Rody Gorman was born in Dublin and now lives on the Isle of Skye, where he works as creative writing tutor and lecturer, and edits the annual Irish/Scottish poetry journal An Guth. He writes in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic and translates into and between those languages, and his own poetry has been translated into many languages.
He has been a writing fellow at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, convenor of the Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee of Scottish PEN and received bursaries from the Scottish Arts Council and the Royal Literary Fund, among others.
His first poetry collection was Fax and Other Poems (Polygon, 1996), and his selected poems in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Chernilo, was published by Coiscéim in 2006.
His ‘hyper-local’ work produced in the residency was inspired by the Galloway surroundings. As both an Irish and Scottish Gaelic speaker Rody was central to the project. His coining of the term ‘Lingua Gadelica’ was invaluable to the tricky territory entered as the group negotiated their way within the questions and conjecture surrounding Oran Bagraidh.