Find out if you have the write stuff as book festival returns
WHY write? That question will doubtless be answered when the book people pitch up in Glasgow this week. The Aye Write! Festival celebrates all things bookish. And, while the title’s awkward exclamation mark and lack of a comma has caused years of strife, with sporadic outbreaks of rioting in several rural areas, all will be united this week as the new breed of writer-performer Richard Holloway, Roger Hutchinson, Angus Peter Campbell, Maureen MacLeod, Carl MacDougall, Ian Rankin, AL Kennedy, Alastair McIntosh, Aonghas MacNeacail, Frank Gardner, Jenni Murray, Mike Heron (of the Incredible String Band) with Andrew Greig, and, as they say, many more. There’s a bit of politics and sport, too, and Wee Write! for the weans.
Punters with literary ambitions might try the Give it a Go and What You Need to Know sessions, which cover story, plot, research, revision, editing, character and dialogue. Yup, bit of work needed.
If you’re resigned to remaining a mere reader all your days, and you have a love of libraries, you might enjoy Chris Paling’s Reading Allowed, at the Mitchell on Thursday. Chris tells the story of the staff and denizens of a smalltown library and celebrates these fantastically important places where all may go to read, perchance to sleep. Also on Thursday, new indie publishers 404 Ink present readings by the likes of Helen Sedgwick, Kevin MacNeil, Nadine Aisha Jassat, and upcoming Glasgow writer and sales assistant Chris McQueer.
Later in the month, on Sunday March 19, John Hunter tells the story of the Small Isles – Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck – while Madeleine Bunting recounts her six years of exploring the Hebrides and discusses their hold on the wider imagination.
Something here for everybody surely, and even if you’re a nobody, you know you need never be alone with a good book. That’s one good reason why people write. Aye Write! takes place in Glasgow from March 9 to 19 at the Mitchell Library, the Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.