unbound - Edinburgh International Book Festival

UNBOUND
LATE NIGHTS AT THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL
BOOK FESTIVAL 11–26 AUG 2013
Discover a
World, in Words
Edinburgh International Book Festival
E
very August the Edinburgh International
Book Festival takes place in Charlotte Square
Gardens, a leafy green space just a stone’s throw
from views of the Castle and Princes Street.
Attracting around 200,000 visitors every year,
it’s the place to be if you want to be challenged,
entertained and inspired (or just to laze around
and soak up the festival atmosphere). All
events take place in a speciality-built tented
village in Charlotte Square Gardens, with cafes,
bookshops, bars and the Guardian Spiegeltent.
In 2013, the Book Festival celebrates its 30th
anniversary by looking back on the last three
decades of British and international culture and
forward to what the next three decades may
bring. The programme is a festival of ideas and a
forum for discussion, bringing together authors
and leading thinkers from the worlds of science,
politics, business, economics and journalism
from Scotland and across the globe.
This year Margaret Atwood, Gavin Esler, Kate
Mosse and Neil Gaiman each take on the mantle of
Guest Selector, hosting a series of events on genre,
the collapse of trust, women in the 21st century
and the reshaping of modern fantasy respectively.
Ian Rankin joins pop legends Tim Burgess
and Peter Hook; Duran Duran’s John Taylor
and Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl
discuss their lives and careers; and Vic Galloway
launches his new book on Fife’s Fence Collective.
Leading thinkers put forward blueprints
for the future in debates on defence, the
environment, copyright, mental health and
the arts with the aim of improving life in 2043.
And with the Independence Referendum only
16 months away leading Scottish journalists,
including Kirsty Wark and Iain Macwhirter, seek
to identify the key questions that need to be
answered before we can make an informed
decision.
Superheroes, comic book characters and
even Don Quixote swoop into the Book Festival
as comics, graphic novels and the people who
create them are celebrated in Stripped. More
than forty events lay bare the incredible scope of
comics and graphic novels being produced today,
featuring Joe Sacco, Chris Ware, Posy Simmonds,
Bryan Talbot and many others.
The 2013 Book Festival programme is
shamelessly eclectic: Salman Rushdie, Ron Rash,
Will Storr, Ali Smith, Melinda Gebbie, Caitlin
Moran, Hadley Freeman, Grant Morrison and
David Peace are just a few of the authors and
debut writers jostling for attention.
The Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme,
running alongside adult events, brings together
writers for young people. Julia Donaldson,
Theresa Breslin and the new Children’s Laureate
Malorie Blackman are joined by hundreds of
other children’s favourite authors and characters
and plenty of new talent. [Roland Gulliver]
Full details of the programme can be found online at
www.edbookfest.co.uk To book tickets, visit the website or
call 0845 373 5888
An Introduction to
Jura Unbound
2013
I
Nile Rodgers at last year's Unbound
I N D EP EN D EN T
2
C U LT U R A L
J O U R N A L I S M
Editors: Rosamund West
& Ryan Rushton
Designer: Maeve Redmond
Illustrator: Eva Dolgyra
t is 2013 and the Edinburgh International
Book Festival is celebrating its 30th birthday.
If the Book Festival is the respectable adult of
Charlotte Square Gardens, then Jura Unbound is
its scruffy tearaway tyke of an offspring. At the
tender age of four, it is a bookish bairn, a literary
toddler, beginning to find its voice but still
susceptible to creating a bit of chaos.
The essence of Unbound has always been to
do something a little different, to offer authors
a different space to tell their stories, to explore
the relationship between literature, music and
performance. 2013 is no different so among this
year’s events is Multiples, a compilation of 12
stories, translated by 60 writers; Adam Thirlwell
brings the process to life on stage through your
participation. Granta’s Best of Young British
Novelists for 2013 is celebrated and Dan Rhodes,
never a man for literary convention, hosts a
night of readings and performances. A special
strand of events on graphic novels and comics
called Stripped is taking place at the Book
Festival in 2013 and Jura Unbound offers its own
interpretation: a Literary Death Match cartoon
spectacular and Illicit Ink, who bring comics alive
on stage.
There’s also a night of stories and songs with
Scottish poet and novelist Kevin MacNeil in a
musical collaboration with Willie Campbell; John
Lemke and Poppy Ackroyd create a unique fusion
of their music with the stories of Writers Bloc;
Ljodahått, a Norwegian musical collective who
defy explanation, bring poems to life and play a
Jura UNbound
mean wine glass solo.
Like the petulant child we are, we want to
play the grown-ups’ game, so Jura Unbound has
embraced the Book Festival’s theme of 30 years
back, 30 years forward. We will journey through
the decades and into the future. From Alan
Bissett’s latest incarnation, Andrea Dworkin,
heading up our 80s night; to celebrating 20 years
of the Fence Collective, and finally heading back
to the future with Electric Tales, to remember
how technology was supposed to be – clunky and
chunky, and never going to take over the world.
