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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FeaturesDavid Keenan on writing & writers
The Skinny caught up with author David Keenan in a Glasgow bar to discuss his new novel This is Memorial Device, a hugely impressive debut whose subtitl... Read more »| 20 Jan 2017 -
Book Reviews
Little Deaths by Emma Flint
As a single mother, cocktail waitress and incorrigible man-eater, Ruth Malone is the epicentre of neighbourhood gossip. But when her two young children go mi... Read more »| 09 Jan 2017 -
Book ReviewsThe Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
Watching lines on paper come to life is a magic trick that never fades, the simple and infinite pleasure of animation. Sharon and Mel arrive at art school in... Read more »| 09 Jan 2017 -
FeaturesHow to Get Published: Writing groups in the North
If your New Year's resolution is to finally finish your debut novel, publish your work or simply get feedback from others, these writing groups will help you on the way Read more »| 06 Jan 2017 -
Features
Keith Hutson on debut poetry collection Routines
Our poetry columnist begins 2017 by speaking with emerging poet Keith Hutson about his debut collection of 31 sonnets, Routines, writing habits, influences and resolutions for the new year Read more »| 06 Jan 2017 -
Features
Amy Stewart on her Kopp Sisters novels
Lady Cop Makes Trouble picks up the story of the three Kopp sisters after their debut in Girl Waits With Gun. Amy Stewart talks about filling the holes in fa... Read more »| 06 Jan 2017
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Book ReviewsSeverance/Intercourse by Robert Olen Butler
This is a tale of two books, bound together as one. The reader need only flip and reverse to move between a collection of vignettes describing moments of int... Read more »| 05 Jan 2017 -
Features
Poetry Slams, Am-drams & Bellyaches
Competition in art: a flawed concept surely? Scottish Poetry Slam champ Iona Lee argues that two separate beings, two lives of experience with opposite tastes and talents should not be graded or pitted against one another. In art there's no correct answer Read more »| 05 Jan 2017 -
Book Reviews
Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary
A cold, wet spring in Dublin. Sonny sees Vera for the first time while he’s working in her garden with his da. She walks down the path towards him and ... Read more »| 04 Jan 2017 -
Features
Introducing Storyhouse, Chester's new arts centre
Chester's brand-new arts centre, Storyhouse, opens in May 2017. A major renovation and extension of the city's old Odeon building, it houses two state-of-the... Read more »| 20 Dec 2016 -
Book Reviews
Fallow by Daniel Shand
They say write what you know, and so many debut novels are rooted in the author’s everyday with the result as dreary and mundane as most lives truthful... Read more »| 19 Dec 2016 -
Book ReviewsOf All That Ends by Günter Grass
A slim but weighty final volume, Of All That Ends is a worthy addendum to the celebrated canon of Günter Grass, the sadly departed Nobel Prize winn... Read more »| 16 Dec 2016 -
Features
Isabel Buchanan on Trials on Death Row in Pakistan
In November, Isabel Buchanan was joint winner of the Saltire Society First Book award for her reflections on the Pakistani death row cases she worked to overturn. Here she discusses finding her feet in a new culture and legal system. Read more »| 07 Dec 2016 -
Art
The Inventors of Tradition II
A new publication and artist book incorporates documentary moments for each of the elements of The Inventors of Tradition II project. Conceived by the artist... Read more »| 06 Dec 2016 -
Book Reviews
The Brilliant & Forever by Kevin MacNeil
Everyone on this Scottish island is an aspiring writer, even a talking alpaca called Archie. He wears a Stetson, and gave his best friend, our narrator, a ju... Read more »| 05 Dec 2016