Liz Lochhead appointed as makar, Scotland's national poet

The award-winning poet and playwright Liz Lochhead has been announced as Scotland's new makar, the national poet. She will begin work without delay, when she the opens the new Robert Burns Museum on Friday at his birthplace in Alloway.

Lochhead said she was "as delighted as I am surprised by this enormous honour". Despite her modest response, Lochhead, a critical and popular favourite, had been tipped to take the post. The author, whose first poetry collection Memo for Spring was published in 1972, and whose plays include Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, and Blood and Ice – her take on Mary Shelley and the Frankenstein story – will be a popular choice.

The UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy was among the first applaud the appointment, saying: "I am filled with professional, poetic and personal joy to hear today that Liz Lochhead is Scotland's new makar. Since her early work in the 1970s, she has been an inspirational presence in British poetry – funny, feisty, female, full of feeling; a fantastic performer of her work and a writer who has tirelessly brought poetry to the drama and drama into poetry. Like her wonderful predecessor and pal, Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead possesses the deeply Scottish qualities of independence, inquisitiveness and inventiveness. It's sad that Liz's beloved husband, Tom, is not here to see her appointment as makar, but all of us in the poetry world will be right behind her in this fabulous, fresh new chapter in her writing life."

Appointed for a five-year term, the new makar will be paid a £10,000 annual stipend by the government arts agency Creative Scotland, and be given grants to travel to overseas literature festivals and invitations to attend Scottish book festivals as national poet.

Lochhead has been asked to write about major national events and do educational work to promote poetry, and at the end of her term the government will also publish a volume of Lochhead's poetry – mirroring a similar tradition for New Zealand's national poet.

Announcing Lochhead's appointment at a ceremony at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, first minister Alex Salmond said she had a natural ability to reach all ages and touch both sexes through her writing, and had been a champion of the Scots language.

"In creating the post of national poet, the communities of Scotland demonstrated the importance it places on the many aspects of culture which lie at the heart of our identity. As an author, translator, playwright, stage performer, broadcaster and grande dame of Scottish theatre, Ms Lochhead embodies everything a nation would want from its national poet."

Lochhead said she accepted the award on behalf of poetry itself – "which is, and always has been, the core of our culture, and in grateful recognition of the truth that poetry – the reading of it, the writing of it, the saying it out loud, the learning of it off by heart – all of this matters deeply to ordinary Scottish people everywhere."

Her words are borne out by the fact that the Carol Ann Duffy is also a Scot. The role of makar – an ancient term for a poet or bard often under royal or noble patronage – was created by the then first minister Jack McConnell and conferred in 2004 on Edwin Morgan without competition, and without controversy since he was seen as so preeminently the man for the job.

Although Lochhead's appointment has been widely welcomed, the process of finding Edwin Morgan's successor caused controversy in the Scottish poetry world because ministers had refused to release any information about the decision-making procedure or discuss in public what the new national poet would be expected to do.

It emerged today that she was selected by all three surviving first ministers of Scotland – the current first minister Alex Salmond and his two Labour predecessors Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish – in a private meeting last week, from a list of suggestions supplied by the Scottish Poetry Library and the government's arts advisers.

Robyn Marsack, the director of the Scottish Poetry Library, said she was feeling "very positive" about the new rules and guidelines surrounding the post. She said Lochhead would make a "terrific" national poet. However, Marsack was still unhappy about the lack of open discussion about the selection process. "It's not the only way I would think of doing it, but I do think it was done above party lines. I suppose, for me, that's a good indication of how seriously they took it," she said.

"Although I think it would have been good if they had announced beforehand that they would have this procedure. And then we wouldn't have speculated or wondered: it would have been nice to have that laid down beforehand."

Scotland's gain is Glasgow's loss: a fellow of a string of Glasgow Institutions including the Institute of Art, the Academy of Music and Drama, and the the Institute of Architects, Lochhead has been the city's makar but will stand down to take on her new role.