About

EMMA GRAE is an author and journalist from Glasgow. She is a passionate advocate of the Scots language and breaking the stigma around mental illness. She has published fiction and poetry in the UK and Ireland since 2014 in journals including The Honest Ulsterman, From Glasgow to Saturn and The Open Mouse. Her debut novel, Be Guid tae yer Mammy, published by Unbound in August 2021, was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and won the Scots Book of the Year at the Scots Language Awards 2022. Her second novel, The Tongue She Speaks, was published by Luath Press in October 2022.

Her first children’s book, The Hoolet Thit Couldnae Fly, was published in 2023 and shortlisted for Scots Bairns Book of the Year 2024.

The Moggie Thit Meowed Too Much is her second children’s book.

As a journalist, she regularly writes about the Scots language for The National.

Image courtesy of Pauline Di Silvestro
Image courtesy of Pauline Di Silvestro
Illustration by Bob Dewar
Cover design by Amy Turnbull
Illustration by Bob Dewar

Media Reviews of The Hoolet Thit Couldnae Fly

Named as one of the Best Glasgow Books of 2023 – The Glasgow Times

‘A braw tale of friendship and loss’ – Glasgow Evening Times

‘A sensitive, engaging story in a Scots that is easily accessible and a delight to read.’ – Billy Kay, Author

‘Today I started reading The Hoolet Thit Couldnae Fly by Emma Grae to my Primary Twa class and they are loving it!’ – Miss Moir, Teacher

Illustration by Bob Dewar
Cover design by Amy Turnbull
Illustration by Bob Dewar

Media Reviews of The Tongue She Speaks

‘Wi her latest nuvel, grae is gaun fae strenth tae strenth!’ – Dr Michael Dempster, Director of The Scots Language Centre

‘Deep-rooted prejudice against the Scots language is to be explored in a new book that features a bullied teenage schoolgirl as its main protagonist’ – Brian Fergusson, The Scotsman

Cover design by Eilidh MacLennan
Image courtesy of Dr Michael Dempster

Media Reviews of Be Guid tae yer Mammy

‘Emma Grae shows an acute understanding of the fault-lines in a dysfunctional family, and of how old resentments can escalate, pitting complex characters against each other with ease in a painfully raw debut’ – The Herald

‘This is a brave novel… with a strong cultural identity. The main character – a thrawn auld besom wha’s guid tae hersel raither than her lassies an granddochters but whase sleekit sense o humour an couthie turn o phrase gars ye like her despite yerse’ – Billy Kay, author of Scots: The Mither Tongue

Illustration by Elizabeth Graham
Image courtesy of the Saltire Society
Cover design by Mark Ecob
Illustration by Elizabeth Graham