Literature advisors
Tony Bianchi
Alison Bowden
Joanna Bremner Smith
Graham Caie
Polly Clark
Chris Dolan
Ron Grosset
Robert Alan Jamieson
Claire Malcolm
Ann Matheson
Judy Moir
Alan Riach
Tony Bianchi is a native of Northumberland and was educated there and at the University of Wales, where he received a PhD for research on the work of Samuel Beckett. He is a Fellow of Yr Academi Gymreig (the Welsh Academy of Writers) and a former Fellow of the University of Wales. Until 2002, he headed the Literature Department of the Arts Council of Wales, where he was responsible in particular for developing support for writers, periodicals, publishers and translation; since then he has worked as a free-lance arts consultant, translator and writer. His consultancy work has involved project management, policy development and client review for funding bodies, manuscript assessment for writers and publishers and one-to-one mentoring.
His creative work includes poetry, for which he has been awarded national and international prizes, fiction (his novel, Esgyrn Bach, has been long-listed for the 2007 Welsh Book of the Year Award) and criticism. He is editor of the standard anthology of contemporary Welsh-language poetry.
Alison Bowden is Director of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust. She has 10 years experience in book publishing in Scotland, in various roles, working as a Commissioning Editor at Polygon, and later as Rights Manager at Edinburgh University Press. In addition to publishing, she has many years experience in the Scottish arts and culture environement, on committees, and working as advisor and guest speaker, as well as work within the music sector as a promoter.
Biography to follow
Graham D. Caie has been the Professor of English Language at the University of Glasgow since 1990 and for eighteen years before that was at the University of Copenhagen. He is a founding Fellow of the English Association and a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Arts.
For ten years he has been a Trustee of the National Library of Scotland and recently vice-chair of its Board of Trustees. He is Vice-President of the Scottish Text Society, a Board member of the Scottish Language Dictionaries and has been Convenor of the Scottish Language Resource Centre. For some years he was secretary of European Society for the Study of English (8000 members) and represented both Denmark and the UK on EU ERASMUS advisory panels. He has also chaired research and teaching assessment panels in Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
At present he is on the English panel of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the UK Research Assessment Exercise 2008 and the SQA.
Polly Clark was born in Toronto in 1968 and brought up in Cumbria, Lancashire, and the Borders of Scotland. She pursued a number of careers including zoo-keeping at Edinburgh Zoo, teaching English in Hungary and publishing at Oxford University Press.
Her first collection Kiss (Bloodaxe 2000) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and Take Me With You (Bloodaxe 2005) was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her third collection Farewell My Lovely is published in January 2009. In 1997 Polly received an Eric Gregory Award for her work.
Between 2000 and 2004 Polly was poet-in-residence for the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton, a unique collaboration between a poet and newspaper that was shortlisted for an Arts and Business Award. In 2004 she produced a tour by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Ford in theatres across the south of England, chairing and presenting his talks.
Since moving back to Scotland in 2005, Polly has developed Poet to Poet, a translation exchange programme hosted by Cove Park, Scotland’s international artist residency centre. She has also published short stories in Comma Press’s Hyphen and Elipsis series. She is a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Edinburgh University and she can be found on the internet on Polly Clark's personal web page.
Chris Dolan's prose includes: Poor Angel, (shortlisted for the Saltire Prize 1996) and Ascension Day (McKitterick Prize 2001). His short story, Sleet and Snow, won the Scotland on Sunday/Macallan prize in 1995 and he has had stories published in magazines, newspapers and collections. In 1994 he won a Scottish Screenwriting Bursary, and his films include Poor Angels (30” 1996) and The Ring of Truth, based on notes by Bill Douglas (BBC 1999). He has also written a drama documentary, An Anarchist’s Story (BBC 2006).
Chris has over 70 hours of television drama credits, including Taggart, Eurokids, River City, High Road and ;Alba na 70’s. His plays have been performed in Scotland, London, Italy, Spain and Germany. Sabina (Fringe First ’97; 9 productions to date, (Faber & Faber ‘97). His adaptation of Schlink’s The Reader will be produced again in Los Angeles in 2007. Leather Bound, has been performed at Oran Mor & Teatro Gayarre, Pamplona. He has also done translations of three new Spanish plays to date.
Radio work includes original plays for Radios 3 and 4; adaptations of Marquez, Stevenson, Eco and others. Chris is also a regular writer and presenter of features and documentaries on Radio Scotland.
