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.
-
NewsScottish Book Trust name New Writers Award winners
The Scottish Book Trust have named the eleven winners of this year's New Writers Awards for unpublished fiction, non-fiction and poetry authors. Each of the... Read more »| 27 Jan 2016 -
News
Dundee International Book Prize open for 2016
The Dundee International Book Prize, one of Scotland's leading prizes for unpublished authors, has invited entries for its 2016 edition. Read more »| 25 Jan 2016 -
Book ReviewsCockfosters by Helen Simpson
Losing your glasses. Drinking too much at a book group. Getting the fridge fixed. Forgetting the names of things. Helen Simpson’s latest collection of ... Read more »| 22 Jan 2016 -
Features
Tragedy & Triumph: Ali Eskandarian’s Golden Years
Oscar Van Gelderen – ‘the publisher with the golden nose’ – was also editor of Ali Eskandarian's modern beat novel Golden Y... Read more »| 15 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
And Yet... by Christopher Hitchens
And Yet... is Christopher Hitchens’ supposedly final collection of essays, most of which were written before the publication of his previous collection... Read more »| 14 Jan 2016 -
Features
Helen McClory discusses On the Edges of Vision
We begin a new year with a new author. Helen McClory's otherworldly short fiction recently won the Saltire Society First Book award, and she chats here about how her fiercely original collection On the Edges of Vision came to be born Read more »| 11 Jan 2016
-
FeaturesHollie McNish: parents, poetry & the power of art
As she prepares to gig in Liverpool for the first time, poet and performer Hollie McNish discusses her new book of poetry about parenthood and the excitement of playing on mixed bills Read more »| 11 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre
In Black Widow, Chris Brookmyre's latest installment in his Jack Parlabane series, the investigative journalist is tasked with unearthing the mysteries behin... Read more »| 08 Jan 2016 -
Features
Projecting pages: When books become films
Taking books to the screen has long made up much of the film industry's output. We look at the creative issues involved in the process, and then on to some of the most interesting recent and upcoming literary adaptations. Read more »| 06 Jan 2016 -
Events
Northwest Book Highlights – January 2016
The New Year brings literary events worth bracing the weather for, from Yorkshire’s emerging star poet Helen Mort to music writing giant Jon Savage Read more »| 06 Jan 2016 -
Features
The Essential 2016 Literary Calendar
A new year brings new literary promise: new novels, more festivals and debates, new adaptations, spoken word, poetry and graphic novels. As The Skinny discovers, 2016 has everything to offer the discerning bibliophile... Read more »| 06 Jan 2016 -
Features
Poetry News – Scotland, January 2016
An unsullied new year is the perfect opportunity for new poets to pick up a pen or punch a keyboard. Here's some key advice for those in pursuit of their literary intent, and how and where in Scotland to take things forward. Read more »| 06 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
Nicotine by Gregor Hens
Nicotine. A highly appropriate work to review this time of year, when self-imposed abstinence casts its cloud over the chaste post-Christmas period. Gregor ... Read more »| 05 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff
‘We’re going to call this little pup Dante. Let’s call the mangy old cur over there Chaucer.’ This is Alba Cambo, standing in front o... Read more »| 04 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser
Paulina and Fran are struggling with art school. Paulina pretends to be an artist, to her everything is art – maintaining her hair, trying on dead peop... Read more »| 01 Jan 2016