Shetland at Home in Aberdeen

Donald Anderson released his debut CD, Waterhead Sky in May 2005. He lives in a small village on the west coast of Shetland and has been playing guitar, singing and writing songs for at least twenty years.

Currently, Donald is preparing to play at the Shetland Blues Festival with his band, The Donald Anderson Band. He has made numerous appearances at the Shetland Folk Festival over the last decade, both as a solo performer and as a member of the Shining Pool. He received excellent reviews in the press and Iain Anderson has played tracks from the album on his show on BBC Radio Scotland.

Jillian Isbister is a well established musician in Shetland and is fast making waves on the mainland. At only 17 years of age she has already played over 100 gigs in Shetland, and festivals on the mainland including Celtic Connections in Glasgow where she won a Danny award in 2005, one of only 6 awarded each year to newcomers from all over the world. As a result of this she was invited back to perform in 2006, and ended up with 9 performances over the 3 weeks! One of these performances gave her the opportunity to perform alongside Eddi Reader and her band. Jillian also provided musical interludes for Iain Anderson in Conversation.

Jillian has just released a 4 track EP entitled My Smaa Temple, with a title track for which she wrote the music and Marie Williamson wrote the lyrics. Marie, from Shetland, is a very talented songwriter and pens most of the original material that Jillian performs. Tracks from this EP have received radio play, both locally and on Radio Scotland.

James Sinclair worked for 25 years as a welder/plater in the ship repair/boatbuilding industry. He started writing poetry in his forties, and is a member of the Lerwick and West Mainland Groups. Poems published in The Pull of the Moon and in local literary magazines, The New Shetlander and Shetland Life.

Jennifer Perry was born in Liverpool, emigrated to Australia and returned to the UK to live in Shetland – the home of her father's ancestors. She joined Lerwick Writers' Group in 2002 and Westside Writers in 2003. She has had poetry published in The New Shetlander and The Pull of the Moon, and has taken part in Poetry Skelps, Women's Day Poetry Readings and Shetland Book Festivals.

Christian S Tait has lived in Shetland all her life except for her University years in Aberdeen. She began to write in her late forties. During the nineties she won the Scots Language Society's cup for a poem in the Shetland dialect. She has two collections of poetry Spindrift and Stones in the Millpond.

Matthew Wright was born and brought up in Kirkwall, Orkney and now lives in Hamnavoe, Burra. He has written short stories for as long as he could hold a pen, but has only recently started submitting them for publication. He writes about childhood, pub drunks and anything else he can get away with. His work has appeared in The Pull of the Moon and Northwords, and he recently read at the Wordplay festival in Lerwick.