As well as this, he is a regular features, arts, and travel contributor to national newspapers and in 2001, he won the Canongate Prize (Journalism). He has had some poetry published and tutors in screenwriting, prose and theatre including workshops in Pamplona. Board memberships include Glasgow’s CCA, Centro Lorca Spanish School, and the RLS Award, which he won in 2000.
Ron Grosset has 30 years of experience in full trade and mass-market book publishing and production, initially with Wm Collins Sons & Co Ltd Glasgow and London, where he was Head of Product Development, and now as the publisher of Geddes and Grosset, specialising in reference and children’s books, for export and domestic markets, and Waverley Books, publishing books of Scottish interest.
Ron is a consultant to paper mills and print groups in Europe and Asia, a paper designer and as a production buyer, sources pre-press, book and magazine work in volume, using conventional and digital printing processes in various countries around the world.
A specialist in vendor development, Ron advises on economic product design for print media; materials development, procurement and production buying and lectures on these and related subjects in the UK and overseas. Ron chairs the Training Committee of Publishing Scotland and is a Trustee of the Edinburgh Unesco City Of Literature organisation.
Robert Alan Jamieson was born in Shetland in 1958 and grew up in the crofting community of Sandness. After publishing two novels and a collection of poems while in his twenties, he attended the University of Edinburgh as a mature student. Subsequently he held the William Soutar Fellowship in Perth, was co-editor of Edinburgh Review and writer in residence at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.
Since 1992 he has pioneered the teaching of creative writing at the University of Edinburgh. His third novel 'A Day at the Office' (1991) was among The List's '100 Best Scottish Books'. His poetry in Shetlandic Scots has been published in 'Nort Atlantik Drift' (1999) and 'Ansin t'Sjaetlin: some responses to the language question' (2005).
Claire Malcolm is the Director of New Writing North, the writing development agency for the North East of England.
Prior to this she worked at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and for the York Festival and King’s Manor Gallery. Highlights of her work with New Writing North include: the origination of the Campaign to Save the Short Story, the establishment of the £60,000 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award and the commissioning of Scarborough by Fiona Evans (a Fringe First winner which then transferred to the Royal Court, London). She is currently working to achieve the opening of the new Northern Writers' Centre in 2011.
Claire has also edited a number of publications: So, What Kept You?, a collection of short stories with Margaret Wilkinson, Magnetic North, Eating the Elephant and Other Plays by Julia Darling and The Write Guide: Mentoring for Creative Writers.
Previous consultancy work includes the judging of the John Whiting Award and the Raymond Williams Award for Arts Council England and judging/panel work for Northern Film and Media. Claire has also worked as a mentor for the National Association of Literature Development (NALD) and has been commissioned to write papers on writer development and fundraising in the literature sector. In 2007 Claire received an Encouragement of New Writing Award from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. She has a Diploma in Cultural Leadership from City University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
She is currently a board member for Bridge and Tunnel Voices (an organisation which supports arts and media work with middle-eastern refugees and immigrants) and has previously served on the boards of Mslexia magazine, Live Theatre and the Northern Cultural Skills Partnership.
Ann Matheson was Keeper of Printed Books in the National Library of Scotland until 2000. She was Chairman of the Literature Committee, Scottish Arts Council, from 1987 to 2003. She is Secretary General of the Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeenes de Recharche (LIBER); and a member of the Literary Awards Panel of the Saltire Society. She has been a member of Comhairle nan Leabhraichean (The Gaelic Books Council); and until 2007 she was Chairman of the Consortium of European Research Libraries. She is Secretary of the General Council of the University of Edinburgh; and a member of the Advisory Committee for Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Library, Isle of Skye.
Judy Moir has worked in various roles in the Scottish publishing sector since 1981 – Director of the Scottish Publishers Association, freelance editor and book reviewer, lecturer in Publishing at Napier University, Editorial Director of Canongate Books and most recently for Penguin Scotland. She is currently a literary consultant.
Alan Riach: Chair of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University; General Editor of Collected Works of Hugh MacDiarmid (15 volumes to date); poet (collections include This Folding Map, An Open Return, First & Last Songs, Clearances); author of Representing Scotland in Literature, Popular Culture and Iconography (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and Hugh MacDiarmid's Epic Poetry (Edinburgh University Press); President, Association for Scottish Literary Studies; publishers' reader; author and presenter of radio series The Good of the Arts (Radio New Zealand Concert FM) and other radio programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio Scotland, etc. Specialist in Scottish Literature, Modern literature; poetry; literature in education; literature, painting and music.
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