PictCon 2
17 October 2026, Perth, Scotland: £6–£30
A Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention for everyone who reads, writes and watches
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pictcon2-tickets-1794793438489
#Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #fantasy #scifi #SFF #convention #specfic #speculativefiction
Taylor Strickland in conversation with Aoife Lyall
3 June, Ullapool – free
Taylor Strickland in conversation with Aoife Lyall about his debut poetry collection DWELL TIME, which is longlisted for the Highland Book Prize. Strickland explores contemporary experiences of love, language, technology & spirituality. Chaired by Aoife Lyall, who writes poetry on queerness, motherhood, emigration, & legacy.
https://www.tapsalteerie.co.uk/product/dwell-time-by-taylor-strickland/
Looking for Joy in Late Medieval Scotland
3 June, University of Edinburgh & online – free
Dr Kate Ash-Irisarri’s work-in-progress talk will investigate the representation & textual performance of joy, mirth, delight, solace, & wonder in late medieval Scottish literature
@litstudies
https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/event/dr-kate-ash-irisarri-looking-joy-late-medieval-scotland
#Scottish #literature #medieval #latemedieval #medievalliterature
There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window…
—Edwin Morgan, “Strawberries”🍓
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)
A poem for Pride Month 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #lovepoem #PrideMonth #LGBTQ #QueerLit
Stillness grips the house, just me
and the old dog as I re-read Longley
in the living room. No need of lamp
or candle, just silver kettle of sky
as it pours a deluge of light
across firth, field and hamlet…
—Lynn Valentine, “Midnight, Midsummer, Croft na Creich”
published in DON’T.EVEN.ASK.TOO.HOT: New Writing Scotland 42 (ASL, 2024)
“The Scots language has many ways old and new to describe LGBT+ experience… queer Scots-speakers can play with the words they’re given to find a language for what was once unsayable”
UNCO: a queer Scots lexicon
by Harry Josephine Giles & Malin Lewis
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
https://harryjosephine.com/portfolio/unco/
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #Pride #PrideMonth #Queer #language #LGBTQ
Tenderness is mandatory.
Careless lurches may draw blood,
enthusiasms leave abrasions,
excessive ardour has been known
to snap off spinal plates…
—“The Mating of Dinosaurs”, by William Oliphant (1920–2004)
published in THE MATING OF DINOSAURS (Taranis Books, 1992)
Happy Dinosaur Day to all who celebrate 🦖🦕
“I want my writing to be this oasis, this thing that’s just for me”
Douglas Stuart talks about his new novel, JOHN OF JOHN. He discusses the book’s origins, the communities & landscapes that shape his characters, & why he continues to write about the kind of people mainstream British fiction so often overlooks
@bookstodon
#OTD, 24 June, in 1314, the Scottish army under King Robert I destroyed a much larger English invasion force at Bannockburn, in one of the most decisive battles in medieval history. In 1793 Robert Burns composed “Scots Wha Hae”, originally entitled “Robert Bruce’s March To Bannockburn”
⚔️🧵
1/5
#Scottish #literature #Bannockburn #BattleofBannockburn #14thcentury #medieval #history #18thcentury #RobertBurns #poem #poetry #song
Here lies our land: every airt
Beneath swift clouds, glad glints of sun,
Belonging to none but itself…
—Kathleen Jamie, “Here lies our land”
A poem commissioned to mark the 700th anniversary of the Scottish victory at Bannockburn – won #OTD, 24 June, 1314 – & inscribed on the Bannockburn monument
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Bannockburn #BattleofBannockburn
“In comic form [Robert] Bruce appeared recently in Tales of Wallace and Bruce (2017), On Dangerous Ground (2014), and (somewhat bizarrely) in an issue of X-Men spin-off The New Mutants (#47, January 1987, ‘My Heart for the Highlands’).”
—Dr Iain MacInnes on the portrayal of the Scottish Wars of Independence in modern pop culture
https://blog.history.ac.uk/2018/11/the-scottish-wars-of-independence-in-modern-popular-culture/
#Scottish #literature #history #WarsOfScottishIndependence #RoberttheBruce #WilliamWallace #popularculture #popculture
Apon the Midsummer evin, mirriest of nichtis,
I muvit furth allane, neir as midnicht wes past…
—in “The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen & the Wedo”, William Dunbar (c1465–1530) eavesdrops on three ladies discussing marriage. What begins as candid moves rapidly to obscene…
1/3
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #poem #poetry #satire #medieval #15thcentury #16thcentury #midsummer
“Suppose it ill paid: the wonder is it should be paid at all. Other men pay, & pay dearly, for pleasures less desirable.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson, “Letter to a young gentleman who proposes to embrace the career of art” – via @gutenberg_org
Today, 24 June, is National Writing Day!
