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Gaelic Books Council

The Gaelic Books Council (Comhairle nan Leabhraichean) is the lead organisation with responsibility for supporting Scottish Gaelic authors and publishers, and for raising the profile and reach of Scottish Gaelic books in Scotland and internationally. It is a registered charity (registration number: SC025026), funded by Creative Scotland, Bòrd na Gàidhlig and its own book sales, with a board of nine trustees and a paid staff of five.

The Council provides publication grants (paid to the publisher) for individual Gaelic books submitted before publication and operates a scheme of commission grants for books as yet unwritten. Its bookshop in Glasgow and website (www.gaelicbooks.org) stock all Gaelic and Gaelic-related titles in print.

Established: 1968

Types of books published: The publishers supported by the Council produce a wide range of Gaelic literature including magazines, children’s books, drama, fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Dalen

Dalen is a publisher of European comic books in Gaelic and Scots, as well as in other Celtic languages.

Acair

Acair are based in Stornoway in the Hebrides. We publish a wide range of Gaelic, English and bilingual books and are the principal publisher of Gaelic texts for children in Scotland.

With many hundreds of titles to our credit, we have strong links with international publishers, joining them in children’s co-editions. We work closely with children’s Gaelic authors and translators to also produce original Gaelic texts for children and with the National Gaelic Curriculum Service to produce material suitable for use in Gaelic medium education.

Our general interest Gaelic publications list includes renowned Gaelic poets such as Sorley MacLean, Donald MacAulay, Derick Thomson, Angus Peter Campbell and Christopher Whyte, often accompanied by parallel English translations, as well as photographic journals of island historical contexts both past and present.

We also have a growing list of English general interest titles ranging from Donald S. Murray’s poetry collection Weaving Songs to Professor Donald Macleod’s best-selling The Living Past.

Acair books have won literature prizes over the years as well as accolades for design and presentation. In 2012, Acair was awarded Gaelic Business of the Year. In 2018, the company was formally established as a Scottish registered charity.

Established: 1977

Publications (yearly average): 25 per year

Types of books published: Children’s books of all kinds in Gaelic, social history in Gaelic and English, poetry, plays, music, photographic, biography, environmental issues, Gaelic language studies.

Submission details: Submissions welcome but unsolicited manuscripts received by Acair will not be returned unless accompanied by a pre-paid self-addressed envelope.