Adele Patrick, Glasgow Women’s Library’s Lifelong Learning and Creative Development Manager, is a Guest Selector at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. In her role as Guest Selector, Adele asked women writers appearing at the Festival for playlists of songs by women that empower, inspire and get their creative juices flowing. Below, Adele explains more about the Revolting Women playlists.
Being asked to be a guest selector for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival was hugely exciting but daunting too. When your world is awash with books, readers, creatives, and thinking about the ways that the cultural world could be opened up further to people, honing a strand was a delicious and tortuous process. I had ambitions from the outset to incorporate music into the mix. Could we have Bjork talking to Missy Elliot (I know the former loves the latter), could we have elders like Peggy Seeger jamming with Karine Polwart? What about the plethora of women musicians writing about their creative lives; or writers who incorporate music in their prose and poetry, from Jackie Kay to Zadie Smith, reading at a Herland-style gathering where the music from their works could be performed live…?
All of these musings have been distilled into the Revolting Women playlists and I am thrilled with the outcome. Author appearing at Edinburgh International Book Festival were asked for playlists of songs by women that empower, inspire and get their creative juices flowing. This mosaic of marvelous music shared by authors, and women who are active in this year’s Festival is fascinating, revelatory, inspiring and something that will add colour and flavour to many of the events taking place this year. The playlists can be enjoyed online by those that for whatever reason can’t make it to Edinburgh and will be a lasting aural snapshot (hopefully added to by GWL) of the importance of music in the lives of women writing today.
You can take a listen to my own playlist here.
Please note, we’re currently in the process of adding all of the playlists by the authors below to our Spotify account. There are some playlists that you can listen to right away but check back soon to access the complete list. All playlists will be uploaded by the start of Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday 11th August.
Tomi Adeyemi
Katie Ailes
Nadine Aisha Jassat
Lori Anderson
Sophie Anderson
Kerry Andrew
Elisabeth Åsbrink Jakobsen
Claire Askew
Diane Atkinson
Yaba Badoe
Hayley Barker
Brigid Benson
Sue Black
Rose Blake
Roxanne Bouchard
Mary Bracht
Theresa Breslin
Christine Burns
Margaret Busby
Jill Calder
Kirsten Carter McKee
Cathy Cassidy
Sampurna Chattarji
Lucy Christopher
Jennifer Clement
Jenny Colgan
Hazel Darwin-Clements
Leanda de Lisle
Helen de Main
Mandy de Waal
Lari Don
Stella Duffy
Sasha Dugdale
Helena Duggan
Ever Dundas
Aida Edemariam
Jenni Fagan
Patricia Fara
Tomiwa Folorunso
Cathy Forde
Clare Forrest
Janice Galloway
Sally Gardner
Camilla Grudova
Charlotte Guillain
Kirsty Gunn
Swapna Haddow
Marisa Haetzman
Edith Hall
Lisa Halliday
Frances Hardinge
Jane Harris
Melissa Harrison
Jessica Harrison-Hall
Samantha Harvey
Emma Hooper
Rebecca Gayle Howell
Marawa Ibrahim
Lynne Jones
Ruth Jones
Miranda Kaufmann
Liz Kessler
Elizabeth Laird
Jenny Landreth
Hannah Lavery
M G Leonard
Kirsty Logan
Karen Lord
Jenny Løvlie
Liz MacWhirter
Eleanor Martin
Helen McClory
Val McDermid
Amy McKay
Heidi Mirza
Alison Moore
Donna Moore
Sarah Mussi
Joanna Nadin
Chitra Nagarajan
Beverley Naidoo
Catherine Nixey
Beldina Odenyo Onassis
Ruth Padel
Ada Palmer
Helen Pankhurst
Adele Patrick
Nalini Paul
Andrea Pippins
Olumide Popoola
Lynne Rickards
Fern Riddell
Jane Robinson
Deanna Rodger
Jo Ruxton
Fiona Sampson
Lilja Sigurðardóttir
Heidi Sopinka
Kathrine Sowerby
Robin Stevens
Lyn Stevens
Gerda Stevenson
Alice Strang
Catherine Thomann
Nicola Upson
Marjan Vafaeian
Elise Valmorbida
Emma Viskic
Lucy Volpin
Hannah Walker
Joanna Walsh
Mary Watson
Elizabeth Wein
Alison Weir
Olga Wojtas
Gabriela Ybarra
Louisa Young
Linda Yueh
Leni Zumas
