Call for Contributions

Nan Shepherd in Context

Edited by Kerri Andrews and Scott Lyall

Nan Shepherd’s popularity has soared over the past decade, and she is now one of the most recognised Scottish writers in Scotland and beyond. This popularity has come about in large part because of a renewed interest in, and appreciation for, her lyrical meditation on nature and belonging, The Living Mountain. The relevance of this work to a wide range of people is enhanced by the difficult story behind its much-delayed publication in 1977, and the dramatic waxing and waning of its author’s star in the literary firmament since her first taste of literary fame as a novelist in the 1920s. Yet it is perhaps the case that Shepherd’s new-found fame is now limiting opportunities for broader engagement with her writing. While contemporary artists of all kinds have responded in often beautiful ways to The Living Mountain, there is, and always was, more to Nan Shepherd than her final published work.

Expressions of interest are invited to contribute to a planned volume of essays that will provide new perspectives on the range of Shepherd’s work, the several contexts in which this might be read, and the worlds in which she lived and moved. The author also of three novels, The Quarry Wood, The Weatherhouse, and A Pass in the Grampians, poetry in English and Scots, short stories, criticism and essays, Shepherd’s immediate contexts have to do with the Scottish literary renaissance of the early twentieth century, but her work is now read within the various frameworks of hillwalking, women’s writing, alternative spiritualities, and global ecological concerns, to give only a few examples. With Shepherd’s correspondence now collected for the first time in Nan Shepherd’s Correspondence 1920–80, edited by Kerri Andrews, there is also the opportunity to delve more deeply into her friendships and relationships and to explore Shepherd the letter writer; as a mentor, advisor and editor, Shepherd has also been under appreciated.

The topics suggested here are intended to be in no way exhaustive. Those interested in being part of this volume are warmly invited to discuss other ideas with the editors.

250-word abstracts with a brief biographical note should be sent to both of the volume editors, Dr Kerri Andrews ([log in to unmask]) and Dr Scott Lyall ([log in to unmask]" data-loopstyle="linkonly" data-linkindex="1" style="margin:0px">[log in to unmask]), by 8 August 2023.