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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FestivalsWomen in Comedy: Short Story Competition Winner
The Women in Comedy Festival Writing Competition invites entries in two categories: a short sketch or monologue, and a short story. The Skinny North is ... Read more »| 09 Nov 2016 -
FeaturesLost for Words: What future for our libraries?
Libraries across the country are struggling to survive in a climate of budget cuts. Our writer reports from Warrington, where her childhood library faces an uncertain future Read more »| 07 Nov 2016 -
Book Reviews
A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan
Kirsty Logan returns with A Portable Shelter where imagination meets life's inevitable harshness. Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
FeaturesFemale friendship in Zadie Smith and Ferrante
Zadie Smith’s new novel Swing Time proves that fictional female friends are in with the popular crowd Complicated female relationships seem to be ever... Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
Book ReviewsCrash Land by Doug Johnstone
Finn Sullivan, an idealistic and headstrong university student, has his life turned on its head after showing his chivalrous side in the defence of a strange... Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
News
Women of the World festival comes to the Northwest
An instalment of the Women of the World festival will be held in Chester, at the city's new multi-arts venue Storyhouse, in May 2017. Read more »| 04 Nov 2016
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Book Reviews
Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas
This collection of short stories is bizarre, and that’s entirely the point. We witness a dinner party with Margeurite Duras, our narrator hopelessly in... Read more »| 03 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Olivia Laing at Manchester Literature Festival
An evening with Olivia Laing at Manchester Literature Festival offered insight into the writer's experience of – and coming-to-terms with – lonel... Read more »| 02 Nov 2016 -
FestivalsSusan Calman at Manchester Literature Festival
Comedian Susan Calman strips back the irony and bares her soul at an event centered around her memoir Cheer Up Love: Adventures in Depression... “I ki... Read more »| 01 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Sungju Lee at Manchester Literature Festival
Our writer reports from a moving and thought-provoking event at Manchester Literature Festival: human rights activist Sungju Lee talking about his early life... Read more »| 01 Nov 2016 -
Features
Poetry News – Scotland, November 2016
Another delivery of poetry news for your perusal, covering page, stage, awards and even a live album from Salena Godden Read more »| 28 Oct 2016 -
Book Reviews
Absolutely On Music by Haruki Murakami
Music for Murakami is little less than a religion, a major part of his personal life and a vital ingredient in the recipe for his now world-famous prose. The... Read more »| 28 Oct 2016 -
Book Reviews
Home and Away by Karl Ove Knausgård & Frederik Ekelund
'Hi there, I’m Karl Ove Knausgård and welcome to my crib...' The Norwegian literary sensation teams up with Frederik Ekelund to reflect on celebrity, friendship, and football Read more »| 27 Oct 2016 -
Features
Cixin Liu: Sci-fi Beyond Borders
Chinese Sci-fi sensation Cixin Liu discusses the genre's cultural anomalies while visiting the UK to launch Death’s End, the final part of his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, and introduce The Wandering Earth, a collection of short stories Read more »| 26 Oct 2016 -
Features
Role Reversal: Naomi Alderman on The Power
It's one simple change – the world's women develop the power to electrocute people at will. There is a reversal of gender roles, a transfer of power. Author Naomi Alderman discusses her speculative feminist sci-fi novel The Power Read more »| 24 Oct 2016