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Barry Graham

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Contact: [email protected]
Local authority: Glasgow City
Languages: English, Scots
Barry Graham's headshot

Barry Graham is a pen name of greum maol stevenson, who is a  fiction-writer, poet, essayist and Zen Buddhist priest. As "Barry Graham," he has published more than a dozen books, most of which have been translated into French. His novel The Book of Man was chosen as a best book of 1995 by the American Library Association. In 2021, he was awarded the Prix Marianne for the French translation of his 1991 novel The Champion's New Clothes

More recently, he has published fiction as g.m. stevenson, and poetry as greum maol. His stories and poems have appeared in Aeos magazine, and he has published a poetry chapbook, no: poems of urban zen. He is also the author of two books on Zen practice — Life After Ego and Nothing Extra — under his Buddhist name, dogo.

He leads writing workshops in schools and prisons, and gives performances in which he recites sections of his novels from memory. He also teaches the practice of Kado (The Way of Poetry), with writing as a method of meditation. 

He lived for 22 years in the USA, where he witnessed two executions, at the invitation of the men who were to be killed, an experience described in his book Why I Watch People Die. He returned to Scotland in 2017, in response to the election of Donald Trump, and now lives in Maryhill, Glasgow, where he was born and grew up.

(Photo credit: daishin stephenson)

Local authorities will visit

Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; Edinburgh City; Falkirk; Fife; Glasgow City; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian

Events will deliver

Mentoring; Panel event; Performance; Reading; Residency; Talk; Workshop

Audience will work with

Adult learners; Care-experienced people; People experiencing mental health problems; Prisoners & young offenders; Vulnerable young people (under 18)

Topics of work

Activism & protest; Adolescence; Biography & memoir; Care experience; Childhood; Class & society; Contemporary fiction; Crime fiction; Death, grief & bereavement; Drug addiction, alcoholism & substance abuse; Family; Friendship; Health including mental health & wellbeing; Horror; LGBTQIA+ characters; Loneliness & isolation; Love & romance; Mystery & thriller; Politics; Poverty; Religion & beliefs; Self-publishing & independent publishing; Urban communities; Violence & abuse

Age groups published for

Adults

Age groups will work with

12-14; 15-18; 18+

Audience size

0-10; 11-30; 31-100; 100-500; 500+