@writingcommunity
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/614/pg614-images.html#page182
#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson #writers #writing #writingcommunity #NationalWritingDay
it is dawn and my wife is coming to bed
and she has been watching a film about the life of charlie parker…
—Tom Leonard, “June the Second”
published in outside the narrative: poems 1965–2009 (Etruscan Books/Word Power Books, 2009 – now at Lighthouse Books)
Get a head start by having a first name
that doesn’t really go with your second name.
Your parents were just trying to keep everyone happy…
—Palma McKeown, “How To Be Scots-Italian”
published in TALKING ABOUT LOBSTERS: New Writing Scotland 34 (ASL, 2016)
A poem for Festa della Repubblica 🏴🇮🇹
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Italy #FestadellaRepubblica #ScotsItalian
𝘓𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢, the cult 1968 Italian TV adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘈𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, is “a fascinating example of how literary texts are subject to a process of endless re-interpretation, and also testifies to their transformative power”
🏴🇮🇹
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2019/12/talking-about-a-revolution-the-1968-italian-tv-adaptation-of-robert-louis-stevensons-the-black-arrow/
#Scottish #literature #Italiy #Italian #translation #TV #adaptation #1960s #FestadellaRepubblica #RobertLouisStevenson
Mixing Noir & Humour
Page One – The Writer’s Podcast speaks to award-winning crime writer Callum McSorley. His debut novel, 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘺 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 (2023) won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. Its sequel, 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺, was released in 2025 & was a finalist for the same award. His latest book, 𝘙𝘢𝘵 𝘙𝘢𝘤𝘦, is out now.
@bookstodon
Seasonal Quartet: New European Ensemble ft. Ali Smith
2 July, London. Tickets from £15.00.
Ali Smith joins forces with the New European Ensemble, bringing her iconic Seasonal Quartet novels into a new dimension with the UK premieres of four new musical works based on Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, interspersed with readings from the books that inspired them.
“Of aal the fish there iss in the sea,” said Para Handy, “nothing bates the herrin’; it’s a providence they’re plentiful and them so cheap!”
Neil Munro (1863–1930) – journalist, novelist, short-story writer, & poet – was born #OTD, 3 June. Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of Herring discusses Munro’s PARA HANDY stories, as well as giving the full text of the tale “The Herring – A Gossip”
1/5
https://www.herripedia.com/para-handy/
#Scottish #literature #humour #shortstory #herring #19thcentury #20thcentury
Robert Tannahill (1774–1810), “the weaver poet”, was born #OTD, 3 June – “second only to Robert Burns as a poet writing chiefly in the language of the working class of Scotland”
1/5
#Scottish #literature #poetry #18thcentury #19thcentury #Scots #Scotslanguage #workingclass
Grant Dickie on 10 things he learned at CYMERA 2026, Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy, & horror writing – not including that Sarah Mughal Rana has a dagger collection or that Marvellous Michael Anson would love someone to write a book where every character dies.
https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/10-things-i-learned-from-2026s-cymera-festival/
#Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #scifi #SFF #fantasy #horror #speculativefiction #writing #writingtips
Archie Hind (1928–2008), author of THE DEAR GREEN PLACE, was born #OTD, 3 June
“The only other 20th-century novel I know that places a writer’s struggle in an equally well-imagined city is Nabokov’s THE GIFT”
—Alasdair Gray
1/4
https://www.scotswhayhae.com/post/with-hind-s-sight-a-review-of-archie-hind-s-the-dear-green-place
#Scottish #literature #novel #20thcentury #workingclass #Glasgow
If you’re feeling down, remember that Scotland owns a bit of England because we kept beating them at football. Ownership of the Ba Green was decided by an annual game of “mob football” between 🏴Coldstream & 🏴Wark: eventually, demographics made it Scotland for ever 🏆
https://starkeycomics.com/2023/04/02/the-ba-green-the-land-that-scotland-won-in-a-football-game/0
#Scottish #history #Borders #ScottishBorders #Scotland #football
CFP: NTS at 20 – Culture, Democracy, & the Stateless Nation: an Unconference
23 Oct 2026, Edinburgh
This one-day Unconference invites participants from across academia, theatre, literature, politics, activism, & cultural & community organisations to explore the role of theatre, literature, & cultural institutions in shaping democratic life in Scotland as a stateless nation
#Scottish #Scotland #literature #theatre #culture #culturalstudies #theatrestudies
Marco Fazzini & Alan Riach: For the Poetry of Norman MacCaig
8 June, University of Glasgow. Free.
Marco Fazzini in conversation with Alan Riach about a new bilingual selected edition of Norman MacCaig.
