RIPTIDE: NEW WRITING FROM THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS
Sharon Blackie & David Knowles, eds.
Pam
Beasant,
originally from Glasgow, now lives and works in Stromness, Orkney. She has
been published widely as a poet and has written many information books for
children. In 2006, her play, A Hamnavoe Man, was performed at the
St Magnus Festival. Her biographical study of Orcadian artist Stanley Cursiter
will be published later this year, and she is working on the final edit of
her first novel and a libretto for an opera in collaboration with composer
Gemma McGregor. In January 2007, Pam was appointed as the first George Mackay
Brown Writing Fellow. Her first collection of poetry, Running With a Snow
Leopard, was published by Two Ravens Press in January 2008.
Sharon Blackie is co-founder of Two Ravens
Press. Her first novel, The Long Delirious Burning Blue, was published
by Two Ravens Press in February 2008. She is also editor of Cleave: New
Writing by Women in Scotland (Two Ravens Press, 2008) and translator
from the French of Raymond Federman's The Sam Book. She has been
awarded a Scottish Arts COuncil Writer's Bursary to work on her second novel.
She lives on a croft on the shores of Loch Broom by Ullapool, with her husband
David Knowles.
Robert Davidson is the author of two collections,
The Bird & The Monkey and Total Immersion, and editor
of a third, After the Watergaw. His book-length poem, Columba,
was published in Poetry Scotland, and performed both on radio and as a drama.
Dunbeath Water – an Oratorio was performed three times during
Highland Festival 2003, and again at Nairn Arts and Book Festival 2007. He
was Editor of Northwords magazine and Sandstone Review and is Managing Editor
of Sandstone Press Ltd. His next book will be Shadow Behind the Sun,
written with Remzije Sherifi.
Angus Dunn is the author of Writing
in the Sand, a novel published by Luath Press in October 2006 and of
The Perfect Loaf, a short story collection published by Two Ravens Pres in
2008. He was awarded the 1995 Robert Louis Stevenson Prize and the 2002 Neil
Gunn Short Story prize. Angus is from the Highlands of Scotland. He has been
known to wear a kilt, but does not speak Gaelic.
Eva Faber was born in Australia and has
lived in the Scottish Highlands since 1993. She won the Neil Gunn award for
her fiction in 1994 and has been published in various magazines since then,
although most of her energies have been channelled into teaching and parenting.
She is also a photographer and painter.
Alison Flett was born and bred in Edinburgh
but has been living in Orkney for the past eight years. She recently won the
Belmont prize for children’s poetry and was shortlisted for the 2004
Scotsman/Orange short story award. Her collection of poetry, Whit Lassyz
Ur Inty (Argyll Press, 2005) was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book
of the Year Award. She has just been awarded a SAC grant to work on a book
of short stories about island life.
John Glenday is the author of two full-length
collections: The Apple Ghost (Peterloo Poets, 1989) won a Scottish
Arts Council Book Award, and Undark (Peterloo Poets, 1995) was a
Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In 1990/91 he was appointed Scottish/Canadian
Exchange Fellow, based at the University of Alberta and in 2000/2001 was Associate
Writer at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning. Poems
have appeared in numerous anthologies, most recently New British Poetry
(Graywolf Press, 2004) and 100 Favourite Scottish Poems (Luath Press,
2006). He lives in Cawdor, and currently works as a coordinator for addictions
with NHS Highland.
Clio Gray was born in Yorkshire, brought
up in Devon and has been living in Scotland for the past fifteen years, where
she works at her local library. She has won many prizes for her short stories,
most notably the Scotsman/Orange Award in 2006. Her first novel, Guardians
of the Key, a historical mystery, was published by Headline in 2006;
the sequel, The Roaring of the Labyrinth, will be published in August
2007. Clio's first short story collection, Types of Everlasting Rest,
was published by Two Ravens Press in July 2007.
Yvonne Gray lives near Stromness in Orkney.
She teaches English part time and is also a musician. Her first poetry collection,
In the Hanging Valley, was published by Two Ravens Press in March
2008. Her poems have appeared in various magazines including Cenrastus, New
Writing Scotland and Poetry Scotland. She was Featured Poet in Northwords
33 and in Sandstone Review 3. Other publications include Rationed Air
(with artist Carol Dunbar), Swappan the Mallimacks (Galdragon Press)
and Nouster (Braga Press).
Andrew Greig is the author of six collections
of poetry, the latest of which is This Life, This Life: New and Selected
Poems, published by Bloodaxe Books. His five novels are That Summer,
Electric Brae, The Return of John McNab, When They Lay Bare and In
Another Light. His latest work of non-fiction is Preferred Lies.
He lives in Peebles and Orkney.
