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.
As a journalist, she writes under her birth surname, Guinness, and has bylines around the world.
The Hoolet Thit Couldnae Fly is her first children’s book.
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
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
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
Emma Grae 