#Scottish #literature #translation #Italian #NormanMacCaig #poetry #poetryintranslation
![Part of William Dunbar’s “The Tretis Of The Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo” from the Chepman and Myllar Prints in the National Library of Scotland, displaying lines 419–53:
Bot courtly and ryght curyus my corse is ther undir:
I drup with a ded luke in my dule habit,
As with manis daill I had done for dayis of my lif.
Quhen that I go to the kirk, cled in cair weid,
As foxe in a lambis fleise fenye I my cheir;
Than lay I furght my bright buke one breid one my kne,
With mony lusty letter ellummynit with gold;
And drawis my clok forthwart our my face quhit,
That I may spy, unaspyit, a space me beside:
Full oft I blenk by my buke, and blynis of devotioun,
To se quhat berne is best brand or bredest in schulderis,
Or forgeit is maist forcely to furnyse a bancat
In Venus chalmer, valyeandly, withoutin vane ruse:
And, as the new mone all pale, oppressit with change,
Kythis quhilis her cleir face through cluddis of sable.
So keik I through my clokis, and castis kynd lukis
To knychtis, and to cleirkis, and cortly personis.
Quhen frendis of my husbandis behaldis me one fer,
I haif a watter spunge for wa, within my wyde clokis,
Than wring I it full wylely and wetis my chekis,
With that watteris myn ene and welteris doune teris.
Than say thai all, that sittis about, "Se ye nought, allace!
Yone lustlese led so lelely scho luffit hir husband:
Yone is a pete to enprent in a princis hert,
That sic a perle of pleasance suld yone pane dre!"
I sane me as I war ane sanct, and semys ane angell;
At langage of lichory I leit as I war crabit:
I sich, without sair hert or seiknes in body;
According to my sable weid I mon haif sad maneris,
Or thai will se all the suth; for certis, we wemen
We set us all fra the syght to syle men of treuth:
We dule for na evill deid, sa it be derne haldin.
Wise wemen has wayis and wonderfull gydingis
With gret engyne to bejaip ther jolyus husbandis;
And quyetly, with sic craft, convoyis our materis […]](/proxy/post_attachment/1103166/55642a1978.webp "Part of William Dunbar’s “The Tretis Of The Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo” from the Chepman and Myllar Prints in the National Library of Scotland, displaying lines 419–53:
Bot courtly and ryght curyus my corse is ther undir:
I drup with a ded luke in my dule habit,
As with manis daill I had done for dayis of my lif.
Quhen that I go to the kirk, cled in cair weid,
As foxe in a lambis fleise fenye I my cheir;
Than lay I furght my bright buke one breid one my kne,
With mony lusty letter ellummynit with gold;
And drawis my clok forthwart our my face quhit,
That I may spy, unaspyit, a space me beside:
Full oft I blenk by my buke, and blynis of devotioun,
To se quhat berne is best brand or bredest in schulderis,
Or forgeit is maist forcely to furnyse a bancat
In Venus chalmer, valyeandly, withoutin vane ruse:
And, as the new mone all pale, oppressit with change,
Kythis quhilis her cleir face through cluddis of sable.
So keik I through my clokis, and castis kynd lukis
To knychtis, and to cleirkis, and cortly personis.
Quhen frendis of my husbandis behaldis me one fer,
I haif a watter spunge for wa, within my wyde clokis,
Than wring I it full wylely and wetis my chekis,
With that watteris myn ene and welteris doune teris.
Than say thai all, that sittis about, \"Se ye nought, allace!
Yone lustlese led so lelely scho luffit hir husband:
Yone is a pete to enprent in a princis hert,
That sic a perle of pleasance suld yone pane dre!\"
I sane me as I war ane sanct, and semys ane angell;
At langage of lichory I leit as I war crabit:
I sich, without sair hert or seiknes in body;
According to my sable weid I mon haif sad maneris,
Or thai will se all the suth; for certis, we wemen
We set us all fra the syght to syle men of treuth:
We dule for na evill deid, sa it be derne haldin.
Wise wemen has wayis and wonderfull gydingis
With gret engyne to bejaip ther jolyus husbandis;
And quyetly, with sic craft, convoyis our materis […]")
