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Rowena M Love is a freelance Scottish Writer based in the West of Scotland.

She is a Past President of Ayr Writers' Club and is still on their committee, taking an active role in the club.

She is currently on the committee of Writability, an Ayr-based writing charity, where one of her roles has been as Commissioning Editor for a lottery-funded anthology. The anthology, featuring 25 pieces of good writing by well-known writers, has been distributed free to many schools and writers’ groups in Scotland. As of 2004, she is also the latter's Writer in Residence, organising the programme of events for their Local Group, booking Speakers and running their workshops.

Rowena is a well-known speaker herself, and is on the Live Literature Scotland database run by the Scottish Book Trust. They offer match funding for talks and readings so if you are a member of a writers' group, teach at a school or want a speaker for a club or organisation why not think about asking Rowena to come along...? You can find out more about how the system operates at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com.

Rowena has had many poems published in a variety of places, such as: The Herald, The Scots Magazine, Poetry Scotland, Scottish Islands Explorer, Reach Poetry Magazine, Scottish Memories, iota, Psychopoetica, Countryside Tales, Quantum Leap, The Wild East (Hong Kong). Her poems have also been broadcast on the radio by the BBC.

She has won, or been runner-up in, a number of local and national competitions such as the Ottakar’s and Faber annual competition, and the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition.

Anthology successes include a children's poem in a Hodder Wayland anthology edited by Brian Moses. The anthology is entitled Blood and Roses: British History in Poetry (ISBN 0-750-24444-5) and Rowena's poem 'Fireships' rubs shoulders with poems by the likes of Chaucer, Kipling, Sassoon and Tennyson as well as a host of well-respected poets of today. Elsewhere, her work is in with a host of well-known Scots poets as well as Robert Burns, no less, in the new anthology brought out by Luath Press to commemorate the 700 years since the Guardian’s death. The book is called ‘the Wallace Muse’ and is edited by Lesley Duncan and Elspeth King. ISBN 1-905222-29-7. Rowena read her poem ‘Song of Wallace’ at the book’s launch at the Scottish Parliament in September 06.

Her first collection, entitled "The Chameleon of Happiness", was published in 2004 by Makar Press, a poetry collective that she has helped set up. It includes many of her previously published and award-wining poems as well as some new work. The book was formally launched at Carnegie Library on 29th March, 2004 to an audience of over 100 people. The collection is a 64 page paperback and costs £7.99 (including p&p within the UK). Use the direct link to Rowena on the Home page to find out how to order your copy now. Check out Her Books' page on this website to find out more about it and read what people are saying about it. Alternatively, you can learn more about the book by visiting her page at www.makarpress.co.uk

The Makar Press poets, including Rowena, have also brought out a joint collection entitled Running Threads ISBN 0-9547084-4-X. It costs £10.

To get a flavour of her work, don't forget to check out the two poetry pages on the site. Currently, one page has a pot pourri of her poetical work, while the second has a selection of haiku illustrated with some of her own photographs.

Rowena is an accomplished performer of her work, with many poetry reading events (both solo and with the other poets of the Makar Press) under her belt. At the start of June 2004 she reached the final sixteen of the inaugural 'Star o Rabbie Burns' Competition that Ayr Festival runs. As she had predicted, the overall winner of the competition was a musical performer, but she was delighted with the announcement that she was one of the runners-up. That meant she had a chance to perform her work at SeptembAyr, the arts festival that runs in Ayr in September.

Her other writing is mainly non-fiction, with many published articles to her credit, in places such as The Sunday Herald, The Scots Magazine and the Scottish Island Explorer as well as foreign publications.

At the Scottish Association of Writers conference in March 2003, attended by over 180 writers, her article on chocolate won the Alastair Walker Trophy for a General Article. The opening paragraphs of this article are featured on the 'Article Excerpts' page of this website along with the start of another article that has a food theme. In 2006 Rowena was one of the adjudicators at the SAW conference – her remit was the Janetta Bowie Trophy for a work of non-fiction up to 15,000 words. She also chaired the poetry seminar at the conference. In 2007 Rowena again scooped a trophy at SAW - this time for a humorous article. She won the Marty Duncan Trohpy with her amusing piece about shopping trolleys. She also got placed or honourable mentions in other categories.

Her one play to date, Guilt and Grief, was performed by the Ayrshire Youth Theatre in association with CommuneArts as part of the SeptembAyr festival in 1999 when it played to a capacity audience at the Gaiety Studio, Ayr.

For a reasonable fee, Rowena can create a poem for you on a required theme or write you an article on the subject of your choice. She is also happy to talk about writing or perform her poetry for your club or organisation. Through her association with Ayr Writers' Club and Writability, Rowena is experienced at running workshops on a variety of writing themes. She has also done poetry workshops with primary pupils. Contact her for more details and availability.

Rowena has been working on an authorised biography of the well-known Scottish nationalist Wendy Wood for some time now. As well as the political side of Wendy, there are many other facets with which people are less familiar. They forget, if they ever knew, that she was also an artist, a writer, a broadcaster (from Auntie Gwen with the BBC in the 20s to Jackanory in the 70s), a crofter... The list, while not quite endless, is certainly more interesting than the cardboard cutout of political zealot would suggest.