Dundee writers to be celebrated at Literary Festival
Published On Mon 20 Oct 2014 by Grant Hill
While the Dundee Literary Festival will proudly be bringing some of the world’s top authors to the city, it will also be promoting the best of Dundee’s writing talent to the world.
Dundee can boast a proud literary heritage from the Wedderburn poets in the Reformation era through to the present day and this will be celebrated at a number of events held during this year’s Literary Festival.
“We’ve put together a programme that not only brings top talent to Dundee, but also acts as a platform for Dundee writers to take their work out to the world,” said Festival Director Anna Day. “What’s evident is the remarkable amount of writing talent in this city, across many different forms and genres and appealing to different groups.
“We’d really encourage people to get along to as many of these events as possible and not only celebrate Dundee’s literary heroes of yesteryear but also the stars of tomorrow.”
One of the city’s most famous literary connections is, of course, to Mary Shelley, who lived in Dundee for several years in her youth. In honour of this, ‘Frankenstein’ will be the focus of a special Festival Bookclub at the George Orwell pub in Perth Road at 4.30pm on Friday 24th October.
The same venue plays host to the Menzieshill Literary Scene, AKA authors Grant Hill and Barry Phillips, who will be pontificating about football, music and what both topics tell us about the state of the world at 6.30pm on Sunday 26th.
The work of students from the University of Dundee’s pioneering MLitt Creative Writing programme will be celebrated on Thursday 23rd while the Nethergate Writers group will read from their latest anthology two days later.
The 40th anniversary of Dundee Women’s Aid will be marked at 1pm on Friday 24th, when leading local figures reflect on the groups work over the past four decades and a book they have co-produced to mark the occasion.
Another anniversary being celebrated is the 100th anniversary of the national treasure that is The Sunday Post. The paper’s Production Editor Steve Finan will lead a fascinating wander down memory lane and recall some of the Scottish institution’s most memorable headlines, features and characters at 11am on Sunday 26th.
Dundee’s rich tradition of journalism will also be evident at events featuring Jim Crumley and Alan Rowan, both former journalists in the city, on 12pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday respectively.
More than 60 workshops, talks, book signings, readings, walking tours and other events will be held during the Festival’s five-day run from 22nd to 26th October. As a result, 2014 will be the biggest Dundee Literary Festival to date as sports, crime, comics, translation, poetry, comedy, music, politics, history and children’s books are all covered.
All events take place at Bonar Hall unless otherwise stated. Full information about this year’s Literary Festival programme, including how to obtain tickets, can be found at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/literarydundee/.
For media enquiries contact:
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
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E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk