Scottish poet and playwright Stewart Conn was born in Glasgow but grew up in Ayrshire, which became the setting of much of his early poetry. He moved to Edinburgh in 1977 and became the city’s first poet laureate, under the title of Edinburgh Makar. His many volumes of poetry include ‘Distances: a personal evocation of people and places’ (2001) and ‘Ghosts at Cockcrow’ (2005). Over the years he has received many awards and has read at festivals in Orkney, Edinburgh and Paris. Recently Conn has edited a number of poetry collections, including ‘Goldfish Suppers’ (2004), a selection of contemporary poems for children; ‘The Hand that Sees’ (2005), an anthology of poetry inspired by objects in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; and ‘100 Favourite Scottish Poems’ (2006).