Rab Wilson

RAB WILSON was born in New Cumnock, Ayrshire, in 1960. After an engineering apprenticeship with the National Coal Board he left the pits following the miners' strike of 1984/5 to become a psychiatric nurse. As a Scots poet, his work has appeared in The Herald as well as Chapman, Lallans and Markings magazines.

Rab has performed his work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the StAnza poetry festival at St Andrews, the 'Burns an a' That' Festival at Ayr, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Wickerman Festival, and many other gatherings large and small. He was 'Bard of the Festival' at Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town. Additionally, Rab is a previous winner of the McCash Poetry Prize and for the past three years has been the 'Robert Burns Writing Fellow In Reading Scots' for Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association. Currently a member of the Scots Language Resource Centre's national council, Rab also sat recently on the Ministerial Advisory Group on Scots Language at the Holyrood Parliament. He is a 'weel-kent' advocate for Scots writing. He now lives in New Cumnock with his wife Margaret and daughter Rachel.