Lovely event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival yesterday. It was nice to see the sun shining on Charlotte Square (at last!) and to have such interesting conversations with readers and writers. My next event is at Blackwell’s Writers on the Fringe at 5:45pm for a 6pm start on Thursday 25th August at Blackwell’s Bookshop, 53-62 South Bridge, Edinburgh. This event is ticketed, but tickets are free and available from the front desk at Blackwell’s or from the Fringe Box Office.
For more information or if you would like a signed copy please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8222 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk
I’ll be reading alongside my Scottish PEN colleague Tessa Ransford, one of my Glasgow MLitt graduates Alison Irvine, Chrys Salt and Gordon Ferris. Very much looking forward to it!
I’ll be talking about Ever Fallen in Love at the Edinburgh International Book Festival alongside Ned Beauman, author of Boxer Beetle, on Sunday 14th August at 10.15am in the Spiegeltent. You can buy tickets (£10, £8) by telephoning 0845 373 5888 or visiting www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/ned-beauman-zoe-strachan/buy-tickets (yes, there’s still a glitch with links).
I’ll also be introducing Alan Warner on Saturday 13th August at 8.30pm and then taking part in the premiere of Alasdair Gray’s Fleck on Monday 29th August at 8pm (now sold out):
‘Alasdair Gray, now better known as a novelist, had five plays networked by English television, seven broadcast by BBC Scotland and three in theatres between 1968 and 1977. Since adolescence he has been obsessed with Goethe’s Tragedy of Faust, and in 2007 wrote Fleck, a modern version. To celebrate Gray’s astonishing contribution to Scottish literature, the closing event of the 2011 Book Festival is the first public reading of the whole play featuring writers and actors. Narrated by Liz Lochhead, with performances by Alan Bissett, Ron Butlin, Chiew Siah Tei, Regi Claire, Janice Galloway, Rodge Glass, Alasdair Gray, A L Kennedy, David MacLennan, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh, as well as actors Cora Bissett, Paul Birchard and Gerda Stevenson.’
I’m reading from Ever Fallen in Love for the 3rd Scottish Review of Books podcast, also featuring an interview with the brilliant Iain Sinclair, Colin Waters on Grant Morrison and Allan Cameron of Vagabond Voices. You can listen or download by clicking on the title of this post (oddly; still having trouble with links).
I’m looking forward to reading at the last Monosyllabic @ Mono Café before they move to the Old Hairdressers. The theme for this month’s event is ‘departures’.
‘Come and join us to celebrate a successful two and half years @ Mono promoting new talent alongside established writers. This month’s featured writer is Zoe Strachan promoting her new book hot off the press Ever Fallen in Love – there will be books available to buy on the night, so it’s the perfect opportunity to have it signed by the author! We also have live music in the form of Sarah Thomas, a Monosyllabic regular with her on-the-beat poetry; this will be her musical debut and one not to miss! Also joining the soirée will be Eddie Reid (of Britain’s Got Talent fame – but you saw him at Monosyllabic first!). Another treat will be some poetry from Hidden City, however if you want to catch it all – you’d better check out the free events on Sun 24th July.’
Wednesday 27th July, Mono, 12 Kings Court, Glasgow, 8 – 10pm, FREE!
(Apologies for the lack of links; can’t get them to work no matter how much I shout at wordpress.)
Ever Fallen in Love will be launched at Waterstone’s Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow on Thursday 14th July at 6.30pm. I’ll be introduced by the lovely Helen Sedgwick, writer and editor.
Free, all welcome and wine will be served!
A few events coming up around the publication of Ever Fallen in Love:
Thursday 14th July: Ever Fallen in Love launch, Waterstones Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Wednesday 20th July: Weegie Wednesday, The Universal, Glasgow
Sunday 14th August: Edinburgh International Book Festival
Thursday 25th August:Blackwell’s, Edinburgh
I’ll post more details when I have them.
Louise and I went to the recording of Panic Patterns for Radio Scotland the other week and it’s sounding good. The director, Gaynor MacFarlane, did a brilliant job and we’re delighted that she managed to secure the original cast: Selina Boyack and Veronica Leer.
It’ll air on Wednesday 8th June at 2pm on Radio Scotland, and will be available on listen again for a week after that. The blurb reads:
‘An edgy contemporary thriller by two of Scotland’s best novelists. Ornithologists Jacq and Fay are on a remote island in the far north of Scotland investigating sudden changes in bird migration patterns. Fay believes these changes signify apocalyptic disaster. Jacq thinks her younger lover is overreacting. But they were meant to leave the island three days ago, the boat coming to pick them up still hasn’t arrived and their radio has been dead for a week. Can they really be witnessing the fallout from the end of the world?’
It’s been fun revisiting the play and adapting it. I’m looking forward to hearing it!
I’m very pleased to have joined the Board of Directors of Glasgow Women’s Library. As the sole resource of its kind in Scotland and an Accredited Museum, GWL is the national hub for cultural information, library and archive collections and museum artefacts relating to women. It’s an exciting time to join the Board, with many opportunities and plans for development and expansion coming up. To find out more, visit the GWL website or pop in to visit at 15 Berkeley Street, Glasgow, G3 7BY (adjoining the Mitchell Library).
A nice article by Colin Waters in the Scottish Review of Books about ‘young’ Scottish novelists. Click here to read it.
All quiet on the news front recently because I’ve been working hard at home, doing the final edits on Ever Fallen in Love. Louise and I are also adapting Panic Patterns for radio, and I’m beginning work on a new opera project. This is a busy teaching term as well, but I’m lucky to be working with some really interesting writers in the current MLitt cohort.
This week I also have the pleasure of acting as a judge for the STaG New Works Festival; four nights of new devised and scripted plays by young writers. The winner takes the play to the Fringe in August, and so far it looks like being very tough competition indeed! For more information on Student Theatre at Glasgow click here.