From Glasgow to Saturn Reading Party

What a hoot! It was a big night at the University of Glasgow's Museum of Anatomy, and the crowd was mighty. That's Alan Gillespie, one of the editors of From Glasgow to Saturn, above, and the lady in the funky grey cardigan in the shot below is Sheila Millar, another of the editors.

Louise Welsh was the evening's MC.

Annelise Mackintosh bravely took the first slot, with a beautifully judged piece that centred on the apostrophe. You can discover more about Annelise here: http://www.anneliesemackintosh.com/Anneliese_Mackintosh/Home.html

Annelise was followed by Duncan Muir, a Hebridean poet who had flown down for the event. I can't find a web presence for Duncan, but he says of himself that he 'spent his childhood riding horses on the beach and terrorising small furry animals.' And he read a poem about shells, citing Marianne Moore, so he's more than OK by me.

Duncan was followed by Kirsty Logan, who built an immersing story using different narrators. Kirsty hangs out here: http://www.kirstylogan.com/

And then it was Raymond Soltysek (he's got a BAFTA!), who was bloody brilliant, bloody terrifying and used a lot of bad words. He's here: http://www.soltysek.com/

I rather embarassingly spent the whole evening calling him George. I think his surname made me think of Sir Georg Solti.

I rounded off the event, and was a bit miffed about being so tired and having a headache, but think I did OK. Pretty sure I'm reading Homemaker here, hence the glower.

Issue 20 of From Glasgow to Saturn has just hit the internet. You can find it here: http://glasgowtosaturn.com/currentissue/

I'm pretty sure it's not password protected.

Finally, you may have realised I didn't have my usual photographer with me (Mr T) as all the above shots are pin-sharp and well-composed. So let me just big it up for Joanne Smith, senior admin assistant, office manager and the-one-person-who-knows-everything from Arthritis Care Scotland, for it was she who took the pictures.

Just two more hell weeks to go. Ayr on Monday...

Update: Aha! Mr Soltysek has got his own back on me by completely misspelling my name! His report on the evening is here: http://raymondsoltysek.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/asking-difficult-questions-from-glasgow-to-saturn-reading-party-24211/
which includes an interesting discussion on writing about dark (very dark) matters.