Sunday, August 17, 2008

This could be quite fun:

THE EDINBURGH International Book Festival is usually where writers arrive after the long and often painful process of finding a publisher for their master work, writes Edd McCracken.

But the festival has taken the unusual step of becoming a publisher itself, commissioning a book of new work for the first time in its 25-year history.

Lights Off The Quay, a compilation of commissioned work from Scottish writers Don Paterson, Janice Galloway, AL Kennedy...and John Burnside, was launched at Charlotte Square yesterday.


Janice Galloway and AL Kennedy in the same book? Sign me up.

Also worth noting:

The collection is the product of the festival's successful bid for more than £30,000 from the Scottish government's Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund. As well as funding the work, the money will go towards the writers promoting the book abroad.


I'm rooting for an Ohio visit but I suspect it's far more likely I'll get my ass kicked before that happens.

I did read the excerpt of Galloway's upcoming book, This is Not About Me, that appears in Granta 101. This is Not About Me is either a memoirish novel or a novelish memoir, I can't remember which. What I do remember is that the book is definitely something I want to read right now.

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