Fiona MacKenzie

Ness Book Fest is delighted to welcome Fiona MacKenzie to Cultarlann Inbhir Nis.

Fiona J. Mackenzie was brought up in Moray and now lives in Dingwall. She is a graduate of Aberdeen University in Scottish History and Music and postgraduate of the University of the West of Scotland where she undertook her Masters in Gaelic Songwriting & Performance – a song cycle based on the tiny glen where American folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw lived for almost 6 years. She has worked as a Gaelic song researcher and creative practitioner for 30 years and won the prestigious An Comunn Gaidhealach Gold Medal for solo singing in 2005. More recently she was Archivist for the Gaelic Song and Folklore Archives of Canna House for 9 years. Fiona has lectured on the Campbells of Canna across the world and credits them with being the inspiration for pursuing a vocation in Gaelic Heritage and Language. After publishing her book, “Eilean- Island Photography of Margaret Fay Shaw”, she published Shaw’s biography “Cadence of a Song” in 2025 with Birlinn , which was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Literary prize. She credits Shaw as being the driving force behind her career in folklore and Hebridean tradition and continues her research into the Canna Archives on a daily basis.