Reader-in-Residence Blog

Happy National Libraries Day!

Saturday 8th February 2014 is National Libraries Day – the culmination of a week of events and activities celebrating the vital role played by libraries at community level and beyond. […]

Top Ten Female Science Fiction Writers

The 2013 Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction was announced on My 1st. Of 82 novels submitted by publishers 6 were shortlisted. Not one of those 6 was by a female author.

Well, you might be thinking, that’s no surprise, men voting for themselves again.

The Mystery of the Invisible Women Poets – Glasgow 1983

I’ve just been browsing through a book I’ve had for a while, Noise and Smoky Breath, An Illustrated Anthology of Glasgow Poems 1900 – 1983, edited by Hamish Whyte and published in May 1983 by Third Eye Centre and Glasgow Libraries Publications Board. But where are the women poets?

Another archive treasure – and a poem

A couple of months ago I posted about some of the Suffragette treasures we have in our archive; the beautiful brooch in the Suffragette colours, lilac, white and green; the witty postcards. And I intimated there were more treasures to be revealed…

Emily Wilding Davison Writing Competition

EMILY INSPIRES! NEW WRITING COMPETITION

Just got word of this writing competition and I thought I’d post it here in case you’re interested. But if you are, the deadline is very soon, so get writing!

Blue, Black, Permanent – and Inspirational.

Being a writer – and a Reader in Residence – has its perks, and recently I experienced them when I was invited to Orkney to be part of the Orkney Book Festval, the brainchild of the sterling people who make up the George Mackay Brown Fellowship. A major part of the festival was the celebration of the life and works of Orkney born film-maker and poet, Margaret Tait…

Women Writing Funny – a top ten list

These days most of us are used to finding our comedy entertainment through sitcoms or films, but there has always been a great range of comedy writing in book form, from novels and short stories to spoof memoirs and autobiographies. So that got me to thinking about drawing up a Top Ten List of Comic Reads Written by Women

Fat Like The Sun

The right book at the right time – Way back, when I was a young(ish) mum and had not long started writing, a friend gave me a loan of a poetry book called FAT LIKE THE SUN by ANNA SWIR. Never heard of it? Or, for that matter, her? Well, neither had I…

Art, literature, letters… and lunch!

Last week, along with Glasgow Women’s Library’s popular Read, Relax, Recharge! lunchtime reading group, I ventured out from the frowsy confines of the library and climbed up to the light-filled studio at the top of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.

Books, Life and… Laughter!

Last Thursday evening I got together with a lovely crowd of women at our soon-to-be home in Landressy Street, Bridgeton for a ‘Books That Changed Our Lives’ event with Orkney-born author, Alison Miller, and GWL Librarian, Wendy Kirk. Alison, whose first novel, DEMO, was published by Penguin, was able to travel down to GWL especially for the event, thanks to the Scottish Book Trust.