Rory Watson is a Scottish poet, editor and professor.

He is professor emeritus in English Studies at the University of Stirling. Educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University, he completed his postgraduate study at Cambridge. Watson later taught at the University of Victoria in Canada, before coming back to Scotland and joining the University of Stirling. He has written and lectured widely on Scottish literature and cultural identity, and served as General Editor of the Canongate Classics reprint series since the start in 1987. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has published two main volumes of his verse over the years, and has featured in numerous periodicals and anthologies.