Books
Moder Dy / Mother Wave
‘The old Shetland fishermen still speak with something like reverence of the forgotten art of steering by the moder dy (mother wave), the name given to an underswell which it is said always travels in the direction of home’
Written in English, interspersed with Shetlandic dialect throughout, this multi-award winning debut collection from Shetland poet Roseanne Watt contains profound, assured and wilfully spare poems that are built from the sight, sound and heartbeat of the land as much as from the sea. In rigorously controlled, concise, and vivid language Watt offers glimpses of the landscape alongside which we find the most complex and mysterious of human experiences.
Winner of an Eric Gregory and Somerset Maugham Award 2020
Joint Winner of the Highland Book Prize 2019
Winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2018
Reviews
The Scotsman
“To some extent, a debut poetry collection will always be an act of navigation, with the poet as pathfinder. Moder Dy, however, the first book of poems from Shetlander Roseanne Watt, is an extraordinarily intricate and multi-layered exercise in literary triangulation …” READ MORE
The Bottle Imp
“Moder Dy is Roseanne Watt’s first published collection. She won the 2018 Edwin Morgan Prize for the best unpublished collection of poetry by a poet under the age of thirty. Two things are clear from the quality of the poems in this debut publication: the Morgan Prize judges found a worthy winner; Roseanne Watt is a fresh and refreshing poet. On the basis of this first collection, one could reasonably predict …” READ MORE
The Scores
“Moder dy is a wave or a current, known for leading back to the safety of shore those who navigate it. It’s an underswell: it flows under the surface of the water, off the southern coast of the Shetlands, untouched by the wind and always in the direction of land. The haafmen, Shetland’s fishermen of the high sea, called it moder, which means mother. To find and navigate moder dy is not easy, and the last haafman known to be able to do it died in …” READ MORE
Modern Poetry in Translation
“In Moder Dy, Shetlandic poet Roseanne Watt explores the forgotten art of steering by the moder dy (mother wave), the name given to an underswell which is said to always travel in the direction of home. From the fascinating haaf-language used by fishermen on the deep sea to ward off misfortune, to the ancient burial formula unearthed …” READ MORE
Wee Review
“The words Moder Dy come from the Shetland dialect referring to the mother wave, an underswell which local fishermen steer by, supposedly always leading them home. And home is a major theme of this slim volume of poetry …” READ MORE