Edinburgh Book Festival Review – Janice Galloway & Alan Warner

Billed as an event to discuss the position of small press by two well known Scottish writers, this gathering was expanded to include two new authors on the Scottish scene. Elizabeth Reeder and Richard Todd are two of Long Lunch Press’s first authors, a new publishing venture recently undertaken by Alan Warner. They were joined on the stage by the previously billed, Janice Galloway, and Duncan McLean, the man behind Clocktower Press and our host for the session.

The format would be half an hour of readings, then half an hour of discussion, with the readings consisting of fiction or poetry from small press publications the two established authors had previously been published.

“The ultimate small press can be illustrated by Rabbie Burs,” insists host, Duncan Mclean. “After writing and re-writing a poem until he got it perfect, he would take a walk from his cottage and pin the piece of paper to a thorn bush, leaving it for anyone to wander up and read. Then he would watch as people stopped to appreciate it.”

But things are much more different in modern Scotland, and Janice Galloway kicks off the readings with an old story of hers, which she was never able to get published by a larger house, called Excellence. “It’s too weird,” one editor told her, “but stick in at the writing though.”

If only he knew.

Galloway is a staunch advocate of the small press, and it’s not long before she explains why. “They’re approachable,” she says with enthusiasm. “We all know the big presses aren’t in it for the love of books, God help us no. But small presses still have that something that can allow an author to get their break in print.

“Small presses are needed to fill the gaps that the big publishers won’t touch; experimental fiction, off the wall stuff, and so on. And thank God they’re there; my books wouldn’t have come out without them.”

How true that last statement from Galloway was. Born in 1955 in Saltcoats, Scotland, she has made a successful career as a writer of short stories and novels, the vast majority coming through the official small press channel.

Her books have won numerous prizes, in particular the Creative Scotland Award and the Saltire Book of the Year for Clara, her third novel published in 2002. Other works of note include The Trick is to Keep Breathing (1989), Blood, (1991), and Foreign Parts (1994). She has also published several collections of short stories and poetry.

Of all her work, Galloway expresses most pride for Rosengarten, a book of prose and poetry, published in 2004, which was matched with an exhibition of obstetrical implements by Anne Bevan. “It was so hard to get it taken anywhere, but I believed in it so much I never gave up. And without the small press it would never have been. Mind you, I think I’m the only person in the world who promotes it these days.”

Galloway retrieves some visual aids from her case as examples of fine small press prints that are still as important today as they were when she first started out; the Edinburgh Review, Clocktower booklet, Meriscat, Fruitmarket Gallery, Polygon, Scottish Music Centre; there are plenty for any author or reader to select from.

She also reads from an old letter she saved from her early days, written to her from Duncan McLean, the man sitting to her right, who was in charge of Clocktower Press in those days. He had just published a Clocktower booklet, which contained a story of hers and he was enclosing a copy for her. “If you want any more they’ll cost you one pound fifty!” he quipped. Galloway read on. “I must tell you about a manuscript that was recently submitted to me. It’s fantastic; the best thing I’ve read in ages. It’s called Morvern Callar by a writer called Alan Warner. He’s a really nice guy, too – I think it’ll sell.”

Warner smiles at this inwardly as he recalls the time before his best seller had been accepted. Born in 1964, he grew up on the Scottish west coast island of Oban, and is the author of five novels; the critically and popularly acclaimed, Morvern Callar, being his most famous. The book propelled him into the spotlight in 1995, and as such, he is constantly being compared to Irvine Welsh and A. L. Kennedy.

Warner reads a couple of shorts published by a small press, called Smear 1 and Smear 2; two humorous anecdotes about a man being hit with an egg. He recalls when he first submitted his work to Clocktower Press, Duncan McLean had accepted his work but also asked if he could borrow some money to get the project off the ground. Normally this would not be recommended, but Warner took the gamble and it paid off, both in publication and in a friendship with his new publisher.

“Getting published is hard enough,” says Warner, “But getting small press into shops is even worse. It’s like applying for a mortgage.”

Elizabeth Reeder, our first new author then reads as an example of what the press has achieved so far, and where it hopes to go. She reads powerfully and with a commanding voice from her slight and sleek person; perhaps living in Glasgow has adapted her that way.

Originally from Chicago, she is currently working through a Creative Writing PhD at Glasgow University, as well as teaching at the University of Strathclyde. Recent and upcoming publications include, Skinny Girls, in The Little Black Dress (Polygon), two commissioned flash fictions in the Saturday Herald, and a story for BBC Radio 4, Baggage. An excerpt of her novel Ramshackle will be published by Chapman, and a Women’s Hour Serial, Standing Still, Running, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last summer. She’s just received an SAC Bursary to support the writing of her novel.

Richard Todd, is also based in Glasgow, and is currently working on his first novel, from which he reads rather nervously, yet with a strange pull of sympathy. He’s tall, perhaps gangly but it’s hard to tell because he never stood up. He has a strong Geordie accent and curly hair, which surrounds one of those faces that’s just made for stand-up comedy.

And he’s funny; very funny. After reading, he begins to tell us how nervous he was about coming up here to “read from the first thing he has had published.” But as his Dad always told him, “strike while the iron is hot, son!”

He then explains how his muddled mind became totally confused by this, because his mother had always told him to “stay away from the iron.” He then carried on into a rambling sketch about ironing boards, metaphors, and his lack of confidence caused by his parents eventual divorce, “but not just because of the iron issue.”

With such talented authors coming through, it’s no wonder Warner gets so annoyed at the attitudes of the big name bookshops, “charging ten thousand pounds to display a book by the front door. They don’t understand the small press mentality, and they never will. It’s all about the people at the till for them.”

McLean agrees, and backs this up by stating: “who would want to be a big publisher anyway?”

In closing, both of the “big name” authors agree that no matter how you do it and why, a writer doesn’t think about who will read it at the end of the day. “You don’t write for others, you write for yourself first,” says Galloway.

And Warner agrees. “You create what you want first, then you hope that others might want to read and share in that later.”

Related Links
www.galloway.1to1.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Warner
www.edbookfest.co.uk

~ Colin Galbraith ~
www.colingalbraith.co.uk