Guest writers at Ullapool Book Festival announced
Ullapool Book Festival this week released the names of the writers who will be guests at the eighth festival that will be held from Friday 11May to Sunday 13 May in Ullapool Village Hall.
The winner of the 2011 Forward Prize for best poetry collection, the 2009 Forward best poem award, the winner of the 2010 Saltire Society First Book award, a debut author from Nova Scotia who was shortlisted for Canada’s Giller Prize - these are just a few of the writers who will be appearing at this year’s Ullapool Book Festival.
The celebrated poet and novelist John Burnside is one of the guests. His latest novel, A Summer of Drowning, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and his latest collection of poems entitled Black Cat Bone won the distinguished Forward Prize for best poetry collection of 2011. John Burnside has won many awards for previous poetry, fiction and memoirs and Ullapool is delighted to welcome him.
Another award winning poet appearing in May is Robin Robertson. He has received a number of accolades, including the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and all three Forward Prizes.
Alexander MacLeod was born in Cape Breton and grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He now lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. Published in Canada in 2010, Light Lifting is his first collection of short stories and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Prize, two Atlantic Book Awards, and went on to become a national bestseller. Light Lifting will be published in the UK in February by Jonathan Cape. His father Alistair MacLeod was a guest at Ullapool Book Festival in 2009.
Sue Peebles’ first novel The Death of Lomond Friel won the Saltire First Book Award in 2010 and the Scottish First Book Award in 2011, and was short-listed for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year.
But these are just a few names on the extraordinary list of writers coming to Ullapool.
There is more fiction from literary thriller writer Louise Welsh whose latest novel Naming The Bones has received great acclaim; Swede Karin Altenberg who was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award with her novel Island of Wings set on St Kilda in the 1830s; Rodge Glass whose latest novel Bring me The Head of Ryan Giggs will be published shortly before the festival; the award winning Alan Spence who is also a poet and playwright.
Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir (Martin MacIntyre) and Tormod Caimbeul (Norman Campbell) will be reading from their latest Gaelic novels in a session that will be in Gaelic. But non-Gaelic speakers will not miss out as, for the first time at the festival, there will be simultaneous translation into English through individual headsets. Martin MacIntyre will also be the storyteller in the Morning Stories session with a wee bit of his poetry and a song for good measure.
There will be more poetry when Aonghas MacNeacail reads from the work of Leabhar Mor na Gaidhlig (The Great Book of Gaelic). This Gaelic Arts Project exhibition will be in various Ullapool venues in April and May.
Non fiction is well represented. Well known Skye resident Roger Hutchinson, author of, among others, the acclaimed Calum’s Road and his recent work The Silent Weaver will be there as will Mairi Hedderwick who liveson Canna. Although best known for her Katy Morag books her appearance this time around at Ullapool will be about her adult books. Another island resident will be Ron Ferguson (Orkney) who will talk about his biography/memoir of the late Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown. Land campaigner Andy Wightman, author of The Poor Had No Lawyers will be speaking to journalist Ruth Wishart.
Festival favourite Kevin MacNeil is making a welcome return. He will be leading a Moniack Mhor writing workshop but he will also be late-night gigging with fellow Lewisman, singer/songwriter Willie Campbell. Their hotly anticipated album We are Visible from Space will shortly be released.
The early morning sessions feature Highland writers; there will be fiction from Alison Napier and poetry from Rhoda Michael and Maggie Wallis.
One of the people chairing sessions will be Ullapool Book Festival honorary president James Robertson. The others are journalist Ruth Wishart, Scotsman literary editor David Robinson, Mark Wringe who presents the Gaelic book programme Leughan an Leabhar, and Faith Liddell, director of Festivals Edinburgh.
Chair of the festival committee, Joan Michael, said: “Maybe we should start calling ourselves Ullapool International Book Festival as this year several nations are represented – Canada, Sweden, England and Scotland. But wherever they come from I can guarantee they are all superb. Each year at the end of the festival we wonder how we are going equal it for quality the next year. But we manage to - as can be seen by the list of names for 2012. The committee members and volunteers are looking forward to it immensely.”
The full programme will be announced in March when tickets go on sale.
PHOTO: JOHN NIALL McDIARMID