Figures of Speech: Love
with Jenny Colgan, Pàdraig MacAoidh & Hamish Hawk
(Fri 23 Sep: 7.30pm)
Season 2 of our Figures of Speech series gets off to a cracking start as our experts guide us through the many facets of Love in Scottish Literature. Our hosts Pàdraig MacAoidh and Jenny Colgan take us on a tour through their own experiences of writing about love and some of the most enduring examples in Scottish literature. We’d love you to join us!
Unfortunately, Jamie Rea is no longer able to perform at this event. We hope to share Jamie's new commission exploring queer love, presented in British Sign Language as a filmed piece as part of the online recording available later this month. Tonight's event still features live BSL interpretation on stage.
However, we are delighted to announce that SAY Award nominated songwriter Hamish Hawk will perform two Love-themed songs instead. Rich of voice and even richer of imagination, the singer-songwriter from Edinburgh creates musical pen-portraits as vivid in lyric as they are in melody.
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Figures of Speech is a series of events bringing together writers and artists to take us on a road trip through Scottish literature for Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022. Covering six universal themes (Music, Friendship, Future, Love, Place, Big Ideas), each event explores literary blockbusters, hidden gems and modern classics.
Our expert guides will take us on a journey through Scotland’s iconic books and stories, navigating the dazzling array of new voices, and presenting newly commissioned work by artists responding to each theme. Let us take you on a journey across the curious contrasts and contradictions that define Scottish literature.
All Figures of Speech events will be filmed and made available online a week later, and both the live and recorded events will feature live BSL interpretation from Yvonne Waddell, who is a Lecturer in Sign Language Interpreting at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Each live event will be supported by a pop-up bookshop from Lighthouse Books, whose expert booksellers will be on hand to supply the must-read books to match the event.
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Scottish author, Jenny Colgan has been writing romantic fiction since 1999 when her first book, was sold at auction throughout the world. She has won numerous awards, been translated into over 26 languages and at the end of last year hit the New York Times bestseller list for the first time with The Christmas Bookshop (set in Edinburgh) which will be published in paperback on 27 October. At a time when people need escapism and romance more than ever, romantic fiction has had a massive uplift in sales. Ireland has Marian Keyes, England has Sophie Kinsella, and Scotland has Jenny Colgan.
Pàdraig MacAoidh / Peter Mackay is a writer and academic whose work is heavily influenced by the diverse linguistic heritage of his birthplace – the Isle of Lewis. After being awarded an MA from Glasgow University and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Peter went on to work at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, as a Broadcast Journalist for BBC Alba, and as a lecturer at the University of St Andrews. He is a native Gaelic speaker and has co-edited anthologies including An Leabhar Liath / The Light Blue Book, a selection of Gaelic love poetry which won the Donald Meek award and Saltire Research Book of the Year. Peter has written widely on modern Irish and Scottish poetry and on Scottish Gaelic literature and has published two collections of poems: Gu Leòr / Galore, which came out in 2015, and Nàdar de / Some kind of, 2020.
Jamie Rea is a multidisciplinary Deaf performer and visual artist, presenter, artist raised in Northern Ireland and living in Glasgow since 2015. His first language is British Sign Language (BSL) and he has collaborated with cultural organisations across England: Deafinitely Theatre, Fuel Theatre and Scotland including Creative Electric, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, National Theatre of Scotland, Take Me Somewhere/Buzzcut and Solar Bear, as a workshop leader and associated producer (Make A Change Project) and also as a BSL consultant for accessibility.
Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022 spotlights, celebrates and promotes the wealth of stories inspired by, written, or created in Scotland, and will inspire new stories of Scotland to be shared. Figures of Speech is programmed and developed by Edinburgh City of Literature and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Supported by EventScotland as part of the Year of Stories 2022.
A booking fee of £1.25 is charged per transaction for online and phone bookings. If you are a Storytelling Centre Supporter, please add a full price ticket to the basket. Your discount will be automatically added at checkout.
This event is being sold at full capacity without social distancing. Audiences are requested to wear masks at all times, unless medically exempt.
