‘IF IT'S DEAD IN YOUR MOUTH THEN IT'S DEAD ON THE PAGE'
Write on
Rodge Glass (lett) and Alan Bissett know It’s good to talk
As the AYE WRITE! literary festival comes to Glasgow, Allan Radcliffe discusses the pleasures and pitfalls of public readings with two of the event’s bright young things.
he lidinburgh International Book Festival. 'I‘wo glorious weeks of readings. events and discussions in a convivial setting and. when it's all over and those Mongolian yurts come down. you’re left with the tnournful feeling you had when you were a child the week after Christmas. Now. however. book lovers from Scotland‘s central belt need no longer endure ll months of literary
impoverishment. thanks to the inauguration of
(ilasgow’s first hook festival.
Aye Write! features sessions with such luminaries as William Mcllvanney. Ian lVchiwan. Alasdair (hay and Lil. Loehhead. while the New Glasgow Writers~ event celebrates the work of young west coast wonders. most prominently Alan Bissett (Bovruu'rxl and Rodge Glass (whose debut is the forthcoming .\'o Fireworks). l'nlike many scribes. who would rather take up residence in a hole in the ground. neither Bissett nor Glass is averse to a spot of public reading.
‘When you see someone who‘s a natural in front of
an audience — I‘m thinking Anne Donovan. l.i/. Loehhead. Des Dillon — it can he electrifying.’ says Bissett. ‘I’erhaps that's because my writing is very verbal and energetic. so to do it _it1stice I feel I have to "perform" it rather than just read it. If it's dead in your mouth then it’s dead on the page.‘
For Glass. public readings help him gauge the
success of his work. 'When I first started. I got part of
the way through stories I thought were pure genius. only to find halfway through that they were nothing like it. I‘m confident enough. young enough and naive enough to think that if people only had the
opportunity to hear what I'm saying. a good proportion of them would like it.'
Both writers feel that Aye Write? is long overdue and in no way intended to rival its lidinburgh counterpart. ‘Anyone who understands why it's sensible to open a pub across the road from one that already exists will understand why Aye Write? is a good idea.‘ says (iltlss. "l‘he west coast is now borne to many quality writers who cross boundaries of age. gender. religion. class and national origin that in many countries are still not tolerated.‘
Indeed. the notion that (ilasgow‘s literary scene is fast becoming the most exciting in the [K has been attributed in part to the success of (ilasgow l'tiiv'et'sity"s (‘reative Writing .\ll’hil. which has produced such popular novelists as Louise Welsh and Anne Donovan. The coming year alone sees debut novels from graduates (ilass. Will Napier. Nick
Brooks and Alison Miller. an embarrassment of
homegrown talent that Alan Bissett applauds.
"l‘he writing scene in (ilasgow is starting to feel like the music circuit just before l’ran/ ltrdinand and Snow Patrol hit it big. In that sense. I don‘t think the lidinburgh Book Festival. which is massive. international and takes place alongside the tnain festival. are rivals. Aye Write? is for the people of Glasgow. and much more about building on the thriving writing scene already here. And it has a cooler name.‘
Aye Write! is at Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 19-Sun 27 Feb. See events.
is Nick Flynn it may have a corker of a title - Another Bullshit Night in Suck City - but this latest childhood memoir from someone you've never heard of is a tender tale of a deeply troubled upbringing. The stay of an absent dad and tormented mum would make even the most hard-hearted of us gently weep. See review. Faber.
Liz Niven Burning Whins is Niven's latest terrific collection of poems looking at subjects such as the Parliament, Foot and Mouth. and flight in the Western Isles. See review. Luath Press. L‘g‘s‘Seth Numero 17 ot the Pa/ookavil/e series has the Canadian writer and artist Gregory Gallant AKA Seth giving us another surreal slab of old school inkmanship. See review. Drawn and Quarterly.
*3 David Lapham The horrific destruction of childhood innocence is one of the themes of David Lapham’s work and never more evident is it than in his latest publication, Stray Bullets 35. He switches the action from California to Baltimore as the local youth hurt each other bad. See review. El Cap/tan.
as Aye Write! At last Glasgow gets a proper literary festival to challenge the might of the Edinburgh and Aberdeen bookish beanfeasts. Among the giants of contempo-Iit are ten McEwan (pictured). Louise Welsh and Iain Banks while up and corners such as Rodge Glass. Laura Mamey, Alan Bissett and Danny Leigh get their moment in the sun. See preview. Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 79—Sun 27 Feb.
‘ 7 Vet; : '.‘¢:' THE LIST 31