5 female Scottish writers you should be reading

We are always looking for new books and new voices. We are especially interested in writing that moves away from the standard demographic of white English and American males. If you share these interests, here is a selection of writers who do not fit the traditional mould. These women are some of the most significant Scottish writers working today.

Kirsty Logan

Kirsty Logan is a writer you should know. Her first book of short stories, The Rental Heart and Other Stories, was published by Salt Publishing in 2014. Her debut novel, The Gracekeepers, followed in 2015. Critics describe her work as addictively enjoyable. Her collection was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Prize. Logan also mentors other female writers through the WoMentoring scheme. Her fiction is fabulist, queer and quirky.

Laura Hird

Laura Hird is well known in short story circles but deserves more recognition in wider literature. She has written two story collections, Nail and Other Stories and Hope and Other Urban Tales. She also wrote the novel Born Free and a book of letters titled Dear Laura. Her work is realist and focuses on the seedy underbelly of Edinburgh. Readers who appreciate Irvine Welsh or James Kelman will find her portraits of social deprivation familiar. Her writing also focuses on female empowerment and sexual fulfilment.

Jenni Fagan

Jenni Fagan is a significant new talent. Her 2012 debut, The Panopticon, presents the harsh realities of modern British society. The narrator is a fifteen-year-old girl caught in the social care system. The New York Times called the novel a pugnacious paean to juvenile delinquency. In 2013, Granta named Fagan one of the Best Young British Novelists of the decade.

Alice Thompson

Alice Thompson won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Justine in 1996. Her 2010 book The Existential Detective earned comparisons to Paul Auster and David Lynch. Her sixth novel, Burnt Island, was published in 2013. Critics described it as risky and clever. Ali Smith called Thompson the intellectual future of British writing.