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Norman Bissell

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Contact: normanbissell@btinternet.com
Local authority: Argyll and Bute
Languages: English, Scots
Norman Bissell's headshot

I was born in Glasgow and now live on the Isle of Luing near Oban in Argyll. I graduated with MA Hons in philosophy and history from the University of Glasgow and was a principal teacher of history at Braidhurst High School in Motherwell for 17 years and an EIS Area Officer. In 2010 I was awarded the Fellowship of the Educational Institute of Scotland for signal service to education and in 2014 I received an artist's bursary from Creative Scotland to research and write Barnhill a novel about George Orwell's final years, published by Luath Press in June 2019. My poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky: A Journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing, with photographs by Oscar Marzaroli, is also published by Luath Press.

Since 2002 I have been Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics which promotes the creative expression of the Earth, and I edit its journal Stravaig. I have provided poetry workshops to primary pupils and performed my poems with musicians and singers. I have a full disclosure from Disclosure Scotland and can offer talks and workshops on George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four, geopoetics, Kenneth White and haiku walking.

(Photo credit: Birgit Whitmore)

(Works in Scots)

Local authorities can 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 can deliver

Mentoring; Panel event; Performance; Reading; Residency; Talk; Workshop; Professional development, CLPL or CPD; Chairing events

Audience can work with

Adult learners; Outdoor learning

Topics of work

Activism & protest; Ageing; Biography & memoir; Class & society; Coasts, seas & oceans; Death, grief & bereavement; Environment & climate; Event production; Historical fiction; History; Island communities; Loneliness & isolation; Love & romance; Nature; Politics; Publishing & getting published; Rural communities; Self-publishing & independent publishing; Travel writing; Urban communities; World War 1; World War 2

Age groups published for

Children; Teens; Adults

Age groups can work with

6-8; 9-11; 12-14; 15-18; 18+

Audience size

0-10; 11-30; 31-100