We reflect the changing times of the last
30 years. Gutter magazine launch their new
collection of LBGT writing 20 years after the
publication of Footsteps & Witnesses and The
Reel Festivals Iraq marks ten years since the
invasion of Iraq with a riot of poetry, theatre and
music.
Come and join us every night at 9pm in the
atmospheric Guardian Spiegeltent; 16 nights of
surprises, discovery and literary entertainment
await. It’s free and the bar stays open late. Plus
thanks to Jura whisky, our new sponsor, there's a
free dram for everyone.
And remember, many of the authors and
artists in Jura Unbound can be discovered in the
main programme. If something inspires you here,
take a look at the Book Festival’s website too,
you’ll find complementary events – not quite as
raw but just as intoxicating. Go and find them and
find more like them, you won’t be disappointed.
[Roland Gulliver]
THE SKINNY
Three Decades
Edinburgh International Book Festival is celebrating its 30 year anniversary and
Jura Unbound is getting in on the action. We spoke to the organisers of three
events reflecting upon a specific decade and one that encompasses all three
The 80s: Alan Bissett
Who are you and what do you do?
An ‘Alan Bissett’ performance can be
unpredictable, and can involve anything from chat
about superheroes to left-wing politics to Game
of Thrones to a reading from one of my books to
an audience sing-a-long to me pretending to be
a spider. I like to keep the audience guessing.
Maybe I won’t even show up! Who knows.
Why the 80s?
Well, the 80s formed the entirety of my
childhood, so it’s fascinating for me to go
back and examine them at some remove. They
were a titanic period, politically. The Miners’
Strike, for example, was the last stand of
the British working-class against Thatcher’s
capitalist onslaught, and, depressingly, we’re
now living through the results. We’re still in
the 80s, basically. Blair, Brown, Cameron: all
Thatcherites. That said, there were some
great films. Ghostbusters, Back to the Future
and the Indiana Jones films will all live forever.
And Scottish literature, perhaps because of
Thatcher, was on fire. Hello, James Kelman, Liz
Lochhead and Alasdair Gray!
What can we expect?
I will be playing the world’s angriest ever woman
Andrea Dworkin. In the nude. You’ll love it. It’s
going to be like being stung by a giant, radical,
lesbian, feminist bee. But in a good way. The 90s: Craig Taylor – Five Dials
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m the editor of Five Dials, which is now in its fifth
year of production, and currently enjoys an
average readership of 100,000, with about 15,000
email subscribers. The magazine promotes work
from both emerging and established talents, and
over the years has featured a diverse collection
of literary fiction and non-fiction from the likes
of Zadie Smith, Hari Kunzru, W.G. Sebald, Sam
Lipsyte and Noam Chomsky.
July 2013
Why the 90s?
Nirvana, Fugazi, The Secret History, Saramago’s
Blindness, Infinite Jest, The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle, Disgrace, The Savage Detectives, Alias
Grace, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s ‘Got Your Money.’
What can we expect?
The guest list is secret at the moment but we
will have at least one prize-winning novelist in
attendance. The 00s: Reel Iraq – Ryan Van Winkle
Who are you and what do you do?
Reel Iraq is part of Reel Festivals, a charity
which celebrates contemporary culture in
regions typically seen in the media as ‘conflict
laden.’ We try to work against mainstream
perceptions of these countries. Through
translation and performance we are reminded
of our common concerns and pursuits across
cultures. Reel Festivals has worked with
artists and individuals from Afghanistan, Syria,
Lebanon and Iraq and, in January, we brought
a select group of Scottish poets to the Erbil
Literature Festival in Kurdistan to meet their
Iraqi contemporaries, work on new translations
in English, Kurdish and Arabic and, importantly,
made some very close friends while inhabiting
and sharing their work. I’m the literature coordinator and will be hosting the evening. Why the 00s? In March Reel Iraq marked the 10 year
anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with a
week-long festival of film, poetry, music and
discussion throughout the entire UK. In some
ways, the start of the millennium was defined
by the post-9/11 wars waged in Afghanistan and
Iraq. While bearing in mind the political context
and the humanitarian situations which they
created, the message of Reel Festivals is simple:
there are people, art, and culture in Iraq which
continues and flourishes behind the headlines.
We think our friendship, camaraderie, and sense
Interview: Ryan Rushton
of play will come out in this performance and
hope that this connection will be imparted to
the audience, something that will hopefully be at
the forefront of their minds when they leave the
Guardian Spiegeltent. “It’s
going to be
like being stung
by a giant, radical,
lesbian, feminist
bee. But in a good
way”
Alan Bissett
What can we expect?
