This is the website of Edinburgh-based poet and translator Ken Cockburn.

Latest News (October 2026)

I’m running a workshop, Call & Response, at Loanhead Library at 6pm on Wednesday 4th November. We’ll read poems and prose in different ways – aloud, in groups and alone – and use the images, associations and memories that reading brings to mind to kickstart our writing. Free, but please book – details on Eventbrite.

My short poem Duomo was selected by online magazine Ink Sweat & Tears as part of their ‘Wonder’ feature, picking up on this year’s theme for National Poetry Day 1st October.

The most recent issue of painted, spoken (#46) is a tribute to Peter McCarey, who turned 70 this month. I was pleased to share some memories of my encounters with Peter and his work, in prose and two short poems.

I had good feedback from August’s poetry walks (part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2026), including a review (with some great photos) from Jonathan Mandell for New York Theatre.

“… repeatedly in Cockburn’s poetry you get the impression of a poet who has sown nothing but good will in his craft and is slowly reaping this in his work.”
Richie McCaffrey, on Floating the Woods

“Every so often I come across a book of poems that is irresistible for the absolute ‘rightness’ of its project; a book that has that unerring quality of integrity, craft and communication with the reader; a book that’s doing something slightly out of the ordinary, but wearing that difference in an unostentatious manner. This was that book for me. A delight.” Andy Brown, on The Road North

“From the outset, I find the poems, their ingredients and flavour, and your meticulous joy with words, a delight.”
Stewart Conn, on On the flyleaf

“It is refreshing to read contemporary poetry of such rare grace and compassion… a welcome contribution to the literature of our nomadic century.” Tom Hubbard, on Souvenirs and Homelands