a makar and performer from the Highlands of Scotland. She has been named as a Traverse Theatre Young Writer and one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Next Generation Makars. Her work has been published by Heroica, Snack Magazine and FOMA Press. Find her on Instagram @kitkatpoetry_

One of Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars (2023), Ben Mann was raised in Turriff, Aberdeenshire. He mentored under Michael Pedersen and has gone on to perform his predominantly Scots poetry at The Fringe and The Edinburgh International Book Festival. His work has subsequently been published on The Scottish Poetry Library’s website, through the Burns Night Skies Initiative and in the anthology, For Those Who Tend the Soil.

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