Lochhead, Liz (1947– )

Scottish poet and playwright. She is well known for performing her own work. Her collections of poems include Memo for Spring (1972), The Grimm Sisters (1981), and Dreaming Frankenstein (1984). She has also written powerful work for the stage, including Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1982); Blood and Ice (1988), a biography of the English writer Mary Shelley; The Big Picture (1988), about popular culture; and Perfect Days (1988), a romantic comedy.

Lochhead was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire. She studied art at Glasgow College of Art and was a teacher for eight years. In 1978 she became a full-time poet when she was selected to be the first Scottish/Canadian writers exchange fellow.

Lochhead brings her own distinctive voice to a range of subjects. In Memo for Spring she tackles growing up, a dance cloakroom, school prizes, a sari, a stay in hospital, and a phone call, while in The Grimm Sisters she brings characters to life in a fairy-tale style. Dreaming Frankenstein looks at the joy and pain, losses and triumphs of human relationships from a woman's point of view. The emotions in the poems range from sorrow to determination with undercurrents of self-discovery, seen especially in ‘Mirror's Song’, which features a woman giving birth to herself. She translated Tartuffe (by the French writer Molière) in 1988 and wrote the words for the musical production Jack Tamson's Bairns in 1990.