Bloody Scotland 2026
18–20 September, Stirling
Tickets are now on sale for Bloody Scotland 2026, Scotland’s international crime-writing festival.
https://bloodyscotland.com/whats-on/
#Scottish #literature #books #bookfestival #CrimeWriting #BloodyScotland
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon, France, on June 29, 1900.
The Little Prince was written and illustrated by him during exile in the United States and first published there in 1943; today it is one of the most translated works of fiction in the world.
#books #writers #quotes #literature #bookstodon @bookstodon #bookstagram #reading #writing #booksky #readingcommunity #BookTok #book #booklovers #bookish #Bookwyrm #bookworm #booklover #TheLittlePrince #Exupery
How Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” Inspired the Beat Movement
With the 1957 publication of Kerouac’s On the Road, critics believed America’s “lost” literary generation of the 1920s had been overtaken by the Beat Movement.
https://www.thecollector.com/jack-kerouac-on-the-road-beat-movement/
In this episode of the “Just Get a Real Job” podcast, Jamie Mackinlay talks to Margaret McDonald, who in 2025 became the youngest-ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing for her debut novel GLASGOW BOYS.
Margaret shares the journey behind GLASGOW BOYS, from writing fanfiction as a teenager in East Kilbride to becoming one of Scotland's most exciting literary voices.
@bookstodon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBPjm1fpDEI
#Scottish #literature #YA #YoungAdult #KidLit #Glasgow #podcast
The Glenriddell Manuscripts preserve Robert Burns’s own chosen poems & letters, illuminating his creative process. After his death, they went on an extraordinary journey before returning to Scotland. Ralph McLean, manuscripts curator for long 18th century collections at the National Library of Scotland, tells us more
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #manuscripts #18thcentury #poetry
50 Great Classic Novels Under 200 Pages
Short and Sweet
https://lithub.com/50-great-classic-novels-under-200-pages/
Many of these are at PG:
Writing Science Fiction from Scotland – Ken MacLeod
19 June, Glasgow – free
Award-winning science-fiction author Ken MacLeod discusses his career & how he became a major figure in the world of SF.
His work has been widely translated & ranges from near-future dystopia to far-flung space opera, drawing on his first-hand knowledge of biological science, information technology, & political activism.
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/writing-science-fiction-from-scotland-ken-macleod
Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre’s Write Highlands Bursary offers fully funded non-residential places on creative writing courses on life writing, fiction, & poetry for writers living in the Highland Council area. You do not need to be a published writer.
@writingcommunity
https://forms.office.com/e/8LtwJL245v
#Scottish #literature #writing #writers #Highlands #Iamwriting #writingcommunity
Guide to the classics: John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has always been controversial
by Paul Giles
Books in American Literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/654
Eight Overlooked Characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice Books
Everyone loves the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat, but what about these weird and wonderful creations?
By Kelly Robinson
https://reactormag.com/eight-overlooked-characters-from-lewis-carrolls-alice-books/
Books by Lewis Carroll at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7
We read an entire scroll — without ever opening it
PHerc. 1667, sealed since the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, has been virtually unwrapped and read from beginning to end.
https://scrollprize.org/firstscroll
More information about the Herculaneum Papyrus Scrolls project:
https://www2.cs.uky.edu/dri/herculaneum-papyrus-scrolls/
Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America
Her writing posed the novel premise: What does it mean to be a woman? Her early death meant she never saw the movement she inspired
by Megan Marshall
Books by Margaret Fuller at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2829
Why We Still Love Mr. Darcy, 200 Years Later
Susan Moore in Praise of the Model For Self-Aware Romantic Heroes
Pride and Prejudice at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342
A literary history map of Stirling has been launched to celebrate the city’s wealth of myths & legends & contemporary writing greats.
