Scottish Books Events: December 2022

Even as diaries wind down to make room for Christmas parties, Scotland’s festive season is still ripe with literary events to warm your soul. Head to Glasgow indie and LGBTQ bookshop Category Is Books (8 Dec) for the launch of musician, broadcaster and LGBTQ+ campaigner Carrie Marshall’s highly anticipated memoir Carrie Kills a Man (404 Ink) – she’s in conversation with Radio 3’s Lousie Blain. Over in Edinburgh, magazine Extra Teeth is launching its sixth issue (7 Dec).

It’s been a year of strike action, and if the discourse around workers' rights has piqued your interest in unionisation and collective action, then head to Glasgow where Dr Andy Clark is launching his new book at Strathclyde University (12 Dec) – Fighting Deindustrialisation, an examination of the Scottish women who led the fight against factory closures of the 1980s. On the other side of the Central Belt, Craig Millar’s book Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organising at Work launches in Edinburgh (11 Dec).

If poetry’s more your thing, there’s a host of regular open mics taking place across the country – Hotchpotch (Dundee, 14 Dec), Speakin’ Weird (Aberdeen, 14 Dec) and Forth Friday (Stirling, 2 Dec). If you’re after some something a little different, Edinburgh event Poetry Circus is back for the first time since the pandemic began – spoken word meets burlesque, physical theatre and cabaret at the Voodoo Rooms (7 Dec). Word Up sees poetry meet music and comedy, with performances in Edinburgh (7 Dec) and Glasgow (4 Dec) featuring Josie Long amongst others. Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre will see performances from former Poetry World Slam champion Harry Baker (6 Dec) and the monthly installation of Loud Poets (16 Dec). There are Poets in Paisley (3 Dec), and you can take refuge from the winter weather with delicious cake at Lovecrumbs (Edinburgh, 8 Dec) with a killer line-up of poets as Thomas Stewart launches his moving and accomplished pamphlet, Based on a True Story (Fourteen Poems).