Mario Relich Author

Born in Zagreb, Mario Relich grew up in Montreal, Canada, where he obtained his MA in English Literature from McGill University. He did his post-graduate studies at Edinburgh University, leading to a Ph.D. thesis on philosophical dialogue during the Enlightenment, and has lived in Edinburgh most of his life. His parents - Canadian citizens - were originally from Croatia and Italy. He has been an Associate Lecturer in English Literature and Film Studies at the Open University in Scotland for many years, which led to his involvement as a member of the Open History Society in Scotland, latterly as committee chairman. He has also taught at the Edinburgh College of Art, Napier University, and the University of Ife, Nigeria. He has contributed articles and reviews to, among other publications, Scottish Affairs, Lines Review, Scottish Review of Books, West Africa, and to The Scotsman, for which he did theatre reviews when Allen Wright was Arts Editor. His interview with Iain Crichton Smith was published in Edinburgh Review, and his articles on Sharon Olds and the American critic and poet Adam Kirsch in The Dark Horse. He contributed essays on Hamish Henderson for At Hame Wi' Freedom: Essays on Hamish Henderson (Grace Note Publications, 2012) and on Alexander Trocchi for View from Zollernblick: Regional Perspectives in Europe (Grace Note Publications, 2013). His essay on Robert Lowell and other poet-translators of Baudelaire was published in Critical Insights: The Poetry of Baudelaire, edited by Tom Hubbard (Salem Press, Grey House Publishing, 2014). He began writing poems in Canada, an interest which was reinforced by attending Robert Garioch's sessions on Scottish poetry when the poet was Writer-in-Residence at the University of Edinburgh. His poems have been published in various periodicals over the years, and this is his first collection. He is also Secretary of the Poetry Association of Scotland and a member of the executive committee of Scottish PEN.