An elderly prophet, and an attack on the Taipei subway. A sheep tangled up in brambles by the roadside. A goddess of saliva who disappears without a trace. A sinister figure stalks through the darkness of the night in heavy boots, while somewhere, a fiddle plays.…

Four writers, four stories, and four languages, bringing together the cultures of Scotland and Taiwan.

Tâigael is a first-of-its-kind collaborative writing and translation project, bringing together writers from Scotland and Taiwan, to explore language, translation and culture. These four stories by Elissa Hunter-Dorans (Scotland), Kiú-kiong 玖芎 (Taiwan), Lisa MacDonald (Scotland) and Naomi Sím (Taiwan) cross between languages and cultures to speak of things unspoken, and to find new and surprising connections.

Taiwanese (Tâi-gí) and Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) are languages that have been historically marginalised and suppressed. Tâigael presents two newly commissioned short stories in Gaelic, and two in Taiwanese, or Tâi-gí. And then it translates these stories between the two languages, via Mandarin and English. Each story is published in all four languages, to allow the largest possible audience.

This first-of-its-kind collection is due to be published on June 15th 2025.

The book is edited and produced by Dr Will Buckingham and I and will be printed through Wind&Bones, the Scottish company we co-direct. When published the book will be available through Wind&Bones Books.

This project was initially supported by the Scottish Government through their Scottish Connections Fund. And you can read more about the writers and the book origins here.

There’ll be more news on book launch events soon!