Andrew Greig

http://andrew-greig.weebly.com/

Tomorrow evening you have the chance to hear Stromness based writer, Andrew Greig, read from a selection of his prose and poems at an event organised by Orkney Arts Society, supported by the Scottish Book Trust. 

A regular visitor to Stromness Library, Andrew is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His latest novel, Fair Helen, was published by Quercus in August 2013. 

The reading takes place at the Pier Arts Centre at 7.30pm, and admission at the door is £4.00, with concessions at £3, and school pupils at £1. 

And if you would like to read some of Andrew's work before hand then pop along to the library, where we have a selection of his titles available to borrow. 

Book Launch

Our friends in Kirkwall are getting ready for an exciting event on Friday when the Orkney Library and Archive hosts the launch of a new novel by local writer Helen Davis. 

Published by ThunderPoint Publishing A Good Death is described as:

 a darkly humorous novel that follows four young women as they experience the strictures and freedoms of university life, becoming lifelong friends, despite their disparate backgrounds.

Davis deftly weaves the 1980's readjustment of British social boundaries into her novel as she transports the reader from coming of age student life in England, through adventure, death and life changing experiences in Peru, to a disastrous attempt at rediscovering lost youth and innocence, nearly thirty years too late.

Formerly an academic and lecturer at the University of Sunderland, Helen Davis is the author of Understanding Stuart Hall (the Sociologist and former editor of New Left Review who famously coined the term 'Thatcherism', and sadly died in February this year). A change of direction in 2003 led Helen to retrain as a complementary therapist and move to Orkney, where she lives on Shapinsay. During the ten years she has been in Orkney Helen has moved from academic writing to concentrating on writing fiction, and her short story 'A Kind of Justice' made the short-list for the 2012 Crime Writing Competition of the OrkCrime Festival, judged by bestselling crime writer Ann Cleeves. 

A regular member of the Saturday Slaughters crime fiction reading group in the Kirkwall Library, Helen has chosen the library to launch her debut novel on Friday 7th March at 7pm, when she will read from A Good Death and will sign copies of the book which will be available to buy on the night. 

The Launch event is free and there is no need to book in advance, just turn up on the night (we heard a rumour there may even be wine). Please note that the Kirkwall Library will be open from 10am until 7pm on Friday 7th to allow you to stock up on library books before Helen's reading starts at 7pm. 

Library events

It's going to be a busy week for the library, we'll give you more details tomorrow, but today here are three events which you can add to your diary and which are all FREE but need to be booked.


On Monday 2 September James Oswald will give a reading at 7.00 pm in the McGillivray Room at Orkney Library & Archive.

Then on Wednesday 4 September Ron Butlin will read at 7.00 pm again in the 
MacGillivray Room at Orkney Library & Archive.

Both events are  FREE but TICKETED so please contact the Kirkwall library to book your place 
Phone: 01856 873166
E-mail:general.enquiries@orkneylibrary.org.uk

More details about both authors and events on Reader in Residence Alison Miller's blog:
http://readerinresidenceorkneylibrary.blogspot.co.uk/


Then on Saturday 7th September The Gunnie Moberg Archive project worker Rebecca Marr will hold  a workshop at Stromness Library and out in the streets and shores of the town. The workshop is titled VIEW FROM THIS SIDE, a reference to the instructions printed on the slides but also an indication of Gunnie Moberg’s artistic approach. 

No experience necessary, just bring your enthusiasm and a camera! The workshop will run here in Stromness Library 1pm to 5pm. For more details please visit  The Gunnie Moberg Archive blog 

Places are free but limited so please book by contacting Rebecca Marr at the Orkney Library and Archive on 01856 873166, via the project blog or by phoning us here at Stromness Library on 01856 850 907.

Ian Stephen

Orkney Nature Festival

Today is the first day of the Orkney Nature Festival , a nine day celebration of Orkney's wonderful wildlife and rich natural history. You can see the full programme of festival events here and our Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, has blogged about the Orkney Library and Archive's involvement in the festival.

Festival events take place all over the islands, with a number of events based in Stromness. Friday 17th May there will be 'Something Fishy at the RSPB' office in Stromness, when between 11am and 5pm you can drop in to see an Orkney beach:

 – in the middle of the RSPB Orkney office! Find a wealth of marine treasure – and some things a bit less precious – as well as learning more from seashell expert Alastair Skene. You’ll see everything from the geriatric Arctic Cyprine, who may have been filtering seawater when John Rae was setting sail to the Arctic, to the microscopic components that make up shell sand. We’ll have a display of whale bones and strandline material and if you have a mystery marine object that you’d like identified, please bring it along. There’s also a big message from Orkney school children about the perils facing the world’s oceans and our Orkney beaches from marine litter... you’re sure to ‘pick up 3 pieces’ when you’ve heard what they have to say.

Then from 2.30pm - 4.3-pm you can find out about Crustacean conservation and enjoy a crabby buffet at The Ferry Inn. Tickets for this event cost £10 and can be booked through The Ferry Inn, by calling 01856 850280 or email info@ferryinn.com.

 The day finishes with a real treat when former Storyteller-in -Residence, Ian Stephen returns to Stromness for an evening of poetry and tales of his adventures sailing around Orkney and other Scottish islands. We are delighted to see Ian back in Stromness for this event, which takes place at Stromness Academy in the Upper Library at 7pm, and are looking forward to hearing more from this talented poet and storyteller.

