Scottish Literary Festivals
Literary festivals in Scotland have never been more prolific. This recent growth spurt is largely due to the huge success of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The past decade has seen a network of new festivals across Scotland, the majority funded by the Scottish Arts Council, from Glasgow, the Borders, Perth & Kinross, Pitlochry, Inverness, Ullapool, Orkney and Shetland to Lewis.
Longer-established festivals such as the University of Aberdeen’s WORD festival, the StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrews and the Wigtown Book Festival have grown into major national fixtures. As recently as 2007, barely a month would pass without a book festival of some kind somewhere in Scotland.
Forming an integral part of the literary calendar, book festivals provide space for both new and established writers to showcase their work to a wide audience. Keep an eye on this page for updates on some of the upcoming literary festivals around Scotland.
For further information see the Scottish Literary Festivals Calendar 2009 (word).
The fifth Ullapool Book Festival returns to the shores of Lochbroom for a three day literary gathering over the weekend of Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Saturday 10th May 2009.
This year’s festival will feature award-winning authors such as Jackie Kay, AL Kennedy and Bernard MacLaverty. Others appearing will be Andro Linklater, Margaret Bennett, Aonghas MacNeacail and Gerda Stevenson, Angus Peter Campbell and Derrick McClure, Nancy Nicolson, Alan Bissett, Alison Miller, Doug Johnstone, Alice Thompson and James Graham.
Highlights include a writing workshop led by Glasgow writer and honorary Ullapool Book Festival president Donny O’Rourke on Saturday 9th and a day trip out to Isle Martin for four festival events, in recognition of Homecoming Scotland 2009. Isle Martin, situated north of Ullapool, holds special historical significance for being a location where immigrant ships left Scotland in the early 1800s. The audience will be taken out to the island by cruise boat in the morning and brought back later in the afternoon. There will be four events held on the island, including a reading from Andro Linklater, who spent several years living on the Isle Martin, during which he wrote his biography of Sir Compton Mackenzie.
Festival chairman Joan Michael said that the committee was delighted that so many leading writers have agreed to come to Ullapool. She also revealed one of the writers who will be speaking on Isle Martin. “Andro Linklater spent five years living on the island from 1979 and it was there that he wrote his biography of Compton Mackenzie. We just thought it would be great to bring Andro back to read on Isle Martin and we were so pleased when he jumped at the chance.”
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" ...The atmosphere at the Ullapool Book Festival far and away beats anything else we’ve ever encountered, no matter how fine an experience we’ve been treated to elsewhere. Why? A whole bunch of reasons. Because Ullapool is a very small place and it’s impossible for the audience not to mix with the writers in a very informal way - everyone tends to end up at the same bar, at the Ceilidh Place - maybe the Highlands’ finest hotel/bar/restaurant/bookshop/arts venue all rolled up into one! Because it’s over a weekend, and so people tend to come for the weekend rather than dipping in and out of events - so you get to know people. Because it’s just a very friendly place and everyone is filled with enthusiasm for what they’re doing - and no-one more than the local organising committee. And because, surprisingly perhaps for a place so small, Ullapool has some fantastic venues: the very fine MacPhail Centre Theatre, the Village Hall, the Ceilidh Place clubhouse... "
Sharon Blackie from Ullapool based publishers Two Ravens Press |
For more information on the festival visit the Ullapool Book Festival website. |