SHE’S performed for Nicola Sturgeon and her plays have won a plethora of national awards but now Leyla Josephine is turning her attention from the stage to the page.

The Scottish poet, from Glasgow but living in Prestwick, is set to release her debut book, a collection of her poetry five years in the making.

In Public/In Private the performing poet and playwright questions the urge to share her inner life publicly, diving into secrets, faith, lust and death without shame.

Best-selling writer Jodi Picoult has lauded the 2014 Commonwealth Poetry Slam winner, saying “there is not a poet alive today who writes about the inner lives of women as well as Leyla Josephine”.

READ MORE: Better protection for Gaelic broadcasting to be considered

In tandem with the book launch, Josephine has announced a tour of the UK and Ireland to promote it, with a special event in her home town at the renowned King Tuts venue.

Despite stacking up awards for her writing, Josephine said she was nervous about the transition.

“I always felt very comfortable on the stage performing because that’s what I am good at but to move onto the page feels almost academic,” she told The National.

“I went to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the RSAMD back then, and I was always into making theatre shows.

“And then I fell into the world of doing spoken word and poetry when my dad died. I needed a way of processing stuff.

“I made two theatre shows for the Fringe and then toured. I’ve always written poetry but this is my first collection. I was scared about the move.”

Among the things that made Josephine nervous is her dyslexia.

“There’s a big part of me that felt like it wasn’t a place that I should be working in, that I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she said.

“I think my dyslexia and my lack of academic learning means I have made something quite unique.

“It’s taken me a long time to accept it but I am now at the stage of realising that my dyslexia hasn’t actually been a hindrance – it’s been a blessing.”

Josephine’s book goes from the deep and dark to the happy and hopeful, with the poet saying readers should expect something the playfulat times and more sombre at others.

She said: “I spend a lot of time thinking about power, and how we find power and how power can sometimes be a bad thing and the power structures we find ourselves in.

“I talk a lot about subjects that are deemed shameful. I always try and say that I believe that whatever story I’m telling by tailing I’m hoping that I’m diluting the shame that surrounds it.”

In Public/In Private is will bereleased by Burning Eye Books on October 28, with a tour visiting Edinburgh on November 6, London on November 15, Glasgow on November 26, Belfast on December 18 and Dublin on December 21.