Keeping up with Michael Newton
CBU Press author and friend Michael Newton recently (August 28-30) returned from Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 2018 hosted by the University of Edinburgh’s dept. of Celtic and Scottish Studies, where he have a paper titled: “An Gruagach-Solais: rekindling arcane lore from 18th-century eastern Perthshire.”
On returning, Michael learned that he has been nominated as an international scholar in the 6th annual Scottish Gaelic awards—staged by Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper, Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Creative Scotland among others—in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Scottish-Gaelic scholarship.
September 7-9, 2018, Michael will be at the annual North Carolina Folk Festival in Greensboro, where he will participate in a symposium led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddons. Michael’s paper is titled: “Scottish Highland Music and Dance Tradition and Its Legacy in Early America.” “Although relatively small in comparison to the dominant Anglophone settlements in early America, communities of immigrant Scottish Highlanders, especially in the Cape Fear region of the Carolinas, made significant contributions to the musical, choreographic, and cultural life of the region.”
In the afternoon, he’ll be taking about the telling Gaelic folktales in translation.
That’s all pretty cool, but our BIG news today is about a now-somewhat-dated endorsement of Michael’s best-selling Naughty Little Book of Gaelic. In an interview published on an Outlander novel and TV series (Sony Pictures Television, Left Bank Pictures) fan page, author Diana Gabaldon sings the book’s praises as the go-to source for learning to curse. Apparently, she swears by it.
If you want to “learn how to curse like Jamie, Murtagh, and many other Scots in the Outlander novel and TV series … The book tells us absolutely everything you need to know to get the Outlander vocabulary down to a tee. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Gabaldon had used it herself for her novels since they are full of Gaelic. She didn’t always have someone on hand to help correct her Gaelic!”
Michael Newton is a leading authority on Scottish Gaelic heritage in North America. A PhD in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh, Michael was an Assistant Professor in the Celtic Studies department of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. He has written several highly acclaimed books and numerous articles about Gaelic culture and history in Scotland and North America. In 2014 he was given the inaugural Saltire Award by the St. Andrews University Scottish Heritage Center (of Laurinburg, North Carolina) for his “outstanding contributions to the preservation and interpretation of Scottish history and culture.” He has performed widely in Scotland, France, Canada and the US.
CBU Press published three of Michael Newton’s books: Celts in the Americas (2013); The above mentioned Naughty Little Book of Gaelic: All the Scottish Gaelic you need to Curse, Swear, Smoke, Drink and Fool Around (2014); and Seanchaidh ns Coille / Memory Keeper of the Forest: Anthology of Scottish-Gaelic Literature in Canada (2015).
Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig is a biennial academic conference series established in 2000 to promote research on any and all topics related to Gaelic as well as to promote research through the medium of Gaelic.