Herland Salon at Edinburgh International Book Festival

Mindful of the great tradition of women salonières and gatherings of women creatives that have driven cultural change, Glasgow Women’s Library created our Herland Salon, a forum for women to learn and share their thoughts about the world in a creative space. This Herland special for Edinburgh International Book Festival combines music, live DJ-ing and stories. Expect surprising pleasures, the cutting edge, diverse voices and new ideas.

Optional: dress code red. You can interpret the dress code as you wish, or come along in whatever you feel comfortable in.

Herland Salon, Tuesday 21st August, 6.30pm to 8pm, £sliding scale, The Spiegeltent, Edinburgh International Book Festival

The legendary Glasgow Women’s Library accessible salon will have its first Festival outing.

Our Salonnières: Zoë Strachan & Louise Welsh

Zoë Strachan is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and librettist who also dabbles in non-fiction and drama. She teaches on the Creative Writing programme at University of Glasgow and is proud to volunteer as Vice-Chair of the Board of Glasgow Women’s Library. See: www.zoestrachan.com

Louise Welsh is the author of nine novels. Her latest play King Keich premieres at Oran Mhor, Glasgow this October and she has written the libretto for a new opera Anthropocene (music by Stuart MacRae) which premieres at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in January. Louise is Professor of Creative Writing at University of Glasgow. See: www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/anthropocene

We are delighted to announce our line up!

Heir of the Cursed is a caulbearer born of an apparition, a primordial memory, a penny drop. She makes songs influenced by the strange nuances of life, rooted in grief, Scottish weather, the constant and the inconstant. www.facebook.com/Heirofthecursed

Nadine Aisha Jassat is an award-winning writer whose work focuses on social justice. She has been published widely online and in print, and her work has drawn great acclaim: in 2018 she won a New Writers’ Award from the Scottish Book Trust, and was shortlisted for prestigious Edwin Morgan Poetry Award as well as the Outspoken London Poetry Prize (Poetry in Film). Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming from 404ink, March 2019. See: www.nadineaishaj.com

Diljeet Bhachu & Hannah Lee have been performing together since 2017, when they made their debut for Glasgow Women’s Library’s Silverwear Herland night. They mostly perform their own original compositions, but like to throw in the odd cover, in homage to inspiring women of colour. Hannah Lee is a Scottish-Chinese teacher based in Glasgow, a musician, and a visual artist. She graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a BA (Music) award in 2016 and is a strong advocate for intersectional feminism and diversifying and decolonising arts education. Diljeet Bhachu is a Scottish-Indian researcher-activist-musician based in Glasgow and Edinburgh, currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Diljeet is an activist with the Musicians’ Union (MU) and University and Colleges Union (UCU). She recently co-founded the Scottish-Asian Creative Artists’ Network (ScrAN), to address the issues specific to Scottish-Asians working in the creative industries in Scotland. See: hannahleeartist.wordpress.com and diljeetbhachu.wordpress.com or scotasiancreatives.wordpress.com

Katie Ailes researches, performs in, and coordinates programming in the field of contemporary UK spoken word poetry. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Strathclyde focused on the performance of authentic selfhood in UK spoken word culture. Katie co-organises and performs with the collective Loud Poets, and released her first collection, Homing, in 2015. See: katieailes.com

This event is part of Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Revolting Women series of events, curated by Guest Selector Adele Patrick. For more information about Edinburgh International Book Festival see here. To find out about other ways GWL are involved in this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival on our blog post here.

Booking

Please visit Edinburgh International Book Festival’s website to book. This event is open to all 18+ and has a sliding scale pay what you can ticketing policy. More info here.