Blogger Profiles
George Anderson was born in Twechar in 1966. He lives in Leith and has worked variously in journalism, public relations, wildlife conservation and the arts. His story, Tumshie Macfadgen's Bid for Ultimate Bliss was adapted by writer/director Simon Hynd into a Tartan Short film of the same name, winning a Scottish BAFTA in 2004. He has read at the Aye Write! Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and Wigtown Book Festival, where he has also acted as Book Doctor, and writer in residence. He has been a Scottish Arts Council literary resident at Cove Park in Argyll, and received a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust.
Stephen Barrett has been making up stories since he learned to read. His love of literature and obscure questions led to his studying English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he later went on to complete a Masters degree in Romanticism, specializing in the poetry of Keats and Shelley. He returned to the University in 2010 to undertake the first year course in Creative Writing: Fiction. He has completed the first draft of his first novel, The Lame God - a story of outsiders and the power of art, spread over 2,500 years – and is currently concentrating on short story writing. He also has plans to write a literary autobiography. Stephen lives and works in Glasgow.
Carol Farrelly lives and works in Edinburgh. She has just finished her MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. She has short stories published or forthcoming in magazines such as Stand, Dreamcatcher and Chapman. Her stories have also been shortlisted for the Bridport, Asham and Fish Prizes. She is currently working on a novel that explores an Irish man’s experiences of returning to his neutral homeland during World War Two. She looks forward to the day when she knows how his story ends.
Jane Flett lives in Edinburgh, where she writes stories about misfits, drinks too much scotch, runs an underground music venue, and dances really, really well. Past escapades have included graduating as an award-winning philosopher, loitering in a hard hat on Leith Walk for the trams and starring in underground films, but she remains primarily infatuated with writing.
Kirstin Innes is a Glasgow-based writer and journalist. Her short fiction has been published in Gutter magazine, New Writing Scotland and in the Cargo Press anthology The Year of Open Doors. She won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2008, was commissioned to write a short story for the Edinburgh international Book Festival's Elsewhere project, and is currently working on her first novel, Fishnet, about prostitution in Scotland. She's also in demand as a performer of her own work; she’s performed at the Hydro Connect Festival, at regular nights Discombobulate, Manifesto and The Golden Hour, and on BBC Radio Scotland, and co-runs the monthly Glasgow spoken word and live music night Words Per Minute.
William Letford lives in Stirling, writes short stories and poetry and works as a roofer. As well as receiving a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust he has been the recipient of an SQA Star Award and an Edwin Morgan Travel Bursary from the Arts Trust of Scotland.
Kirsty Logan is a writer, editor, teacher, book reviewer, and general layabout. In 2008, Kirsty graduated with distinction from the University of Glasgow's Creative Writing MLitt. She won a New Writers Award the following year, and is currently working on her novel Little Dead Boys with editor Judy Moir. Kirsty is the co-editor of new fiction magazine Fractured West, and the reviews editor for PANK.
She has had 80 short stories, poems and personal essays published in places like The Rumpus, Flatmancrooked, Chroma, Pear Noir!, and Gutter; and the anthologies Girl Crush (Cleis, 2010), 100 Stories For Haiti (Bridge House, 2010), and The Book That Changed My Life (Luath, 2010). She likes coffee cupcakes, retold fairytales, and sticking pins in maps. Her website is kirstylogan.com.
Ross McGregor lives and works in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. He writes prose and poetry. In 2008 he won a Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Award and took part in a mentoring programme with novelist Andrew Crumey for nine months. In this time he completed his first novel, The Fair Fortnight. He has had poetry published in New Writing Scotland and short fiction published on Scottish Book Trust’s website. He is currently writing his second novel, The Fourth Friend.
Allan Radcliffe was born in Perth in 1975 and now lives in Edinburgh. He has worked as a stagehand, English teacher, journalist and editor. His short stories and poems have appeared in publications such as New Writing Scotland, Markings, Celtic View, Gutter and two of the Hidden City collections. He is a regular contributor of features and reviews to newspapers and journals, including the Sunday Times, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Herald, The List, Metro and Big Issue. He is currently working on his first novel, entitled Massacre.
Tat Usher is a teacher, environmentalist and wannabe farmer. She currently lives in a converted boat house by a loch in Argyll with her large herd of plastic goats, which are supposed to inspire her to get on with finishing her first novel, Goatman. In 2007, Tat graduated with distinction from the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing MA programme. She went on to win a New Writers Award the following year, and has worked on Goatman with the writer Louise Welsh through the Scottish Book Trust’s mentoring programme. Tat has had short stories published in several magazines and anthologies and recently had a story broadcast on the ‘Scottish Shorts’ series on Radio 4.
Nicola White lives on a peninsula in Argyll, between a picturesque sea loch and an MOD arms depot. A former art curator and documentary producer, she gave up the city and steady wages a few years ago. Since then she has been invited to read her work at the Blue Room, Newcastle and the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin. In 2008 she received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Alongside Anne Donovan and Laura Marney, she was commissioned to produce a short fiction booklet by Artlink Edinburgh. Entitled Something in the Pause, it was published in 2009. In January 2011 her short story Fear in a Hat was broadcast on Radio Four.
