Biography

Gabrielle Barnby lives in Orkney and writes short stories, poetry and fiction. She facilitates creative discovery and writing groups with participants from eight to eighty and has a strong interest in writing for wellbeing. Visit gabriellebarnby.com to discover more publications and read her blog about creativity in the community.

Current Projects

Orkney 2025 Island Games Scrivener

Makar – Braw Words, Hampden Park Poetry Collections

SHIPS – Scottish Highlands and Islands Poetry Society, organising committee

Lecturer – BA Creative Writing in the Highlands and Islands 

Writing and facilitating experience

I work in a variety of forms including short stories and poetry. My collection of short stories, The House With The Lilac Shutters and other stories was published in 2015 followed by a novel set in Orkney, The Oystercatcher Girl. My novel Across the Silent Sea was published by Sparsile Books in 2023. A new collection of short stories due for release with Orkneyology in 2024.

My poetry has been used to accompany film and performed as radio broadcast. I also organise cultural events and edit work for publication in print and on line. I am project leader for children’s writing group Wirdsmit and member of Stromness Writing Group. I lead a variety of socially engaged creative sessions within the community.

I work with media and arts organisations to promote events involving Stromness Writing Group and have also collaborated with Orkney Storytelling Festival and the Orkney Book Festival. I have read and spoken at a broad range of events including the Orkney Free Fringe Festival, the St Magnus International Festival, the Association for Literature and the Environment Conference and the Orkney International Science Festival.

I have facilitated sessions in schools for Fèisean nan Gàidheal as part of a COVID creative recovery programme focused on local language and traditions. I also completed a commission to celebrate George Mackay Brown’s centenary in collaboration with Orla Stevens, delivering an outdoor artwork sited in the George Mackay brown Memorial Garden, Stromness.

In 2021 and 2022 I was awarded funding by Culture Collective to run dementia friendly creative sessions with Age Scotland Orkney. These sessions encouraged narrative skills and wellbeing through creative exercises and led to the publication of resources and creative responses, Raindrops in the Fire.