We’re very proud to be bringing Sabreen
Kadhim to Edinburgh as she was denied her
visa for participating in our March tour. She’s
an excellent young poet and journalist from
Baghdad who is a strong and inspiring figure.
She’ll be joined by the poet Ghareeb Iskander
from Baghdad as well as our Scottish translators
Krystelle Bamford, John Glenday, Jen Hadfield
and William Letford. In addition, we’ll have an
excerpt from Dina Mousawi’s theatre piece
Return which showcases the humour and
strength of Iraqi women. Despite rave reviews
in the international press, this piece has never
been seen in Edinburgh and we’re pleased to
be premiering a bit of it here. And, if that wasn’t
enough, we’ve got oud and choobi music lined
up so there will be some clapping, stomping and
dancing in fine Iraqi style. I really want to stress
that while the background of the event is deadly
serious, we’ll be highlighting the joys of the
culture rather than focusing on the destruction
of the past decade. Jura UNbound
30 Years: The Bookshop Band
Who are you and what do you do?
The Bookshop Band are myself, Poppy Pitt and
Beth Porter. We’re the in-house band for our
local independent bookshop, Mr Bs Emporium
of Reading Delights, in Bath. When they get an
author in for an event, we read the book before
hand, and write a couple of songs inspired by it
to play at the start. We did that for a year, wrote
four albums of songs, and then thought it’d be
quite nice to go and play them in some other
bookshops around the UK too. And it’s kind of
gone from there. The source of all the songs is
still the Mr Bs author evenings, but we’ve been
all around the UK, and this year to Paris and
Ireland too.
Why the last 30 years?
On the night we’re going to dip into our musical
reserves and choose songs that were inspired
by books set in those three decades. Books will
include Billy Lynn’s Long Half Time Walk by Ben
Fountain, Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick
Gale, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by
Rachel Joyce, Maggie and Me by Damian Barr, and
many many more. We’ll intersperse them with a
few other songs inspired by other authors who
will also be at the Book Festival. What can we expect?
We’re going to be joined on stage by Jack Wolf,
author of The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody
Bones, for which we wrote a song last year, and
we’ll also have another very special secret guest
author, for whom we’re busy writing a song for at
the moment, which we will debut on the night. Alan Bissett/80s is on Sat 17 Aug
Five Dials Unwind to the 90s is on Wed 21 Aug
Reel Iraq: The Golden Hour is on Mon 19 Aug
Back to the Future with The Bookshop Band is on Tue 20 Aug
All events are start at 9pm in the Guardian Spiegletent
and are free
3
Super-Powered
The debate about the legitimacy of comics as an art form is over. As
Literary Death Match and Illicit Ink prepare comics-themed events
for Jura Unbound, we celebrate the rise and rise of sequential art
Words: Bram E. Gieben
A
rtist and comics historian Scott McCloud
saw comics as “one of the very few forms of
mass communication in which individual voices
still have a chance to be heard.” The ideas,
characters and situations depicted in comics
are often more transgressive, inventive and
counter cultural than those found in literature,
art or mainstream cinema. Even superhero
comics, the form’s most commercial incarnation,
referred to by the acclaimed writer Warren Ellis
as “underwear pervert” comics, often take on big,
sometimes controversial themes, from allegories
for racism and multiculturalism (X-Men), to posthuman futurism (Iron Man), to vigilantism and
social control (Batman).
“Comics deal with two fundamental
communicating devices: words and images,”
writes Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit, and
widely acknowledged as one of the founding
fathers of modern comics. In his fantastic
treatise on the form, Comics and Sequential Art.
“Admittedly this is an arbitrary separation. But,
since in the modern world of communication they
are treated as independent disciplines, it seems
valid. Actually, they are derivatives of a single
origin and in the skillful employment of words
and images lies the expressive potential of the
medium.”
Slowly, over the past three decades, this
separation has become less important, and both
comics and graphic novels (another spurious
distinction) have gained traction as serious
art and literature. The rise of the ‘original
graphic novel’ – self-contained stories, often
with a literary bent, and aimed (some might say
cynically so) at an older, more mature reader,
as opposed to the collections of serialised
monthly comics, has now almost completely done
away with the perception of sequential art as a
debased form.
Nonetheless, the debate about whether or
not comics are a ‘real’ art form is nearly always
the hook for a news piece about sequential
art, or graphic novels, or whatever term the
voguish literary establishment currently prefer.
Journalists will usually wheel out some well-worn,
4
classic examples – Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Art
Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
– as evidence of a growing trend of maturity in
the form. The literary merit of these graphic
novels is a moot point – the oldest of these works
is 27 years old, and has been adapted into a big
budget Hollywood film. Thankfully, this year’s Jura
Unbound programme at Edinburgh International
Book Festival doesn’t waste time debating the
merits or otherwise of graphic literature – rather
it dives straight in to the culture, with two events
marrying the word and the image in new and
inventive ways.
