BIG LIT 2023 : 27 – 30 July

BIG LIT, the Stewartry’s very own Book Festival is BACK for the 14th year.  It features some of the finest writers in Scotland and beyond. This year’s offer ranges across novels, biography, film, workshop, politics and poetry, not to mention crime fiction from top crime writer Chris Brookmyre with his wife, former anaesthetist Marisa Haertzman writing in tandem under the pseudonym of Ambrose Parry. Saturday’s highlights include Em Strang and her universally acclaimed first novel ‘Quinn’, Scotland’s most celebrated poet Don Paterson who has now written an often hilarious memoir ‘Toy Fights – A Boyhood’ about his Dundee upbringing  ‘anyone wanting a quiet book should read elsewhere – it will make you laugh aloud.’ warns an Observer review.  And in the evening we are joined by one of Scotland’s best known ‘man of letters’,  Andrew O’Hagan, whose brilliant novel Mayflies was recently televised by the BBC.  Andrew has twice been nominated for The Booker and will be talking about his work with our very own Tom Pow. What an honour is that!  With UK politics in a mess on so many fronts, author and academic Gerry Hassan will address one of the hottest questions of the day – the future of Scotland and the UK.  We have a poetry workshop, a master class from multi-award winning Mario Petrucci who will also read from several fantastically reviewed collections. But hopefully, none of these fine writers will qualify for ‘Dead Good Scots’ presented by Galloway’s favourite poet and editor Hugh McMillan! Elsewhere there is a feast of interviews and performances including local voices, Big Lit favourite Gerda Stevenson and jazz on the baritone sax from Richard Ingham, alongside the return of the fabulous Wanderlust Women, this year carrying ‘Excess Baggage’. Tickets will be online from 30th June and at The Gatehouse Store from 12th July. Most are a snip at £8.00 or less!

Chrys Salt MBE
Artistic Director of The Bakehouse Community Arts and BIG LIT.