Stirling’s map offers six literary routes tracing the steps of Scotland’s great writers & the sites that inspired them, from the Golden Lion Hotel, where Robert Burns etched his “Stirling Lines” on a window, to the Trossachs of Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake”.
https://www.stirling.gov.uk/news/step-into-stirling-s-story-as-new-literary-walking-map-launched/
Of Mice and Mountain Daisies: Robert Burns & Nature
17 June, Ellisland – tickets by donation
Led by acclaimed authors & historians Neil Baxter & Mary Craig, this special event will examine how Robert Burns experienced nature not simply as an observer, but as a poet whose daily life at Ellisland was shaped by the land, the River Nith & the rhythms of rural life
#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #RobertBurns #poetry #nature #naturepoetry
Reading Homer’s Iliad feels like scrolling through TikTok
The Iliad does not unfold as a smooth, continuous narrative. Instead, it advances through a succession of micro-episodes.
by Harsh Trivedi
The Iliad at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6130
“Colour is a language in the novel… The men can’t talk about the truth of their feelings, or about what’s really going on. But they have such specificity around colour, and that’s the one place they can meet”
—Douglas Stuart on JOHN OF JOHN, & championing Hebridean weavers
@bookstodon
#Scottish #literature #novel #DouglasStuart #Hebrides #tartan #textile #tweed #weaving #queerlit
I mind when I was a bairnie hou ma mither
brocht out ae day a kist o skinklan things,
ferlies I thocht them, ilk mair rare nor anither,
aa kind o gowdies, stanes and chains and rings…
—Douglas Young, “Thesaurus Paleo-Scoticus”
10 June is Gies a Scots Poem Day
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #GiesAScotsPoemDay
Graeme Armstrong: Raveheart
22 June, Erskine – £12
Graeme Armstrong discusses his new novel RAVEHEART: a high-octane narcotic trip of a story where underground rave culture clashes with a dystopian regime. Followed by a Q&A & book signing
Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 — August 9, 1962) worked in a tower-clock factory and later in bookshops before becoming famous. During his bookshop years, he educated himself by reading literature and philosophy.
One central theme of his books is the search for the true self. Again and again, his characters try to find authenticity, spiritual balance, and freedom from false roles.
#books #writers #literature #HermannHesse #Hesse #bookstodon @bookstodon #reading #booksky #bookstagram #today
A summer of reading-related episodes of the Love Scotland podcast begins with author Denise Mina talking about juggling facts & fiction in historical novels
https://pod.co/for-the-love-of-scotland-podcast/denise-mina-tales-of-historic-fact-and-fiction
No fairytale: what happened to the real children behind fiction’s best-loved characters?
Peter Pan, Christopher Robin and Alice in Wonderland … being the star of a classic story might seem like a dream, but there’s a dark side, argues the author of The Children
by Melissa Albert
Books in Children's Fiction at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/18
Robert Burns & Black Lives
24 June, Alloway – free
Clark McGinn, author & honorary research fellow at the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, examines Burns’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade, highlighting the paradoxes & moral conflicts of the poet’s time
#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #RobertBurns #slavery #SlaveryHistory
“[Spark] knew what the world thought of women like her, who prioritize their artistic and intellectual development over marriage, men and motherhood. She had known this, in fact, years before she herself became an object of public scrutiny. It is all there in the work she fought so fiercely to create, right from the beginning.”
—James Bailey on Muriel Spark’s eternal pursuit of the literary life – via @literaryhub
https://lithub.com/an-intellectual-monster-why-muriel-spark-never-married/
Someone is waving a white handkerchief
from the train as it pulls out with a white
plume from the station and rumbles its way
to somewhere that does not matter…
—George Bruce (1909–2002), “Departure and Departure and…”
published in The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (EUP 2005)
![“When the Party entered”
[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]
A detailed pen-and-ink illustration captioned "When the Party entered," depicting five figures in Regency-era dress — two men and three women — in an animated social gathering scene, with the women in high-waisted gowns and elaborate coiffures reacting to one another's presence.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1342/pg1342-images.html](/proxy/post_attachment/1110827/ca5190637a.jpg "“When the Party entered”
[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]
A detailed pen-and-ink illustration captioned \"When the Party entered,\" depicting five figures in Regency-era dress — two men and three women — in an animated social gathering scene, with the women in high-waisted gowns and elaborate coiffures reacting to one another's presence.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1342/pg1342-images.html")
