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Association for Scottish Literature
@asls.org.uk
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Educational charity promoting the reading, writing, teaching & study of Scotland's literature & languages, past & present.

https://asls.org.uk
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asls.org.uk
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · Aug 27
A CHAOS OF LIGHT
New Writing Scotland 43
Ed. Kirstin Innes, Chris Powici & Niall O’Gallagher

“writing that unsettles and challenges, that questions assumptions…A rich, boisterous, tender, charming, angry, sorrowful, gleeful mix”

Available now from all good bookshops!
💙📚
asls.org.uk/publications...
New Writing Scotland 43
Edited by Kirstin Innes, Chris Powici & Niall O’Gallagher Published in: Paperback, 184 pages By: Association for Scottish Literature, Glasgow, August 2025 Price: £9.95 ISBN: 9781906841669 Cover image…
asls.org.uk
asls.org.uk
“I met people who gave me books, who handed me a thousand lives so that I might learn to live my own”

—Andrew O’Hagan, on why he supports the @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social / @heraldscotland.bsky.social Christmas appeal
💙📚
www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/...
Books for every child: Join Scottish Book Trust’s life-changing Christmas appeal
Esteemed novelist Andrew O'Hagan - author of Mayflies and three-time Booker Prize nominee - on the importance of Scottish Book Trust's life-changing…
www.heraldscotland.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:51 PM
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murrayp.bsky.social
Universities Committee in Scottish Literature launches the new Scottish Literary Studies Book Prize.

The prize will be awarded biennially starting in 2026; nominations close 31 March 2026.

Full details, and a nominations template, can be found here:

ucsl-scotland.com/scottish-lit...
Scottish Literary Studies Book Prize
The Scottish Literary Studies Book Prize is awarded biennially to an outstanding work of scholarship in the field of Scottish literary studies. Founded in 2025, the prize is open to book-length wor…
ucsl-scotland.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
asls.org.uk
“Helen Adam marched through her life to the beat of her own drum”
—Kristin Prevallet

Helen Adam (1909–1993) – fey child prodigy (published by Faber at 14) & daughter of the manse; bardic matriarch of the San Francisco Beats; Worm Queen – was born #OTD, 2 Dec. A 🎂🧵
1/7
caesuramag.org/posts/kristi...
Poems by Helen Adam — Caesura
Helen Adam is a singular luminary whose ballads, if you read them out loud and late at night, will sneak into your mind and create phantasmagorias of exquisite, sensual, brooding, and melancholy fairy...
caesuramag.org
December 2, 2025 at 1:49 PM
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tannerritchie.bsky.social
It's December 1st and you know what that means ...

... TannerRitchie's Holiday Sale is now on!! 🎁📚

HUGE savings on eBook downloads and personal access to MEMSO and Red Book of Scotland Online.

Check out all the deals at: tannerritchie.com/sale.php

#history #twitterstorians #genealogy #history
December 1, 2025 at 7:04 PM
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editor.scot
Our months are pretty metal tbh. January is Am Faoilleach (the Wolf Month)
douglascheape.bsky.social Douglas Cheape @douglascheape.bsky.social · 1d
Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.
December 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
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hauntpublishing.bsky.social
It's finally December and we all know what that means!

🎄🩸 CHRISTMAS HORROR TIME 🩸🎄

Look no further than THE GINGERBREAD MEN by @joannacorrance.bsky.social!

Angela Carter meets Stephen King in this Scottish Highland hotel horror.

www.hauntpublishing.com/books/p/joan...

#ChristmasHorror
The Gingerbread Men by Joanna Corrance (Paperback) — Haunt Publishing
Eric abandons his fiancé, Eleanor, at the Edinburgh Christmas market, following a mysterious woman back to the hotel she owns in the Highlands. Here he meets the men that staff the vacant rooms. Men l...
www.hauntpublishing.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:57 PM
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extrateethmag.bsky.social
And we are OPEN for submissions for Issue Eleven!

Submissions will be open from DECEMBER 1st - DECEMBER 14th.

We are accepting fiction and non-fiction between 800-4000 words.
December 1, 2025 at 12:22 PM
asls.org.uk
“Most poets can’t drive a car and the ones who do drive shouldn’t”

I’m sure this is fine though
www.theguardian.com/books/2023/j...
December 1, 2025 at 6:05 PM
asls.org.uk
Robert Burns & the Glenriddell Manuscripts
22 Jan 2026, @natlibscot.bsky.social Edinburgh – free