On 23 August, a very special edition of
Adrian Todd Zuniga’s internationally popular
Literary Death Match series will pit four writers
against each other in a battle for supremacy,
with the results judged by three expert critics.
Always fun, since 2006 the Literary Death
Match events have gained a reputation for
unpredictability and anarchy that is a perfect fit
for a form where anything is possible, because
as critic and comics editor Dwayne McDuffie
has said, there is an “infinite effects budget,”
with the only constraints on realism and
depiction of characters and worlds the creators’
imaginations. With the evening’s performers still
to be confirmed, what is absolutely guaranteed is
that the audience will enjoy a spectacular voyage
into the minds of four skilled comics enthusiasts,
pitting their wits against each other in a highpressure, knockout competition.
On 24 August, Edinburgh-based literary
collective Illicit Ink, headed up for the evening
by writers Barbara Melville and Ariadne CassMaran, present an innovative live literature event
called Tales From The Strip, which will see writers
reading their fiction, and having it interpreted
live on stage by leading comics artists Stephen
Collins and Emma Vieceli. The event is presented
in association with Graphic Scotland, an
independent online community set up to support
the comics community in Scotland and beyond.
Illustrator Collins produces regular work
for the Guardian, and is a past recipient of the
prestigious Cape / Observer Graphic Short
Story Prize. He recently published his full-length
graphic novel, the strange and whimsical The
Gigantic Beard That Was Evil. Vieceli meanwhile is
a prolific comics artist and writer, acclaimed for
her work on titles such as Manga Shakespeare,
which saw her adapting Hamlet and Much Ado
About Nothing into graphic form, and the longrunning fantasy epic Dragon Heir, not to mention
work for Tori Amos’s Comic Book Tattoo project,
and the comics adaptation of Vampire Academy.
On the night, both artists will undertake live
drawing sessions inspired by the fictional
work read by Melville, Cass-Maran and their
“Mainstream culture
is not what it once
was when science
fiction and comics
fans huddled in
cellars like Gnostic
Christians dodging
the Romans”
Grant Morrison
guests, resulting in a unique and inspiring live
collaboration quite unlike anything else in the
Book Festival programme. It’s a rare chance to
see two gifted artists drawing in public, inspired
by leading lights from Scotland’s live literature
community. Vieceli returns to the Book Festival
on 25 August to discuss her adaptations, while
Collins joins Tom Gauld on 24 August to discuss
Beard... and his other delightfully eccentric
creations.
Both Jura Unbound events are part of the
Stripped strand at this year’s Book Festival,
jura UNbound
entirely dedicated to comics creators and the
graphic novel form. The Book Festival has a
strong tradition of welcoming comics legends
– both Sandman creator Neil Gaiman and Grant
Morrison have given enormously popular talks
in previous years, and both return this August
– but the Stripped strand represents the
first dedicated programme of events entirely
focused on the art form. With appearances from
creators as diverse as Chris Ware, creator of the
acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on
Earth (12 Aug), and Joe Sacco (13 Aug), creator of
the politically-charged graphic novels Palestine
and Footnotes in Gaza, Stripped casts its net as
wide as possible, addressing everything from
newspaper strip cartoons to superhero comics;
from underground classics to Sacco’s tough,
gritty, journalistic depictions of life in conflict
zones. Sacco and Ware will be in conversation on
14 August at an event sponsored by The Skinny,
titled Reinventing Comics.
The above is literally the tip of the iceberg
– with the Literary Death Match and Illicit Ink’s
live collaborations at Jura Unbound presenting
the comics form in unique and original ways, and
a cross-section of international and UK comics
talent in attendance, this year’s Edinburgh
International Book Festival has finally put paid
to the debate over the legitimacy of comics as
an art form. The 2013 programme is a thrilling
celebration of one of the most vibrant, diverse
and inventive sites on the literary landscape.
In 2000, Grant Morrison identified the
coming sea change which would see comics
finally emerge resplendent into popular
awareness: “Mainstream culture is not what it
once was when science fiction and comics fans
huddled in cellars like Gnostic Christians dodging
the Romans,” he said. “We should come up into
the light soon before we suffocate.” On the
evidence of this year’s Unbound programme, that
emergence is now complete.
Literary Cartoon Death Match, 23 Aug, 9-11pm, free
Illicit Ink: Tales From The Strip, 24 Aug, 9-11pm, free
The Guardian Spiegeltent, Charlotte Square Gardens
THE SKINNY
Extracts from
Marry Me
Hat
My mother told me that the time had come for
my girlfriend and I to legitimise our sex life. She
had a point, so a few days later I found myself
down on one knee in a romantic location.
