S.G. (Shona) MacLean was born and brought up in the Scottish Highlands where her parents were hoteliers. She holds a PhD in History from the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of both the Alexander Seaton and the Damian Seeker series of historical mysteries, twice winning the CWA Historical Dagger for the latter. Her […]
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Jonathan Whitelaw is a writer, award-winning journalist and broadcaster. After working on the frontline of Scottish politics, he moved into journalism, covering everything from sports to music to radioactive waste – and everything in between. He’s also a regular reviewer, panelist and commentator. Find him on twitter @JDWhitelaw13.
Donald S. Murray is a writer and poet who was awarded The UK Society of Authors’ Paul Torday Memorial Prize for his first novel and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award at Scotland’s National Book Awards 2021. His critically acclaimed non-fiction books bring to life the culture and nature of the Scottish islands, and his literary […]
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet, author, scribbler, stitcher. He’s unfurled two acclaimed collections of poetry (Polygon Books) with a prose debut, Boy Friends, published by Faber & Faber in 2022. He won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, the John Mather’s Trust Rising Star of Literature Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 […]
Liam McIlvanney is the winner of the Saltire First Book Award and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. He is a regular contributor to publications including the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Guardian. He is Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where […]
It has been 25 years since Chris Brookmyre’s first book was published. Since then, he has established himself as one of the most popular crime writers in Scotland. His enthusiasm for hurling himself into extra-curricular activities, such as the Scotland vs England Writers football, the Caledonian Challenge, Channel 5 Egg Heads, the Fun Lovin’ Crime […]
Denise Mina is the author of twenty novels, including the Reese’s Book Club pick Conviction and its sequel Confidence, as well as The Second Murderer, The Less Dead, The Long Drop—winner of the 2017 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year—and the Garnethill trilogy, the first installment of which won the John Creasey […]
Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym for a collaboration between Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. The couple are married and live in Scotland. Chris Brookmyre is the international bestselling and multi-award-winning author of over twenty novels. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years’ experience, whose research for her Master’s degree in the History […]
Doug Johnstone is the author of 12 previous novels. Several of his books have been bestsellers and three, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), were shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and has been a writer-in-residence at various institutions over the […]
Sarah Broadley lives in Scotland and writes for children of all ages. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and the Society of Authors (SOA). She regularly reviews children’s books for on-line resource, My Book Corner, and is a trustee on the board of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of […]
Zita Babarczi is a second year PhD student at the University of Stirling, studying representations of gender in conspiracy literature from the late 1950s to the present day. She attained her English Studies BA (Hons) at the University of Stirling and a Modernities Masters in Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research is funded […]
Ruth Wishart is a journalist and broadcaster who writes a column for the Sunday National in Scotland and contributes to various other media both print and broadcast. She is an experienced book festival chair who has been an interviewer at all of Scotland’s main book festivals. She also runs one of her own in Argyll […]
Sha Nazir is the publisher at BHP Comics, Scotland’s only graphic novel publisher and owner of 9 Panels Agency. He produces Glasgow Comic Con, Edinburgh Comic Art Festival and is the founder of the SICBAs, the UK’s longest-running comic book awards. He also writes and draws comics.
Andrew O’Hagan, a Scottish novelist and essayist, is a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, a three-time nominee for the Booker Prize, the editor-at-large of the London Review of Books, and a contributor to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He lives in London. Andrew O’Hagan’s Festival […]
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and of a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been bestsellers throughout the world. Alexander McCall Smith has received numerous accolades for his work and most recently, he […]
Janet Smyth is an arts programme consultant specialising in strategic planning of events, programmes and projects for children, young people, educators and care-givers within festivals and creative spaces. She has worked with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the National Galleries of Scotland, Seven Stories in Newcastle and is currently Children’s and Families Programmer for International […]
Val McDermid’s best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for the Fact Crime nominee Forensics. Val McDermid’s Festival appearance is generously supported by Scottish Books International.
Ian Rankin is the number one bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus series. The Rebus books have been translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers worldwide. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards, including the prestigious Diamond Dagger, and in 2002 he received an OBE for services to literature. He lives in […]
Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was the winner of two British Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, […]