Discover the incredible story of the Glenriddell Manuscripts – the largest collection of Robert Burns’s original writings in the world
#C18th #poetry #song #letters
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-bur...
Robert Burns and the Glenriddell Manuscripts
Curator Ralph McLean explores Robert Burns’ Glennriddell Manuscripts, which contain one of the greatest collections of the Bard's work.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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agrayarchive.bsky.social
ONE WEEK LEFT!
Emerging animators: AGA & @canongate.co.uk are commissioning 4 short films for early 2026 (£500 each). Email [email protected] with CV, approach + 2–3 samples. Deadline 6 Dec 2025.
December 1, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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damianbarr.bsky.social
You’re buying someone you love a book for Christmas. Or maybe you’re telling yourself you’ll give it to them but really you know it’s for you. I’m not judging. I am telling you that indie bookshops love you and Jeff Bezos doesn’t. Shop @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The Two Roberts
Check out The Two Roberts - <p><b>SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025</b><br /><b>A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK </b><br /><b>A BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2025 FOR THE <i>GUARDIAN</i>, THE <i...
uk.bookshop.org
December 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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douglascheape.bsky.social
Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.
December 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
asls.org.uk
When the day-birds have settled
in their creaking trees,
the doors of the forest open
for the flitting
drift of deer
among the bright croziers
of new ferns
and the legible stars…

—Robin Robertson, “What the Horses See at Night”
SAILING THE FOREST: Selected Poems
www.panmacmillan.com/authors/robi...
What the Horses See at Night by Robin Robertson When the day-birds have settled in their creaking trees, the doors of the forest open for the flitting drift of deer among the bright croziers of new ferns and the legible stars; foxes stream from the earth; a tawny owl frisks the long meadow. In a slink of river-light, the mink’s face is already slippery with yolk, and the bay’s tiny islands are drops of solder under a drogue moon. The sea’s a heavy sleeper, dreaming in and out with a catch in each breath, and is not disturbed by that plowt – the first in a play of herring, a shoal silvering open the sheeted black skin of the sea. Through the starting rain, the moon skirrs across the sky dragging torn shreds of cloud behind. The fox’s call is red and ribboned in the snow’s white shadow. The horses watch the sea climb and climb and walk towards them on the hill, hear the vole crying under the alder, our children breathing slowly in their beds.
December 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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peteralanross.bsky.social
I'm thrilled that Upon A White Horse is going to be Radio 4's Book Of The Week. The first episode, which is on Stonehenge, will be on December 8 at 11.45am – and then there will be a reading from a different part of the book every day up to and including December 12. I hope you'll enjoy listening.
December 1, 2025 at 8:59 AM
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kovesi.bsky.social
This is today at 1pm! Free event online & in person.
kovesi.bsky.social Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 5d
Very excited to host writer Kristie De Garis for a reading and a talk in the Chapel @uofglasgow.bsky.social on Monday starting 1pm - in person and on Zoom - discussing her first book "Drystone: A Life Rebuilt":
@kristiedegaris.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-c...
Creative Conversations: Kristie de Garis
Author and Dry Stone Waller Kristie de Garis in conversation
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 1, 2025 at 11:20 AM
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lyndseycroal.bsky.social
It's St Andrews Day, which is also a great day to read Scottish books and authors!! Here are eleven recent-ish Scottish SFFH reads that I loved, to add to your TBR pile! 👇✨
November 30, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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kristiedegaris.bsky.social
If you can't attend my event tomorrow at University of Glasgow, it s available to live stream at the link below

uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/8484798525...

It's going to be an interesting and lively conversation.

1pm start.

#Scotland #Glasgow #Reading #WritingCommunity #Books #Events #Accessibility
A woman with short, greying dark hair stands outdoors beside an old red British phone box. She wears a teal button-up shirt tucked into high waisted dark jeans and black shoes. A pair of sunglasses hangs from her shirt. Behind her is a stone wall, a flowing river, and trees with early autumn foliage. Two small blue andwhite utility markers are set into the grass near her feet. The atmosphere is calm and slightly overcast.
November 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
asls.org.uk
Scotland, you’re no mine
(you were no his)
and I don’t want you…

—Hannah Lavery, “Scotland, you’re no mine”
from BLOOD SALT SPRING (Birlinn, 2022)

A #poem for #StAndrewsDay
birlinn.co.uk/product/bloo...
Hannah Lavery SCOTLAND, YOU’RE NO MINE (you were no his) and I don’t want you. So go ahead, say I don’t belong, wi your sepia-tinged cross eye sweeping over all that swept-away, blood-stained, sweat-stained sugar for your tablet. Ya macaroon. Ya rotten, gobby, greedy, thieving bastard you, sitting atop a that shite and broken bones, weeping, Poor me. Fuck you! I will dance jigs on your flags blue n white; blue, white n red. It doesne matter but, ya wee chancer! Fuck! For making us complicit, handing us whip and chains, an officer’s coat, a civil-service pen, a Queen to love. And lay me out, I love you with your mountain thyme and all your coorie in. And you can say, I dinnae belong to you – go on – but I am limpet stuck on you. So fuck you for no seeing one of your own. I will, here. I will spill, here, my blood and your secrets, bleed into you, root and earth, and you, forever, pagan, will, in the spill and the seep, see all you really are. So fuck you, my sweet forgetful Caledonia. With love, fuck you.
November 30, 2025 at 5:22 PM
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asls.org.uk
Reading Scotland with Margaret Bennet
Why Scotland Celebrates St Andrew's Day
2 Dec, online – free

Dr Margaret Bennet talks about the relevance of celebrating St Andrew’s Day today & dives into the origins of this national holiday
www.scotland.uni-mainz.de/reading-scot...
READING SCOTLAND with Margaret Bennett Why Scotland Celebrates St Andrew's Day Tuesday 2nd December 2025 6.00–7.30 pm (German time) on MS Teams www.scotland.uni-mainz.de
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
asls.org.uk
Scotland’s a sense of change, an endless
becoming for which there was never a kind
of wholeness or ultimate category.
Scotland’s an attitude of mind.