Unfortunately, I was rejected. My girlfriend told
me she just wasn’t able to see us growing old
together, that I had never been quite as good
in bed as she had hoped, and that under the
circumstances it would be best not to drag
things out any longer.
When I broke the news to my mother, she
was furious. She had already bought a massive
hat. She took it out of its box, put it on her
head and pointed at it. ‘What am I supposed to
do with this fucking thing now?’ she bellowed.
The Open Rhodes
Dan Rhodes chats with us about mainstream acceptance, mellowing
with age, and what to expect from his Jura Unbound event
T
he last year or so has been pretty productive
for Dan Rhodes, what with the release of
his fifth novel, This Is Life, and then Marry Me, a
collection of witty little pieces on that holiest of
unions. Both have been very well received, and
his list of admirers grows and grows (he’s the
only writer Stewart Lee reads that isn’t dead).
Having kindly agreed to take time away from the
pressures of work, family and... urm “trying to get
the tumble dryer fixed,” Rhodes ponders whether
mainstream acceptance bothers him, especially
as it generates less and less material for the ‘Dan
Rhodes is disliked by...’ part of his website. “My
acceptance hasn’t been that mainstream,” he
explains.“You won’t have seen my books anywhere
near the charts. Unfortunately my readers can
rest assured that they aren’t following the herd.”
Anniversaries are definitely the order of
the day, with the Book Festival celebrating its
thirtieth and it being ten years since Rhodes’
debut, Timoleon Vieta Come Home, was released.
This was the catalyst for his inclusion in the
2003 Granta Best of Young British Novelists list;
a number of the writers featured on this year’s
once-in-a-decade list are also performing at
Jura Unbound. At the time Rhodes was quite
outspoken about the value of the list and the
refusal of other writers on it to sign a statement
protesting the Iraq war. Looking back on that and
how his career has progressed, Rhodes reflects “I
leave the Granta list off my CV, so I’m not exactly
setting off fireworks to mark the occasion. I was
full of piss and vinegar back then, as any ‘young’
writer should be, but now I’m a serene elder
statesman I try my best to take a least-saidsoonest-mended approach to the whole sorry
business. My advice to anyone on it this time
around? Squeeze some free travel out of them,
July 2013
Interview: Ryan Rushton
“The
idea of mixing
book readings with
music and alcohol
is a splendid
innovation. These
days I won’t do a
reading anywhere
that doesn’t have
a bar”
Dan Rhodes
then put it behind you.”
His event at Jura Unbound is listed as ‘Dan
Rhodes & Friends,’ raising hopes he may be
accompanied by some of the musicians and
comedians who recorded videos of themselves
reading stories from Marry Me – Stewart Lee, Tim
Key, Josie Long and Aidan Moffat to name a few –
some of whom he has performed with in the past.
Rhodes has new names up his sleeve though: “My
first choice for the role of other writer was Neil
Forsyth” – writer of the Bob Servant character,
recently adapted for TV – “whose books I’ve been
lapping up this year. It was a long shot, but it
turns out he’ll be in town and has agreed to join
us. Treble twenty with the first dart. He’s not a
friend though – I’ve never met him, and as far as I
know he’s never heard of me.” Whether or not that
is true, the potential for hilarity is pretty high
with both involved.
Jura Unbound is about more than just
straightforward readings though, and in the way
of music Rhodes has enlisted “Richard James, who
used to be in the sublime Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
and who now makes wonderful records in his
own right. We’re hoping to get another illustrious
participant or two, but it’s all TBC at the moment.
We’ll see who’s around on the night.”
This eclectic mix of performers suits Rhodes,
who admits, “I don’t really enjoy droning out
chapters from novels (I didn’t tour This is Life at
all for that reason) so I think I’ll be doing shorter
stuff – bits from Marry Me, a few oldies and some
cover versions.” Considering how prolific he has
been in the decade since his debut – four more
novels and three collections of short stories
– it doesn’t seem too cheeky to ask if we might
hear some new material debuted. “I doubt there
will be any brand new material,” he explains. “I
have a knackering day job and small children, so
I can’t find the time to write at the moment. And
besides, the poor human race needs a break from
my output. There’s even been a petition from
Venezuela, and I can see where they’re coming
from.”
On his opinion of Jura Unbound as a whole
Rhodes admits, “I’ve not seen the programme yet,
but the idea of mixing book readings with music
and alcohol is a splendid innovation. These days I
won’t do a reading anywhere that doesn’t have a
bar.” I think we can all drink to that.
