Paul Fraser Shanks

Dr Paul Shanks is a lecturer in Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at Inverness UHI. He has previous experience with helping facilitate several community-based creative writing initiatives in Inverness (including HUG Action for Mental Health, Highlife Highland, and Glints of Gold/ NHS Highland). He was chair of Highland LIT from 2017-20. As a practising researcher, he has published work on twentieth century and contemporary Irish, Scottish and European literature. His current research and creative practice is focused on cultural, historical and personal memory in Inverness and the wider Highlands. He is also a tutor in Creative Writing with High Life Highland (Adult Literacies) and run the Glints of Gold Writing Group in Inverness. 

His background is primarily in teaching and research and was connected with the School of Language and Literature at Aberdeen University and the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (also based at Aberdeen).  Specialises in twentieth-century Irish and Scottish literature and was involved in the diaspora project at RIISS – a broad inter-disciplinary undertaking which sought to document and understand the impact of Irish and Scottish migration via historical, geographic, and literary research. 

I specialised in twentieth-century Irish and Scottish literature and was involved in the diaspora project at RIISS – a broad inter-disciplinary undertaking which sought to document and understand the impact of Irish and Scottish migration via historical, geographic, and literary research. 

After leaving Aberdeen University, I became involved within a rather different field of work with Turning Point Scotland (Aberdeen Social Enterprise) where I was responsible for helping people with a background of mental health problems and/or addiction gain work experience as a means of building up the confidence to return to employment.  Both the academic experience and the work I did with Turning Point proved invaluable when I came to facilitate writing groups in Aberdeen and the Highlands. 

I write poetry, fiction, and drama.  Some of my poems have been published in Causeway/ Cabhsair and The Interpreter’s House.