Dundee Literary Salons
2010 Salons
The salons run from 5.00-7.00pm.
They're completely free on a first come, first served basis, so get there early.
4th February
The Writing Line
Top writers Louise Welsh and Zoe Strachan made a great double act; reading and sharing ideas about each other's work and talking about the writing life. Great fun, and educational too.
4th March
The How-To Team
Literary agent Jenny Brown and debut novelist Willie Robertson entertainingly talked us through the
journey from writing to publishing a manuscript. Willie and Jenny discussed their professional
relationship and the mutual benefits which accrue. This was a most enjoyable session.
25th March
Live Wire
This session included readings, of their own work, by students on the writing programme at Dundee. The quality was very encouraging, and the diversity on offer spoke volumes for the breadth of opportunities afforded by the Creative Writing modules.
22nd April
New Writing Dundee 5
This evening saw Robert Crawford, Professor of literature and creative writing at the University of St Andrews, read, amongst other works, his contribution to the anthology, New Writing Dundee. The eagerly awaited latest edition of the publication was made available on the evening, and sold well.
Having Robert Crawford, one of Scotland's most noted scholars, and recipient of the 2009 Saltire Society Literary Award, involved was another sign of the growing status of both New Writing Dundee and Literary Dundee in literary circles.
13th May
Robin Pilcher
Robin Pilcher mystified the audience when he brought along his guitar. We'd expected him to talk about the Pilcher dynasty, which he did, to discuss his website, Shortbread Stories, which he did, and to talk about his new book, A Matter of Trust, which he did and it sounded excellent. But he also regaled us with tales of his past life, including cowboying in the States, and with songs of Dundee institutions, like berrytime in the berryfields.
Robin's singing is more than passable, his song-writing impressive, his anecdotes hilarious and his novel-writing excellent. And he handed out freebie CDs with Shortbread story audios. If you missed this session, you missed an awful lot.
Thursday 30th September
A Way With Words - Jonathan Falla
Being a successful writer often involves juggling a number of projects and keeping a range of literary balls in the air at the same time.
Hear how one such successful writer does just that as Jonathan Falla reads from the variety of his current work and talks about the many possibilities that are out there for all of us in our writing lives.
Thursday 11th November
New Reading, New Voices
The new publishing technology stands to change our relationship to books and reading.
From ebooks to apps, there are options out there to add to the pleasures of the printed page.
Join Enhanced Editions’ Peter Collinridge and David Graham to learn all about the latest developments in the publishing world and find out how you may benefit from them - while hearing from the bright new voices of the Creative Writing programme at Dundee.
Literary Salons have become an important part of our developing creative life here at Dundee - and are a great way to meet leading writers, publishers and agents from all over the UK, ask them questions about their work and writing practice and get top tips and advice about how to develop your own literary career.
Past guests have included both new and established writers - from first time Faber novelist Ruth Thomas to multi-prize-winning Douglas Dunn, Meaghan Delahunt and Michael Schmidt - as well as dbc pierre's agent Clare Conville, Literary Director of The Scottish Arts Council Gavin Wallace and Canongate Editor Francis Bickmore, and others.
Come along and be inspired!
