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August 2010

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Elsewhere: New Writing Commissions

In a major new departure for the Book Festival, fifty authors are being commissioned to write short stories or essays, all on the theme of ‘Elsewhere’. We have chosen leading writers from across the world and each will be producing work through 2010 and 2011 which is available for you to read and listen to here, exclusively on our website.

Contributors include Alasdair Gray, Ali Smith, A L Kennedy, Alan Warner, Roddy Doyle, Amy Bloom and David Vann. A number of authors best known for their writing for children and young adults are also included, such as Michael Morpurgo, Andy Stanton, David Almond and Margo Lanagan. Many of these authors will be participating in events in which they read and discuss their stories about 'Elsewhere'.

Sign up to our regular news bulletins and we will let you know whenever a new piece of work is released on the website. We will also be releasing a series of podcasts and event videos as we move through the coming months.

You can search for the events in our Elsewhere: New Writing Commissions theme by using the ‘Theme’ drop down menu on the event search or explore the new work and learn more about the writers on our writers’ pages.

Supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.

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Elizabeth Laird

Red Wolves in the Mist by Elizabeth Laird

The wolf came towards us out of the mist, trotting on stilted legs. He was lean but his black-tipped tail was bushy. Unlike his grey European cousins, he was rust-red, bright enough to stand out vividly against the chalky green vegetation...

David Almond

Paper Boat Paper Bird by David Almond

Kyoto. Ky-o-to! Kyo-to! She feels so weirdly at home. She is herself, Mina, but it’s like there’s another Mina waiting to be discovered or created here...

Rodge Glass

After Drink You Can Turn Earth Up Side Down by Rodge Glass

In this club in downtown Hong Kong the waitresses never let your glass get below midway before offering you another drink. They all look eighteen or nineteen. They all look good...

Alan Warner

Sullivan's Ashes by Alan Warner

Myself, Cousin John, Sullivan’s third wife Aileen and the sergeant all sat together in the police station at Tobermory. We read once more the photocopied clause in Sullivan’s will...

Miguel Syjuco

Be Here Now by Miguel Syjuco

It’s exciting to get to know your new kitchen and its appliances...

Alberto Manguel

Elsewhere, Far From Here by Alberto Manguel

Ulysses turned his back on the harbour and followed a rough track leading through the woods and up to the hills towards the place where Athena had told him...

Roddy Doyle

Los San Patricios by Roddy Doyle

The writer had a new book out and he was touring America, a city a day, a reading a night.  He’d fly to a different city and hear the same question...

Karen Campbell

Apparently by Karen Campbell

You are standing in a garden, crying.

Kirstin Innes

Horror Story by Kirstin Innes

The hotel felt like a place where bad things had happened, she’d decided. Something chilling about the uniformity of its too-long Soviet-functional corridors, their flickering lights.

Anne Donovan

Not Scotland by Anne Donovan

The heat whaups ye the minute ye set fit oot the plane.  The brightness too –blue sky barely skiffed wi cloud...