VALERIE GILLIES has composed poetry since the age of fourteen. A former Edinburgh Makar, Royal Literary Fellow and an Associate of Harvard University, Valerie has been a literary arts practitioner in psychiatric and general hospitals with Artlink and a Writer in Residence in universities and libraries. She co-facilitated the creative writing workshops at Maggie’s Centre, Edinburgh, for sixteen years, and has been a trainer with Lapidus Scotland.Her many collections include Tweed Journey, following the River Tweed from source to sea, and The Spring Teller, poems inspired by Scotland’s wells and springs. Her work always explores the healing potential of its environment, and this has an invigorating effect upon the reader.REBECCA MARR was born in the Highlands and she has had a darkroom since childhood. She studied photography at Napier University Edinburgh. She moved to Orkney in 2007 for a Pier Arts Centre artist residency 'Art & Agriculture' working with farmers, and settled there. Rebecca works across digital and traditional darkroom techniques. Her subjects have included clouds, seaweed, Orkney’s wild flowers and of course the grasses. She has contributed to over twenty publications, including several collaborations with archaeologist Mark Edmonds. She works with her husband Mark Jenkins on museum and community heritage projects.Valerie & Rebecca first met in the mid-nineties, brought together by artist Kirsty Lorenz to run creative workshops with Artlink at The Royal Edinburgh psychiatric hospital. They have continued their friendship and support for each other over the years. Men & Beasts, a touring exhibition and publication in 2000, was their first collaboration. Two decades on, they embarked on a 5 year study of the wild grasses of Scotland.
