Literature advisors
Joanna Bremner Smith
Ron Butlin
Polly Clark
Chris Dolan
Ron Grosset
Diana Hope
Claire Malcolm
Ann Matheson
Marianne Mitchelson
Judy Moir
Alan Riach
Bronwen Williams
Biography to follow
Ron Butlin is the current Edinburgh Poet Laureate (Makar). Recently he was created an Honorary Writing Fellow by Edinburgh University.
Before taking up writing full-time he was, at various times, a lyricist with a pop band, a barnacle scraper on Thames barges, a footman attending embassies and country houses, and a male model.
His works have won several Scottish Arts Council Book Awards and include three novels, as well as collections of poetry and short stories. The Sound of My Voice was the winner of the Prix MillePages 2004 and Prix Lucioles 2005, both for Best Foreign Novel and was selected by the Guardian as one of their 1000 Books You Have to Read. He has been commissioned to write texts for the SCO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra among others. Currently he is working on a new libretto for Scottish Opera. His most recent books include the novel Belonging which was also a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, and a collection of short stories, No More Angels.
He lives in Edinburgh with his wife, the writer Regi Claire, and their golden retriever.
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.
Diana Hope is an artist, teacher and arts commentator. She was trained at Edinburgh College of Art, and exhibits regularly throughout Scotland. Her recent work has been concerned with the connections between poetry and painting. She is represented by The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.
As a teacher she has extensive experience in schools, community projects and further education, with a particular interest in instigating creative writing projects within Art departments. She has been a regular contributor to Times Ed Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland and other broadsheets.
For over 10 years she has been involved with The Edinburgh International Book Festival as a regular chair of events, having particular responsibility for the Celtic writers strand.
Claire Malcolm has been the Director of New Writing North, the writing development agency for the North East of England, since it began in 1996.
For New Writing North she personally oversees writer development strategies and the annual Northern Writers' Awards alongside project management of festivals and events (including the Durham Book Festival), international touring projects, theatre production and publications. The agency itself promotes theatre and literary events, supports and develops writers and undertakes project work in the fields of public art, education and in the community. www.newwritingnorth.com
Highlights of her work with New Writing North include: the origination of the campaign to Save the Short Story which resulted in the establishment of the National Short Story Prize, the delivery of the £60,000 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award, and the commissioning of new plays such as Scarborough by Fiona Evans (a Edinburgh Festival Fringe First winner which then transferred to the Royal Court, London). New Writing North is also a partner in the Story Engine, a development hub for screen-based writing www.thestoryengine.com.
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, The Write Guide: Mentoring for Creative Writers and Ten Years On, an anthology of North East writing. She is currently overseeing the development and launch of a North East Literary History wiki-website and associated publications with Newcastle University.
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). In 2007 she received an Encouragement of New Writing Award from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. She has just completed an MA in Cultural Leadership from City University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
She is a board member of Bridge and Tunnel Voices (an organisation which supports media work with middle-eastern refugees and immigrants) and for Hexham Book Festival. She has previously served on the boards of Mslexia, 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.
Marianne Mitchelson was born and brought up in Fife. She has worked in a variety of roles in the public and voluntary sectors for over 30 years mostly in the field of health and social care, latterly having significant responsibilities for strategic and operational planning, service development, performance monitoring and organisational governance.
Since 2006 she has been actively involved in the work of Itchy Coo - a project which specialises in the production of Scots language books for children and young people and the provision of related education and outreach services.
In 2008/2009 she was the Scottish Co-ordinator for the National Association of Literature Development. She has been an active member of the Literature Forum for Scotland since 2007.
She has been a member of the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland since the 1980s and has an active interest in traditional music and dance as well as a particular interest in the literature and languages of Scotland.
Marianne lives in Angus.
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 now works as a literary agent and as a 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.
Biography to follow |