Dan Rhodes & Friends is on Fri 16 Aug in the Guardian
Spiegeltent, part of Jura Unbound
jura UNbound
Revealing
My wife feels desperately sorry for women who
wear revealing clothes. Whenever we’re out
together and we pass a girl in a short skirt that
offers an uninterrupted view of long, smooth
legs, she’ll tut, and mutter something like,
‘It’s such a pity – she’s got no self-respect.’ I
completely agree with her; if I’m ever out on my
own and happen to catch a glimpse of a young
lady in a dress so tight that it clings to every
contour of her supple body, showing in minute
detail the luxuriant shape of her breasts and
the outline of her pert behind, I am consumed
by an overwhelming sadness. Sighing, I look
away almost as quickly as I can.
Marry Me is out now, published by Canongate, RRP £8.99
5
Found in Translation
In which Adam Thirlwell explains how he got 61
writers to push 12 stories through 18 languages
Interview: Paul F Cockburn
“I
had this idea of doing it almost as some kind
of art project,” says Adam Thirlwell of the
concept which would eventually become an issue
of iconoclastic US literary magazine McSweeney’s
Quarterly, and is being published in the UK by
Portobello Books. “I just thought it’d be fun to get
one story translated in a chain of languages to
see what would happen at the end.”
Attending a literary festival in Paris, he
mentioned this idea to the writer Vendela Vida,
not for a moment thinking of it as an issue of
McSweeney’s, published by her husband Dave
Eggers. Two weeks later, however, Vida emailed
Thirlwell to see if he’d be interested in guestediting what would eventually become the
‘Multiples’ issue 42, in which 61 writers took 12
stories through a journey of 18 languages.
“We chose 12 original stories – either
unknown stories by famous dead people or
by living foreign authors who should be more
famous,” Thirlwell explains. “Each of these stories
was translated in a chain of five or six, going
in and out of English. So, a story might start in
Spanish, be translated into English, then go into
Hungarian, back into English and then into French
and back into English finally.
For Thirlwell, it was strange to experience
life on the other side of the editor’s desk. “It took
about two years from literally thinking of the idea
to getting a finished copy in our hands,” he says,
“although the real work was done over about a
year. The basic problem was that none of the
story chains could progress until each person
had done their work; you were always reliant on
the next person in the chain. A month could go by
when I was just waiting for people to finish.”
One factor in this was Thirlwell’s decision
to choose novelists rather than ask trained,
professional translators. “Obviously, people’s
language abilities were variable, but I wanted
to explore what people thought of as style. So I
deliberately chose people like John Banville, who
is such a stylist that you know even a book review
is by him without seeing his byline. I wanted to
see what would happen when you put all these
stylists together.
Thirlwell is stepping into Jura Unbound
territory on 11 August. “I’m doing it with Daniel
Hahn, who’s one of the directors of the British
Centre for Literary Translations in Norwich,”
Thirlwell explains. “Daniel’s brilliant at making
translation this fun thing to watch. He’s pioneered
events where he gets two translators to work on
a short text, but they’re not allowed to see each
other’s versions until they’re presented on the
night – and then they sort of go head-to-head!
“I just thought it’d
be fun to get one
story translated
in a chain of
languages to see
what would happen
at the end.”
Adam Thirlwell
“I want to do an event that’s not so much
about presenting the book as exploring some
of its ideas in a fun way. One of the aims of the
project was how to see just how much a story
would change after it had gone through five
different translations. So we might do something
similar; we’ll give the audience one sentence
to translate, and sort of pass it round so at the
end of the night we’ll see what happened to it.
Daniel’s keen, rightly, to do things in parallel, to
show how creative translations can be and how
you can have more than one right answer.”
Multiples, Sun 11 Aug in the Guardian Spiegeltent
Celebrate comics,
graphic novels and the people
who create them at the 2013
Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Over 40 events featuring comics legends
alongside rising new talent including:
Neil Gaiman, Melinda Gebbie, Grant Morrison,
Joe Sacco, Rutu Modan, Chris Ware,
Glyn Dillon, Will Morris, Hannah Berry
and many more!
Plus: An exhibition of incredible comic art
and a Mini Comic Fair.
www.strippedbookfest.co.uk
@StrippedFest.
Ticket prices £4.50 - £15.00
Book Tickets:www.edbookfest.co.uk / 0845 373 5888
6
JURA UNBOUND
THE SKINNY
9"*2
study in "9*.@#
torf, g ries is hich ry *)/;#
em gn olding could years h '?*"+#
msun e best ut ustria /*./@#
hem texts Unbloced
9pm, Wed 14 Aug, free
T
he collective of wordsmiths known as Writers’
Bloc are moving into new territory for their
show at Jura Unbound this year. We caught up
with them to find out a bit more.
Tell us a bit about the night in general: what is
Writers’ Bloc and where did it all start?