Street Shapes

Sorry for the late notice but if you are free this evening you might like to get along to Northlight Studio in Graham Place, Stromness, for the launch of a new book of poems, prints and paintings offering a

 journey through Stromness in time and space... full of childhood memories and well known places.

Street Shapes features poems by local author Morag MacInnes and prints and paintings by local artist Diana Leslie and the launch will include an exhibition of the original artwork and poems as well as readings by Morag.

If you can't make it along tonight then the exhibition will also be open tomorrow (Saturday 27th April) and the book, which is available in black and white or in colour will also be available from Stromness Books and Prints.

A Week of Words

We hope you had a restful weekend because this week is full of exciting literary events for your enjoyment.

On Wednesday 10th April, Reader in Residence Alison Miller will lead The Poem's the Thing - an informal poetry reading group open to all who want to discover new poems and share old favourites - there will be a session in Kirkwall Library between 1pm-2pm and here in Stromness Library from 6pm- 7pm.

Then on Thursday 11th April the Orkney Book Festival 2013 begins with a Film night hosted by West Side Cinema at 7.30pm when they will be showing That Now by Sarah Forrest, who was the first Margaret Tait resident in 2012. This will be followed by a showing of Blue Black Permanent by Margaret Tait.

A full list of events during the four day festival can be found on the George Mackay Brown Fellowship website , or pick up a programme from the library, but we would like to draw your attention to the events being held in Stromness on Sunday 14th April.

At 11am here at Stromness Library, Bryce Wilson will give a talk on 'Stromness and John Rae'; then in the afternoon from 2-4pm Ian Macpherson will be running a Workshop on comedy writing - if you would like to sign up for this workshop please email pamela.beasant@virgin.net

Still in Stromness on Sunday evening starting at 7.30pm in the Stromness Hotel Ian Macpherson and Magi Gibson will host an evening of entertainment entitled 'Bemused'.

Entry to all events costs £5 (£4 concessions) at the door, with a Whole Festival Pass costing £20  available in advance from Orkney Library in Kirkwall, or on the door at events.

After all that excitement you may need a peedie sit down with a good book, so don't forget there will be a book sale running in Orkney Library, Kirkwall on Friday and Saturday, while here in Stromness we have our own small selection of sale books at the bargain price of 5p per title,  with the offer that, should you buy 5 books we will give you a 6th for free.

It's going to be a busy week!

Readings and Readers

Advance warning of a couple of literary events taking place in Stromness next week.

On Tuseday 26th February  Orkney Arts Society have arranged a reading by author Meaghan Delahunt at the Pier Arts Centre starting at 7.30pm. Entry is £4, Concessions £3 and school students £1.

Meaghan Delahunt's first novel In the Blue House (Bloomsbury, 2001) won the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book in 2002, the Saltire Award for First Novel, a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize. Her second novel  The Red Book (Granta, 2008) which is set in India during the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster, was shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year Award for 2008.

Then on Wednesday 27th February the Stromness Library Reading Group will meet at 7pm to discuss The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. New Members are always very welcome to join us for an informal discussion over tea and coffee.

Author of the Month

Those of you who come into the library may greet our announcement that this month's author is Val McDermid with the cry

"But hasn't she been author of the month before?" 

To which we would reply

"Ah yes indeed, your memory serves you well. But wait, there is a good reason for this repetition, for on Thursday 29th November at 7pm in Kirkwall Library, Val McDermid will be giving a talk about her writing, and so to celebrate her visit it seemed a good time to have her as author of the month"

The good news is that Val's visit has sparked an enormous amount of interest - the bad news is that this means all the tickets for her reading have been snapped up already. However  this reading is only one of a series of events to celebrate Book Week Scotland 2012 and there are still a few tickets available for author events by Victoria Campbell on Friday 30th November at 2pm, and local author Rosie Wallace on Saturday 1st December at 3pm. To reserve tickets, which are free, for either of these events please phone or call in to Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall.

For more information about Book Week Scotland keep an eye on the library Facebook page and Twitter account, and in the meantime do drop by and borrow some Val McDermid titles - at least then you'll know what you are missing.

 

 

Bernard MacLaverty and Ron Pretty

Stromness is a hotbed of literary activity this week with two readings by visiting authors over the next two days!

Tonight (Wednesday 5th September) Bernard MacLaverty will give a reading in the Pier Arts Centre at 7.30pm - tickets at the door.

Author of  five collections of short stories and four novels, Bernard MacLaverty has also written versions of his fiction for other media - radio plays, television plays, screenplays. Recently he wrote and directed a short film 'Bye-Child'.

After living for a time in Edinburgh and the Isle of Islay he now lives in Glasgow where he is Visiting Writer/Professor at the University of Strathclyde. He is also employed as a teacher of creative writing on a postgraduate course in prose fiction run by the Research Institute of  Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

Then tomorrow evening (Thursday 6th September) acclaimed Australian poet Ron Pretty will give a reading here, in the exhibition room of the Stromness Library, at 7.30pm.

Ron Pretty has published seven books of poetry, the most recent being Postcards from the Centre(July 2010) . He won the NSW Premier’s Special Prize for services to literature in 2001 and received an AM for services to Australian literature in 2002.

This event is supported by the Orkney Library and Archive and The George Mackay Brown Fellowship, entry is free but donations are invited to cover costs.