[1] Gillies has written for literary and arts reviews, the theatre, and BBC radio and television, and has worked with visual artists and musicians.
[5] She lives in Edinburgh and is married to William Gillies, a Celtic scholar, with whom she has had three children: two daughters and a son.
[6] As well as publishing collections of poetry and appearing in various Faber and Penguin anthologies.
In 1992, Gillies was appointed Writer in Residence for Midlothian and East Lothian[2] in a scheme promoted by the two districts that was supported by the Scottish Arts Council.
[8] She spent 2009–10 and 2013–14 researching and writing as an associate of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.