Our Programme
18th-27th February 2021
Glasgow Women's Library Story Café - The Future
Feb. 24, 2021, 2 p.m.
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Zoom Interactive Workshop Tickets: Free
Glasgow Women’s Library is bringing its famous Story Café to Paisley Book Festival! Writers have taken on the future in many ways, from the visionary novels of Ursula Le Guin to the dark dreams of Louise Welsh and Margaret Atwood. Grab a cup of tea and a bit of cake, then sit back and listen to readings from articles, stories and poetry which imagine the many possible worlds to come, sometimes with foreboding but also with hope. We will also have live readings on this theme from our Bold Types writing competition prize winners. |
Janet Coats Memorial Prize Giving
Feb. 24, 2021, 5 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free The Janet Coats Memorial Prize is an annual poetry prize awarded each year by Paisley Book Festival to winners in both Adults and Under 18s categories, to celebrate new creative work relating in some way to the environment. This year, we decided to focus on the importance of green spaces, which offer great solace and recuperation at times of crisis, and which we have a duty to protect for the sake of our planet and our future. In this event, prize judges Liz Lochhead, Nadine Aisha Jassat and Tannahill Makar Brian Whittingham share their favourite … |
The Second Life: Celebrating Edwin Morgan with New Voices
Feb. 24, 2021, 7 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free Since April 2020, The Edwin Morgan Trust has been celebrating the centenary of one of Scotland’s greatest poets, Edwin Morgan, with an array of online content, and a number of community partnerships and collaborations. In this event, Edwin Morgan Centenary Project Manager Siân McIntyre showcases three writers and artists who have received grants to develop new work through The Second Life programme, which provides opportunities for new voices to engage with Morgan's life and work. Vlad Butucea, Sekai Machache and Sasha Saben Callaghan chat with Siân about what it has meant for them to give … |
Working Class Lives in Fiction with Ely Percy and Julie Rea
Feb. 24, 2021, 9 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free Written in a Renfrewshire dialect and set between Paisley and Renfrew, Ely Percy’s new novel Duck Feet follows the life of Kirsty Campbell and friends, and the challenges they encounter at the fictional high school Renfrew Grammar. Published by Monstrous Regiment, and following Percy's debut novel VickyRomeo plus Joolz, it uses humour to deal with hard-hitting issues such as drugs, bullying, first love, sexuality and teenage pregnancy. At this event to celebrate the launch of Duck Feet, Percy discusses their own Renfrewshire roots, the research undertaken for the book, and their wider … |
Radical Voices with Tannahill Arts and Heritage
Feb. 25, 2021, 1 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free Tannahill Arts and Heritage brings world-class artists to Paisley, including the finest homegrown talent. In this unique collaboration with Paisley Book Festival, poetry old and new will be brought to life in new music composed and performed by Paisley’s own composer Alan Fleming-Baird, soprano Stephanie Strachan, and pianist Toni James. By bringing music and words together, these artists fuel the imagination and explore themes of poverty, love, our relationship with the natural world and the human condition. Enjoy an intimate, expressive, musical meditation that steps back in time in order to look to the future. |
A Kist of Thistles: Radical Poetry for a New Future
Feb. 25, 2021, 5 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free A Kist of Thistles is a new anthology of radical poetry from contemporary Scotland published by Culture Matters, which includes new and previously published work from a diverse range of poets from Scotland and beyond. This collection includes Renfrewshire based poets, new working class poets, refugee poets and many well-known names. In this showcase event, editor Jim Aitken and Paisley based poet Morag Smith introduce live readings from work rich with passion, anger and humour that looks forward to a future Scotland and a better and fairer world for everyone. |
Alex Gray and Diarmid MacArthur
Feb. 25, 2021, 7 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free No matter how complex your plot, how distant your galaxy, how intrepid your heroes and how vile your villains, sometimes the truth is more chilling and unexpected than even writers can envisage. Crime-writing sensation Alex Gray’s latest novel Before the Storm is the 18th in her DSI Lorimer series, as a horrific catastrophe brews between Glasgow and Zimbabwe. She's joined by Diarmid MacArthur, originally a science fiction writer, who brings us his first two crime novels in a suspense-filled trilogy. Reflecting on their own terrifying plotlines and eerie projections into the future, we welcome these … |
The Fountain's Evening of Quarantine Dreaming
Feb. 25, 2021, 9 p.m.
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Authors From Home Tickets: Free Don’t miss this energetic evening featuring some of the UK’s finest performers, including Scottish-Algerian poet, Janette Ayachi, performing from her work-in-progress Lonerlust, poet and author Salena Godden reading from her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death as well as ex Melody Maker music journalist, Heath Common, reading from Viral Verses, a collection compiled to raise funds for the NHS during the pandemic. Curated and presented by The Fountain, a cultural review with a Scottish voice, the night concludes with Adam Stafford and music from Fire Behind The Curtain, a frenetic and yet melodic LP that … |
Silent Spring: A Creative Writing Workshop
Feb. 26, 2021, 11 a.m.
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Zoom Interactive Workshop Tickets: £8/£5
Taken from Rachel Carson's book of the same name, this workshop is a welcoming space to explore our own relationship to nature through creative writing. Using archive footage and extracts from Carson's book as prompts, participants will look back on their own experiences of a ‘silent spring’ in 2020 and consider how being close to nature can be a radical act. All are welcome in this workshop led by Emily Munro, curator at the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, both experienced writers and those who have not explored nature writing before. |
Art Boss Presents: ‘The Attic’ - A Graphic Novel
Feb. 26, 2021, 2 p.m.
Authors From Home Tickets: Free
Join the Art Boss Young Producers group as they launch their debut graphic novel ‘The Attic’ at this year’s Paisley Book Festival. Throughout lockdown, the group of creative young people took part in a series of graphic novel workshops with professional illustrator Charlotte Cabrie. From storyboarding and character development, to drawing and design, the young producers developed the story of Alex - a teenager whose lockdown experience becomes a quest for friendship, connection and adventure. Tune in to hear all about the group’s creative process, as well as a special reading excerpt!
