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Arc o Möns is a new chapbook from Hansel and a first publication for the young Shetland writer, Christie Williamson. This is a bi-lingual edition, a selection of poems in Spanish by Federico García Lorca, translated into Shetland dialect.

Christie, who comes from Yell, lives and works in Glasgow. His poetry has been published in various magazines including the New Shetlander, Lallans and NorthWORDS Now. In 2006 his writing was commended in the William Soutar Open Writing competition and the following year he had a commendation in the Wigtown Poetry Competition.

In 2006, he took part in an original play Lorca's Shadow at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He produced his first translations of Federico García Lorca's poetry into Shetland dialect for this play. The play was a commercial and critical success and whilst the poet was relieved that the demands on his time and creative energies had abated, he could not stay away from Lorca's poetry, could not help asking how it would sound in a Shetland voice.

This pamphlet is the result of this work and, in collaboration with Diana Leslie, Williamson brings Lorca's tales of rural Andalucia to life in the colder climes of the Northern Isles.

Diana Leslie is a prize-winning Orcadian artist with considerable depth to her experience and success, having many exhibitions under her belt both in Orkney and further afield. She draws from her local and personal surroundings, sometimes manipulating or synthesising them. She says 'I am not time conscious; histories are currency, like reality.'

You can buy Arc o Möns from bookshops in Orkney and Shetland or by writing to us, price £6. ISBN 978-0-9558414-4-6

Read the Reviews

"Over the years I as a Hispanist have read many translations of Lorca's poems, particularly of his ballads. It had never occurred to me that the best, the most near in spirit to the original, would be not into English, but Shetlandic."
Review of 'Arc o Möns', Lyn Moir, Sphinx No. 11, 2009 (Read the full review)

"What impresses me most in these translations is the music of the poetry, the strong rhythms that match the power of the original, and the Shetlandic's long vowels contribute greatly to this."
Review of 'Arc o Möns', Anna Crowe, Sphinx No. 11, 2009 (Read the full review)

"...it starts by looking and feeling really lovely - as we've come to expect from Hansel Press - with some beautiful monochromatic artwork from Diana Leslie."
Review of 'Arc o Möns', Helena Nelson, Sphinx No. 11, 2009 (Read the full review)

"Christie Williamson writes confidently, with considerable flair and invention, and demonstrates a quiet, secure kinship with the originals."
Review of 'Arc o Möns', Jim Mainland, The New Shetlander, 2009 (Read the full review)