Books
The Skinny book guide – bringing you book reviews, features, events, reviews and author interviews. Find previews and on the ground reporting from festivals of literature and poetry in Scotland and beyond.
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Book ReviewsH(A)PPY by Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker's new novel is somehow altogether chilling and inspiring Read more »| 15 Sep 2017 -
Book Reviews
The City Always Wins by Omar Robert Hamilton
A raw, powerful and relentlessly bleak look at the Egyptian political crisis Read more »| 15 Sep 2017 -
Features
Sabrina Mahfouz & Iona Lee on women in poetry
National Poetry Day is on 28 September, with the 2017 theme of Freedom. The perfect opportunity then to speak with Iona Lee and Sabrina Mahfouz about the increasing volume of women's voices in the poetry scene Read more »| 14 Sep 2017 -
Videos
Salena Godden – RED for Nasty Women (video premiere)
The inimitable Salena Godden presents her new poem RED, donated to global art movement Nasty Women Read more »| 11 Sep 2017 -
NewsScottish Poetry News: September 2017
Our poetry columnist highlights the launch of Stairs and Whispers at the Scottish Poetry Library – an anthology from deaf and disabled poets. We also look at the best published poetry to have reached us this month Read more »| 08 Sep 2017 -
Book Reviews
A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma
Akhil Sharma's new collection captures the complexities and contradictions of emotional life Read more »| 07 Sep 2017
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Book ReviewsSour Heart by Jenny Zhang
Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart explores the difficulty of being caught on the hyphen of Chinese-American in biting, brutal, darkly hilarious style. Read more »| 07 Sep 2017 -
Book ReviewsGo, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
Jenny Erpenbeck's remarkable new novel questions our understanding of borders and identity, and calls above all for compassion Read more »| 06 Sep 2017 -
Features
Bloody Scotland returns to Stirling
Dark and deadly happenings are predicted in Stirling on 8-10 Sep when our greatest crime writers gather for Bloody Scotland. But we find there is far more on offer than those big name authors to have put Scotland on the crime writing map Read more »| 01 Sep 2017 -
Festivals
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & Nicola Sturgeon @ EIBF
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in discussion at Edinburgh International Book Festival Read more »| 29 Aug 2017 -
Features
Omar El Akkad on Charlottesville and American War
Charlottesville erupted after Omar El Akkad completed his prescient novel American War, yet like many speculative authors he was frighteningly accurate. He discusses with The Skinny the polarisation of, and battle lines running through, modern America Read more »| 21 Aug 2017 -
Features
Read the Chris McQueer short story: IS IT ART?
Chris McQueer's stories are beautifully profane & fucking hilarious, yet often echo with the truth of working class lives too rarely seen in literature. A live scene regular, he's now put them to page for debut collection Hings. Read IS IT ART? here Read more »| 17 Aug 2017 -
Festivals
Sebastian Barry @ EIBF 2017
The three-time Booker nominee covers a wealth of topics – from life in wartime to RuPaul's Drag Race – at Edinburgh International Book Festival Read more »| 16 Aug 2017 -
Features
Women in Translation: The best of 2017
August is Women in Translation month, bringing attention to an underrepresented section of literature; here's q tip of the hat to the translators bringing this work to us & one writer's personal pick of titles for 2017, both published & in the pipeline Read more »| 15 Aug 2017 -
Festivals
Protest: Laura Hird leads the resistance at EIBF
We speak to author Laura Hird about her Radical War story in the new anthology Protest, and the Edinburgh Book Festival event to mark it. In a time when political protest is so relevant, it's important to learn from an often forgotten past Read more »| 10 Aug 2017