Tuesday 13 November 2012

Book Week Scotland

No sooner had the dust settled from the Orcrime Festival, than Orkney Library was gearing up for Book Week Scotland which runs from 26 November - 2 December. The line up begins with the wonderful Val McDermid
@ 7.00 pm
on Thursday 29 November 

Victoria Campbell will be talking to Orkney's children about her book Viking Gold
@ 2.00 pm
on Friday 30 November

And to finish, Rosie Wallace will read and talk about her work
@ 3.00 pm
on Saturday 1 December

All events take place in Kirkwall library and are FREE but TICKETED. Reserve your tickets from the Library. Tel: 01856 873166.

(Val McDermid's event is already sold out, but it's worth putting your name on a reserve list if you'd like to see her.)

Every Writer Must Have His Day

Today is Robert Louis Stevenson's. Happy RLS Day! What kind of a Supper would we have for RLS - if we had such a thing? Readings from Kidnapped & Treasure Island? We could brew up a potion that turns mild mannered Dr Jekylls into raving Mr Hydes. A One Million Dollar Idea! Phone up the Scottish Book Trust! What's that? We already do that for Burns Suppers? Oh well ...  

National Short Story Week

To mark National Short Story Week, we've taken over two display stands and set out some of the library's stock of leading short fiction writers: Anton Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield, Alice Munro, Bernard Malamud, Raymond Carver, George Mackay Brown, to name a few. Majella who works in the library reminded me too of the marvellous Frank O'Connor. She is going to tell the blog about her love of short stories on Thursday. 

One idea we're floating is the possibility of a short story reading group. Something nice about the thought you could read and discuss a complete piece of fiction in your lunchtime. 

Orkney Storytelling

Tomorrow I interview Tom Muir about storytelling ...      

  

4 comments:

  1. Happy RLS day, loads of exciting events in Orkney!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the library staff here had organised all this before I even applied for the job! They're a great bunch.

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  2. Lots of excellent Scottish short story writers too. Ann Donovan, Janice Galloway, AL Kennedy. Seek out Helen Lamb's Superior Bedsits, (Polygon). Difficult to find but a treat of a collection. A short story reading group sounds like a great idea!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I know. I've got Janice Galloway and AL Kennedy up too. We'll be looking in the stock in the back to find a good range of other short story writers. Lorrie Moore is brilliant as well. We're going to carry on the display in a more prominent part of the library and see if we can get any takers. I'll keep you posted about the short story group ...

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