Louise and I are interviewed in the current - indeed, the first - issue of Lock Up Your Daughters, a new ‘queer alternative DIY magazine’. Apart from having us in it, it’s a lot of fun, has nice design and illustration and is generally well worth supporting. You can buy a copy for just £2 from Mono, Avalanche or Fat Buddha in Glasgow, or online.
My review of Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden is in the current issue of the Scottish Review of Books.
This month’s New Writing 15 website is now live. The theme for this month’s focus is Work. You can read my memoir/reportage piece The Secret Life of Dads there, “an act of both homage and reverence” in which the narrator (me) “takes on the role of detective as she enters her father’s workplace in search of clues to the man she doesn’t really know. Vivid and compelling, Strachan’s tale is a moving account of work and identity as well as an examination of how industry can shape a country”. The other featured writers are all excellent: Gerard Woodward, Catherine Smith and Jane McKie, and if you’re interested you can download notes for readers and teachers. There’s also a glossary which is scarily revealing of my formative cultural references . . . Star Trek looms large.
As part of the Hermann Kesten Stipendium I’ll be making a presentation about Glasgow in the Krakauer Haus in Nuremberg tonight at 19Uhr. Also speaking are journalists from Venice and Krakow and a photographer from Nice.
My short story ‘Sometimes in the night’ can now be read in Issue 10 of From Glasgow to Saturn, the online magazine produced by students of the MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. This issue also features poetry by my colleague Michael Schmidt, and ex-students Will Napier, Nick Brooks, Jim Ferguson, Lynsey Calderwood, John Bolland, Angela Blacklock-Brown, Rodge Glass, Stephanie Green and Karen Campbell. It’s well worth a read, as of course are the archived issues presenting work by current MLitters.
I wrote ‘Sometimes in the night’ while I was Writer in Residence in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, organised by Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature.
The programme is now online for the Ullapool Book Festival. I’ll be appearing on Sunday 18th May, at 10.30am, chaired by Ruth Wishart. Tickets cost £6 and are available from The Ceilidh Place Bookshop or The Ullapool Bookshop if you’re local, or by post if you’re not. It’s a lovely location and the festival has a great line-up, so it’ll be a nice event to do before I head off to Germany for the Hermann Kesten. Also, some of Play Dead is set in that area (or a fictionalised version of it), so I’m hoping for a little inspiration while I’m there.
Gute Nachrichten: I’ve been awarded the Hermann Kesten Stipendium 2008, an international fellowship given biennially to writers, journalists and other artists from Nuremberg’s twin cities. I’ll live and work in Nuremberg for a few weeks, participating in a programme of readings, excursions and discussions that encourage mutual exchange of ideas.
I’m really looking forward to meeting writers from such diverse countries. Nuremberg is a fascinating and challenging city, and it’s also near my old stamping ground of Bamberg. Who knows, perhaps my fellow Stipendiats and I will find ourselves wandering down the Obere Sandstraße towards Weinstube Pizzini . . .
Established in 2000, the fellowship is named after the famous writer and world citizen Hermann Kesten (1900 - 1996) who spent his childhood and youth in Nuremberg until he was expelled by the National Socialists and later became an honorary citizen. Previous fellows from Glasgow are Alasdair Gray, Donny O’Rourke and Donal McLaughlin.
I’ll be doing two events at Glasgow’s Aye Write! festival next month. The first is a free event , at which I’ll be introducing new work by students of the writing programme at Glasgow University, and it’s at 12.30pm on the 8th March. Should be fun!
Then on Tuesday 11th March at 7.30pm, I’ll be appearing with my Glasgow colleagues, Michael Schmidt, Kei Miller, and Laura Marney. We’ll be reading from our own work and talking about the tricky business of balancing writing and teaching. Sounds like a prime opportunity to put my foot in it in front of my boss (Michael) . . .
The new brochure of residential writing courses from the Arvon Foundation is out now. I’ll be facilitating a course called ‘Literary Fiction from A to Z’ along with another Scottish writer, Angus Dunn, which will run from 18th-23rd August 2008 at Moniack Mhor near Inverness. Arvon courses are a wonderful way to meet other writers and develop your work, and I think the week will be lots of fun as well – so if you fancy joining us, sign up now. We’d love to see you! Remember, Arvon also offer some grants towards the fee.
Just before Christmas I was in St Andrews doing some research for Play Dead, my novel in progress. My partner Louise and I had a lovely festive meal at The Peat Inn in Cupar, Fife. You can read my review for The Scotsman here.