Hugh has been involved in many collaborative projects with other artists in the region and outside.
For instance he wrote the words for the song cycle ‘Tidemarks’ about the River Nith in collaboration with composer Suzanne Parry John.
He also wrote a verse libretto for an opera based on the story of Jekyll and Hyde, in collaboration with the New Zealand born composer Derek Williams. Most recently he and the artist Hugh Bryden devised and facilitated the successful ‘Forgotten Doors’ project in Dumfries. Hugh Bryden and he co-host occasional book making and writing courses, most recently at the Scottish Poetry Library in October 2017.
In 2018 Hugh McMillan began a collaboration with the French based artist Robert Campbell Henderson entitled ‘Elspeth Buchan and the Blash o God’, which exhibited in Le Tremouille, France, Thomas Tosh, Thornhill, The Wigtown Book Festival, The Stove, Dumfries and the Scottish Poetry Library from June – December 2019.
In December 2019 and the beginning of January 2020 ‘The Conversation of Sheep’ was used as the inspiration and focus for a series of concerts in Dumfries and Galloway with the Cairn Chorus. He also toured with the Cairn Chorus in 2024 having written a special set of commissioned poems.
In 2020 Hugh McMillan was appointed a ‘Poetry Champion’ for the Scottish Poetry library, commissioning new work from poets in the South of Scotland and promoting the work of the Library.
He also curated #plagueopoems a lockdown video poetry blog which has featured, so far, 140 poets from all over the world.
He is currently editor of Poets Republic, and is co-founder of Drunk Muse Press. In 2021 he collated and edited ‘There’s Ma Mammy Wavin’ Poems by Josie Neill and In 2022 he co-edited ‘The Leaves of the Years’, poems and memories of Willie Neill. Since then DMP has published many excellent poets.
He also edited/curated ‘Dead Guid Scots’, an installation and publication by Roncadora Press featuring 30 Scottish poets.
He was chosen to edit ‘Best Scottish Poems of 2021’, the annual and highly respected anthology of verse by the Scottish Poetry Library. In 2021 he was also commissioned by the Wigtown Book Festival to write a response to William Nicholson’s epic poem of 1828, ‘The Brownie of Blednoch’ which later appeared in book form published by Roncadora Press. In 2022 he was chosen as a Saltire Society judge, the year after, he chaired the committee. His latest poetry collection, ‘Diverted to Split’ was published in 2024, and ‘McMillan’s Galloway’ reissued in paperback. In 2026 ‘Curious Histories’’, a group of fantastical tales from Galloway, was published by Tippermuir Books.
Examples of Work
The Return of the Brownie of Blednoch
Scottish Poetry Library Champions Project
Galloway to the World
A Plague of Poetry
#plagueopoems A blog of video poems curated by Hugh McMillan over the period of the coranavirus lockdown, March-May 2020, featuring 50 poets from Scotland and beyond
Coronavirus: Bringing poets together to share a ‘storm of emotions’
Poems at the SPL
Podcasts at the SPL
Hugh McMillan reads at the Harvard Summer School
Extract from Tidemark Collaboration with Susan Parry John
Elspeth Buchan and the Blash o God
Conversation of Sheep with the Cairn Chorus
‘From Here to the Sea’ :A poem commissioned by the Scottish Poetry
