About Us

Northwords publishes Northwords Now and Tuath in print and online to inspire writers and readers with the power of new work in Scotland’s three languages, including local variants. This includes work produced in places remote from major centres, together with that of writers living and working at the heart of such hubs.

Northwords Now has been published in its current form since 2005. When national restrictions allow, print copies are available free at hundreds of locations across Scotland, from Shetland to the Solway and the Western Isles to Aberdeenshire. We publish two issues per year, plus an annual Gaelic supplement - ‘Tuath’ - as well as Gaelic content within Northwords Now. From Issue 15 onwards, each issue is viewable online and downloadable as .pdf files. An ever-expanding author archive from Issue 34 onwards allows individual poems and prose works to be viewed, catalogued under author name.

Writing from people living in or inspired by the Highlands and Islands is given prominence, but we also feature material linked to the wider north. That includes both other parts of Scotland and places around the northern world.

In both geopolitical and environmental terms, the northern world is changing very fast. For writers whose work draws on northern energies, that’s important. Some of the power of this change comes through increased scope for international collaboration and shared experience, and some arises from the tensions of changing environments, economies and cultures in this time of unfolding climate crisis. The magnetism of ‘north’ has become stronger to many people, and the connections across former boundaries ever more important.