Writers’ Bloc is a mix of professional writers and
new voices. It staged its first show in Edinburgh
on Halloween 2001. At that time there wasn’t
really a spoken word ‘scene’ in the sense that
it exists today – the events there were mainly
poetry ones and we wanted to present stories
with genre leanings and a bit of an edge. Since
then we’ve done quite a few festivals and toured
throughout Scotland. We did Unbound in 2010
and 2011, and we’re glad to be back.
crowd-pleasers with more serious work. Previous
themes have included B-movies, intoxication,
fast food, and antisocial networking. Our last
event was a full-on literary séance where we
summoned the spirit of Robert Louis Stevenson
and a long-dead rollergirl, among others.
Sounds excellent. What have you got planned
for Jura Unbound, and how is it different from
the usual nights you put on?
This year we’re doing something a bit different.
Or quite a lot different, really, because we’re
taking our cues from musicians John Lemke and
Poppy Ackroyd. In TV and film, musicians have to
9pm, Sun 25 Aug, free
work to the framework provided by the writer;
we’re turning that on its head and presenting
ell don’t be! The Fence Collective, a loose
new spoken word inspired by their debut albums:
grouping of musicians based around the
Poppy’s Escapement and John’s People Do. It
Berlin , Volksbühne © Paul Pistorius
Kingdom of Fife, are one of the most inspiring
What’s a regular Writers’ Bloc night like?
won’t be so much a typical Writers’ Bloc show as
AB4:(,M++#?"#T""(#U?*3.4'5>/#/*++?"9#I4.#7V.4W"H(":=#3D#0,.?/+4C,#F(.+,(H*.
and heartening collectives working in Scotland
Normally we would present a themed programme a Poppy and John gig with spoken word.
today. Eschewing a desire for success in the
of new short fiction, blending humour and
[Galen O'Hanlon]
homogenous quagmire that is contemporary
mainstream music, they favour a commitment
to community and collaboration. Fence are
a bulwark against the boring poison that
seeps into our ears from every radio, car, and
iWhatever around.
Their label, Fence Records, has been
quietly delivering quality output for the past
fifteen years. Founded by Kenny Anderson (AKA
King Creosote, who recently departed from its
roster), Johnny Lynch (AKA The Pictish Trail) now
takes the lead in the running of the label, but
it is a true collective, with the emphasis firmly
on artistic autonomy. Humbly, they describe
themselves as “a collective of musicians, artists,
craftsfolk, chancers and slackers.” However, such
surface insouciance belies the seriousness and
On The Fence?
W
Ljodahått
Trollsong
Oslo, Litteraturhuset
his group take their name from a verse
form in Old Norse poetry. ‘Ljodahått’ can
be roughly translated as ‘magic song’ or even
‘trollsong,’ but what they do is a lot more
complex than the assortment of grunts and
growls from the average beast-beneath-a-bridge.
Ljodahått take the work of Norwegian poets –
mostly from the late 19th to early 20th century
– and compose original music to fit alongside.
Think of something in between Arcade Fire
and Leonard Cohen and you’d be on the right
track: poems and lyrics sung and spoken to the
accompaniment of a band that can reach up
to 14 members. At times they can be slow and
lilting, at others they shift into something closer
to rock and pop. It’s an intriguing range that
reflects the polyglot backgrounds of this group
of Norwegian, French, English, German, Swiss and
July 2013
depth of their endeavour. Fence were founded
out of a disillusion with the modern industry and
they stand in opposition to their larger, profitobsessed contemporaries, all the while churning
out organic, celebratory performances based on
the honest, unpretentious craft of their music.
It is with good cause, therefore, that
Vic Galloway’s new book, Songs in the Key
of Fife, details their establishment and the
extraordinary intertwining of East Fife’s finest.
This Jura Unbound night will follow on from
Galloway’s appearance in the main Book Festival
programme and promises to be a gift. Fence have
a reputation for creating intimate performances
and this looks to be an affirmative celebration
of how music emerges from community,
imagination and friendship. Anyone who has
come into contact with Fence sticks with them;
this event will undoubtedly convert everyone in
the Guardian Spiegeltent to Fence obsessives.
[Daniel Davies]
Inked and Lettered
9pm, Sat 24 Aug, free
© Gilles Philippot
9pm, Mon 12 Aug, free
T
Pictish Trail
Austrian musicians and composers. Lead man
Magne Håvard Brekke set up the project after
25 years of wandering Europe. His ambition is to
celebrate Norway’s cultural heritage of poetry
and music, exploring how one can inspire and
transform the other. The words could be taken
from Nobel prize winner Knut Hamsun, or poetcum-lumberjack Hans Børli, but the music is all
original composition. And although the vocalists
hail from across Europe, everything’s sung in
Brekke’s native tongue. Don’t let this put you
off: even if your Norwegian is a little lacking, it
sounds pretty good all the same. They’ve toured
in Paris, Berlin, Oslo, and Vienna (amongst
others), so expect a distinctly continental feel to
their performance at Jura Unbound.
