Kris Clark
k.clark.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Research title: Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect: An exploration of Lallans…
Research Summary
I am a PhD student on the DFA Creative Writing programme within the School of Critical Studies.
I am investigating the spectrum of dialect representation and linguistic approaches taken by authors to evoke Scots vernaculars when writing for publication. Research includes modern Scots-English hybrids, the use of local idiom and phonetic spellings, and the more archaic Scots of traditional poetry and prose.
A new novel in Scots will form my creative output. An autoethnographically framed thesis comprising hybrid lyric and personal essays will form the critical project, experimenting with varieties of regional dialect, from standard Scots-English through to the tartanry of fabricated Scots, structured using recurring themes from critical analysis of published Scottish literature.
Supervisors
Grants
- Equity Charitable Trust, Retraining Grant, 2020-21
- Equity Charitable Trust, Retraining Grant, 2021-22
- Whiteside Hill Education and Training Fund, 2021-22
Teaching
- Widening Participation Postgraduate Tutor, 2021-22
- Course Tutor, 8-Week Undergraduate Flash Fiction Elective, Spring Semester 2022
Additional Information
BIOGRAPHY
Known professionally as Kris Haddow, Kris is a Scottish playwright, poet and performer. He was a 2011/12 mentee of the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland, and was attached to the Traverse Theatre as one of the Traverse Fifty in 2013.
A graduate of the University of Glasgow's MLitt Creative Writing (with Merit) in 2016, Kris also holds an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology in Washington, a BA (Hons) in Arts and Humanities (Creative Writing) with First Class honours from The Open University, and Certificates in Disruptive Strategy, Sustainable Business Strategy and Strategy Execution from Harvard Busines School Online.
In 2011, Kris wrote and performed his one-man comedy 2h:9m:37s at the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival before touring Scotland in Spring 2012, and revived the production for a short run in Australia in 2014.
Passionate about Scots language writing, Kris has won awards for his poetry and prose written in Scots dialect. His poem On Times Austere was engraved in glass and installed at The Globe Inn, Dumfries alongside work by Robert Burns following Windows for Burns Night 2011, and Ronnie's Story won the short story category of the 'see me' Scotland national writing competition in 2010.
Kris has also been a regular speaker, singer and reciter at Burns Suppers and concerts across Scotland for over 20 years.
Alongside his PhD thesis, he is editing a collection of poetry and working on his first novel as part of his DFA. This Scots dialect project — which has the working title When the Curlew Cries no More — was shortlisted for the North Lit Agency Prize in 2021, and was the winning pitch at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival's Pitch Perfect event in September 2021.
