Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Sarah MacLean
MacLean was born in Lincoln, Rhode Island to an Italian father and a British mother. MacLean's website reports that her mother was a spy, and worked for MI6. MacLean started reading romance because her older sister read the books, and she has wanted to be a romance novelist since she was a teenager. In 2000, MacLean received a BA in American Studies from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. While at Smith, MacLean and her friends read hundreds of romance novels.