I write poetry for the page and stage. Since 2015 I have collaborated and performed with Scottish company I Am Loud Productions (Loud Poets) including co-devising and performing in our monthly showcases, touring to the Brighton, Prague, and Edinburgh Fringe festivals, and developing commissioned work. I placed second in the 2015 Scottish Slam Championships. I have performed at events across the UK, including StAnza (Scotland’s Festival for Poetry), the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and events organised by the Scottish Government, National Museums Scotland, the Scottish Book Trust, the Centre for Poetic Innovation, Scottish PEN, and the National Library of Scotland.

In 2015-16 I was awarded a place in the Clydebuilt Mentoring Scheme run through St. Mungo’s Mirrorball, where I worked with four other Glasgow-based poets and Scottish Makar Liz Lochhead to develop new work.

My poem “Outwith” was chosen as one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Best Scottish Poems of 2016 and in 2019 it was selected from the past 15 years’ lists as one of the Best of the Best Scottish Poems. I self-published my first pamphlet, Homing, in August 2015 (available for purchase here). In 2016 I was published in the new series House of Three anthologising female Scotland-based poets. My work has been published in The Herald, Gutter, A Year of Scottish Poems, and more (see Publications).

To enquire about bookings and commissions, please use the Contact form on this website or email me directly at kathryn.a.ailes (at) gmail.com.