I’ve donned The Hat for the Diary column of the current issue of Perspectives magazine (No 24, Winter 2009/10), where I write about the hazards of being a writer and homecoming. They’re also printed ‘Coming Home’, the piece I wrote for the Scottish PEN Departures and Arrivals CD of work by Scottish writers.
Scottish Opera will premiere five original short operas at the Word Festival in Aberdeen this May, marking the third year of the Company’s commissioning strand - Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland. I’ve written the libretto for one of these, Sublimation, collaborating with the composer Nick Fells. You can find out more about the other creative teams here.
In Sublimation, a woman is haunted by her traumatic past and unable to separate it from the present. As she is overwhelmed by memories her story takes a mythical turn. Can she escape what has kept her prisoner for so long?
Tickets are now available for the Glasgow and Edinburgh performances, priced £15, and are expected to sell out soon.
Elphinstone Hall @ Aberdeen University, Aberdeen
Word Festival
Sat 15 May, 7.30pm
Sun 16 May, 3pm and 7.30pm
Tickets on sale from 25th March
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Thu 20, Fri 21 & Sat 22 May, 7.30pm
Tickets available from the Traverse Theatre or 0131 228 1401
Òran Mór, Glasgow
Tues 25, Wed 26 & Thu 27 May, 7.30pm
Tickets available from the Traverse Theatre or 0131 228 1401
I’m very excited about my forthcoming trip to China for the Bookworm International Literary Festival. Events are as follows:
13th March, 2pm, Yishu 8, Beijing - Writing Dialogue, a workshop
14th March, 3pm, One Way Street Library, Beijing - Beyond the Brontes, discussing the best of today’s fiction and poetry from across the British Isles (with Chinese translation)
16th March, 7.30pm, Yishu 8, Beijing - Literary dinner
18th March, 7.30pm, The Bookworm, Chengdu - Breaking into Novel Territory
All details can be found in the festival programme, which you can download here.
There was a short interview with me in the Sunday Times this week, talking about my old flat in Berlin. The photo’s slightly scary though, so I think I’ll use the Fernsehturm here instead . . .
After we’ve been to Dundee (see below), Louise and I will be appearing again together at the Winter Words Festival in Pitlochry.
We’ll be reading and speaking at a literary lunch on Friday 5th February at 1pm in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Tickets are £15, which includes a bistro lunch and a glass of wine. Should be fun!
Kirsty Gunn has kindly invited Louise and I to appear at the Dundee Literary Salon. We’re both looking forward to ‘reading and sharing ideas about each others work and talking about the writing life’.
The salon will run from 5.00-7.00pm on Thursday 4th February at Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 Nethergate. It’s free and tickets are available on the night itself on a first come, first served basis.
Scottish PEN have released a double CD called Departures and Arrivals, featuring specially commissioned work on the theme of ‘departures, arrivals, journeys and homecoming’. Twenty-three Scottish writers read their pieces, including Ron Butlin, Jo Clifford, Linda Cracknell, Christine de Luca, Chris Dolan, Douglas Dunn, Bashabi Fraser, Alexander McCall Smith, Tessa Ransford, Alan Riach, James Robertson and Louise Welsh. There’s also an exclusive extract from a new short story by Margaret Atwood, vice-president of International PEN, about her Scottish roots.
I have a not-quite fiction piece called ‘Coming Home’ on the first CD. You can find out more and order a copy on the Scottish PEN website, from which podcasts will also be available next year.
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My short story ‘Strange Desires’ is in the current (January) issue of Diva magazine. Subtitled ‘a story of warped passions’, it’s in the style of lesbian pulp novels from the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s a little silly and hopefully a little saucy as well, and was great fun to write. I was inspired by items from the Lesbian Archive at Glasgow Women’s Library, and hoped to draw attention to their Women on the Shelf fundraising campaign which aims to raise money for GWL’s forthcoming move to new and accessible premises in the Mitchell Library, where the collections will be fully archived and searchable.
Better late than never! I’m very pleased to be a patron of the Imprint Festival, which is running this week at the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock and libraries throughout East Ayrshire. I will be heading to Kilmarnock this afternoon to introduce one of Scotland’s favourite cookery writers, Sue Lawrence, and I’m looking forward to joining my fellow patron William McIlvanney to present the prizes for the inaugural Imprint Fiction Writing Competition on Saturday night.
Although the festival is well under way there are still plenty of events to look forward to, including James Kelman in conversation with Stuart Kelly (tonight at 7.30pm).
Unfortunately I’m missing Tam Dean Burn and the Bum-Clocks tonight, and the Michael Jackson Thriller tribute tomorrow, but I am heading to Huntly to take part in the festival on Saturday 7th November. I’ll be doing a playwriting workshop at 1.30pm in the Brander Building (advance booking required) and there will be a rehearsed reading of my play Old Girls in - appropriately - the OAP Club at 4pm. This will feature the wonderful original cast from Oran Mor: Janet Michael, Deirdre Murray and Iain de Caestecker.