—Maurice Lindsay, “Speaking of Scotland”
A poem for #StAndrewsDay
#poem #poetry
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/speakin...
Speaking of Scotland by Maurice Lindsay What do you mean when you speak of Scotland? The grey defeats that are dead and gone behind the legends each generation savours afresh, yet can’t live on? Lowland farms with their broad acres peopling crops? The colder earth of the North East? Or Highland mountains shouldering up their rocky dearth? Inheritance of guilt that our country has never stood where we feel she should? A nagging threat of unfinished struggle somehow forever lost in the blood? Scotland’s a sense of change, an endless becoming for which there was never a kind of wholeness or ultimate category. Scotland’s an attitude of mind.
November 30, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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gnofhorror.com
Scotland's real monsters are in its pages. This St. Andrew's Day, explore the brilliant new wave of Scottish horror authors. Our guide features 4 must-read Scottish authors and the publishers & festivals championing them

gnofhorror.com/scottish-hor...

#ScottishHorror #StAndrewsDay
Scottish Horror Authors: A St. Andrew's Day Tour Of Modern Masters - The Ginger Nuts Of Horror Review Website
Celebrate St. Andrew's Day with the best Scottish Horror Authors. Discover chilling books by C.J. Cooke, David Sodergren, Francine Toon & more. Get spooked!
gnofhorror.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:19 AM
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iainmacinnesuhi.bsky.social
This St Andrew's Day, it is worth noting that it's also the anniversary of the Battle of Culblean (1335). This lesser-known battle of the Scottish civil war/Second Scottish War of Independence was arguably pivotal. See more about it below... #medievalsky #ScottishHistory #StAndrewsDay
Battle on St Andrew’s Day: Culblean and the Scottish Wars of Independence - Bylines Scotland
Dr Iain MacInnes delves into the battle of Culblaen, a major turning point in the lesser-studied Second Scottish War of Independence.
bylines.scot
November 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
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luathpress.bsky.social
Our Black Friday weekend sale is now on 🖤📚

Spend £20 to get 20% off your order
Spend £30 to get 30% off your order

No codes needed. The discount applies automatically at checkout. Sale ends Monday 1 December. Happy shopping!
zurl.co/6OJKo
November 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
asls.org.uk
The siller moonlicht straiks ower
this boorach o neds that jumped me,
hellbent oan ma daith…

—Frances Robson, “Daith o Saint Andrew”

A Scots poem for #StAndrewsDay – inspired by Peter Howson’s “Andrew, Portrait of a Saint”
#poem #poetry
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/daith-o...
Daith o Saint Andrew by Frances Robson The siller moonlicht straiks ower this boorach o neds that jumped me, hellbent oan ma daith. Ah feel the reek o nicotine an mingin bodies. There’s Auld Bawheid, gowpin lik a trout; an Wee Yin bummin’ awa at me an speirin: Haw, Andra, whaur’s yer God noo? Naething lik bein stark deid, is there, pal? Thir’s a hale tsunami o fowk soomin towards me: some wifies are staunin lik bubblyjocks at Christmas. But wan lassie is hunkered doon oan a cauld stane in the clarty watter unner ma feet, luikin glaikit an disjaskit, as if she’s hud a lugfu o Sunday sermons. Here’s nae place fur a lassie. Whit are they daein here? Is there naethin oan telly? Or is the Net doon oan thir computers? Ocht, wid ye luik at thir een poppin oot thir heids, ettlin fur a wee swatch o me hingin here? This wisnae whit Ah’d planned when Ah tuik ma career break fae fishin. Ah shuldnae huv listened tae aw that patter aboot fishin fur men – whit a load o guff! Insteid o hingin here by a threid, raxed oot lik an Arbroath smokie an flung ower a saltire. Thir’s nae rest fur the wicked! An Ah’m gey feart an dinnae ken whaur Ah’ll be the morra. Andrew, Portrait of a Saint by Peter Howson. Oil on canvas, 2007 Saint Andrew, his limbs twisted, is being bound onto an X-shaped cross with thick, snake-lie ropes. A crowd of figures throng around him, with lumpen, mis-shaped heads, limbs, and faces. The scene is lit strongly from above, casting deep shadows. In the top right hand corner, a cold blue moon shines through clouds of smoke connecting the earth and sky.
November 30, 2025 at 12:06 PM
asls.org.uk
The Little White Rose
(To John Gawsworth)

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “The Little White Rose”
A #StAndrewsDay poem
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46800/...
A small spray of white Scottish roses, some open, some just beginning to bud. Prickly stems bearing neat, fern-like, dark green foliage carry cupped, single, creamy-white flowers with pale yellow centres.
November 30, 2025 at 11:07 AM