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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NewsVirtual festival Scot Lit Fest reveals 2017 events
Virtual book festival Scot Lit Fest returns for its second year with a lineup that includes Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay, Helen McClory and Michael Pedersen among many others Read more »| 03 Jul 2017 -
Book Reviews
Every Fox is a Rabid Fox by Harry Gallon
Robert is an unintentional killer. Not only did he fatally elbow his twin sister out of their mother’s womb, he is also responsible for the death of hi... Read more »| 29 Jun 2017 -
Features
Walls Come Tumbling Down by Daniel Rachel
Walls Come Tumbling Down charts the formation of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge across two decades where artists and activists joined forces to ma... Read more »| 28 Jun 2017 -
Book Reviews
Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish: Essays by Tom McCarthy
Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish is the first collection of essays from Tom McCarthy, a novelist twice nominated for the Man Booker prize for C and Satin Island... Read more »| 28 Jun 2017 -
FeaturesNew York State of Mind: Don Winslow on The Force
Crime epics are US author Don Winslow’s stock in trade. With his most recent, The Force, he moves the narrative from his well tread setting of the Mexican borderlands to New York, exploring police corruption in the rotten apple Read more »| 28 Jun 2017 -
News
Michael Pedersen & Scott Hutchison team up on Oyster
The Neu! Reekie! co-founder and the Frightened Rabbit frontman collaborate on Pedersen's new poetry collection Award-winning poet Michael Pedersen has annou... Read more »| 13 Jun 2017
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FestivalsEdinburgh Book Festival unveils 2017 programme
This year's Edinburgh International Book Festival features authors from over 50 countries Read more »| 13 Jun 2017 -
Features
A new Cold War: Hwang Sok-yong on a divided Korea
Hwang Sok-yong has been silenced through censorship, exile & prison walls, yet his voice is widely considered the most important in Korean literature. As Familiar Things publishes in translation, he talks about his life, his writing and his divided nation Read more »| 12 Jun 2017 -
NewsListen to Salena Godden's anti-Theresa May punk poem
Salena Godden shares a blistering "punk rant" about why she'll never vote for Theresa May Read more »| 07 Jun 2017 -
Features
Scottish Poetry News: June 2017
The Skinny's regular poetry column speaks with a fresh and exciting voice – Kayo Chingonyi – about his new collection Kumukanda. We also visit Babbity Bowster on 25 June to experience quality poetry while raising money for refugees Read more »| 31 May 2017 -
Features
A cultural call to arms: Rebel Inc. 25 years on
Author Jenni Fagan recalls revolutionary 90s publisher Rebel Inc. exactly 25 years on, speaking with the key architects & authors it bore – Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Laura Hird. This is also a cultural call to arms. What better use to make of the past? Read more »| 31 May 2017 -
Book Reviews
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
Nothing to learn but plenty to love about Murakami's latest anti-machismo collection. Read more »| 25 May 2017 -
Book Reviews
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Flights sets out as a dissection of modern travel, and becomes a diagnosis of the ancient human compulsion to move about. It is a loose travelogue, a collect... Read more »| 24 May 2017 -
FeaturesCities in Literature: Reading the Queer City
As a new book is published on the topic, we take a look at the idea of the city in the queer canon: often presented as a place of freedom and emancipation, but at other times an enforcer of social constructs Read more »| 24 May 2017 -
Book Reviews
You Don't Know Me by Imran Mahmood
You Don’t Know Me is a sharp, enticing, and thought provoking debut novel. The book begins with the evidence in a court case against a young male from ... Read more »| 24 May 2017