[Galen O’Hanlon]
So, who are you guys?
We started out as a bunch of graduates from
Napier University’s creative writing course,
wanting to do something very different from what
was going on in Edinburgh. Basically, we wanted
to play in the dark and pull the wings off fairies.
Your event is part of the ‘Stripped’ strand of
Book Festival events. Are we reaching a golden
age for comic books?
Heavens no. I think we are about to, but there’s
still a long way to go. The surface of what
this medium is capable of has only just been
scratched. It will be a golden age when a great
graphic novel is no longer considered unusual
and can sit alongside everything else without
being relegated to a niche genre.
Your event is a collaboration with Graphic
Scotland and will involve both aural and visual
literature, how are you going to do this?
JURA UNBOUND
Emma Vieceli and Stephen Collins, two great
illustrators, are joining us on stage to draw as
we read. The broad idea is that we challenge the
illustrators to condense what they hear into a
story that can be told in just a few panels. It will
show us exactly what words and pictures can do,
and how the narrative merits of each can create
lovely tension.
One of Illicit Ink’s greatest strengths is your
belief in variation and versatility. What is your
ethos for designing events?
We like to keep things as fresh and vibrant as
possible, which is why our events are themed.
Writers absolutely have to come up with
something new every time, which creates a
lovely unstable vibe. Anything could happen.
Ultimately, all that matters to us is that we make
the best possible show. And that we’ve all had a
good chance to guddle about in the dark.
[Daniel Davies]
7
Photography: Jassy Earl
dda*).
/tunes other.
Poppy Ackroyd
Photography: Kat Gollock
TT
Events Listings
Be Unbound every night of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in
the Guardian Spiegeltent, Charlotte Square Gardens. Events start at 9pm,
and are free and unticketed. Best get there early if you want a seat
Sun 11 Aug
Multiples
To celebrate the UK publication of
the translation-themed issue of
McSweeney’s he guest edited in 2012,
novelist Adam Thirlwell and acclaimed
translator Daniel Hahn improvise a
wild multilingual evening. Featuring
individual tasks and collective games;
a sentence snaking round the room
in every language possible; and short
texts being remade in the languages
spoken by the audience including
mime and gesture.
Mon 12 Aug
Ljodahått
Created by the Norwegian actor Magne
Havard Brekke, Ljodahått are a musical
collective that gives new life to some
of Norway’s finest poetry from Henrik
Ibsen to Knut Hamsun. Think of the
soaring sound of Arcade Fire coupled
with the dark cabaret of Tom Waits.
Strange, ethereal, compelling and all
wrapped up in a gorgeous book and
CD.
Tue 13 Aug
Best of Young British Novelists
2013
2013 saw Granta’s fourth installment of
their Best Young British Novelist Series
highlighting the 20 most exciting
authors under the age of 40 in the UK
today. To celebrate, a night of readings
brings together some of the very best
of the writers: Jenni Fagan steps onto
the stage with The Panopticon; Sarah
Hall’s novels have been shortlisted for
the Booker, the Commonwealth Prize
and the Arthur C Clarke Award; Evie
Wyld arrives with All the Birds, Singing,
a novel which follows her prize-winning
debut.
Wed 14 Aug
John Lemke & Poppy Ackroyd
with Writers’ Bloc
In TV and film, musicians have to
work within a framework built by the
writer; to respond to and underscore
the drama and emotion demanded
by the text. For Jura Unbound, the
Edinburgh collective Writers’ Bloc
turn that on its head and present new
work inspired by Poppy Ackroyd’s
debut album, Escapement, and John
Lemke’s debut album, People Do. Enjoy John and Poppy’s live sets in
the cosy and atmospheric Guardian
Spiegeltent while taking a journey of
the imagination in this unique event.
Thu 15 Aug
Kevin MacNeil & Willie Campbell
Long-time friends and artistic
collaborators, Kevin MacNeil and
Willie Campbell last year produced
the album Visible From Space, and
they’ll bring together their songs
and stories for a special night of
Jura Unbound. Kevin is an acclaimed
novelist, poet and playwright born
and raised in the Outer Hebrides.
His works include The Stornoway
Way and Love and Zen in the Outer
Hebrides. Willie was lead singer and
guitarist with Astrid. He still tours
both as a solo artist and as a member
of The Open Day Rotation. Fri 16 Aug
Dan Rhodes
The author of eight books, each one a
delightful discovery, each one unlike
the other, Dan Rhodes delights in
defying expectations, subverting
conventions and finding humour in
the darkest moments. Unsurprisingly,
he is not a man for the regular Book
Festival event. Instead we have
created a special Unbound night to
celebrate his work and for Dan to bring
together some of his favourite authors,
comedians and musicians featuring
Bob Servant creator Neil Forsyth,
singer-songwriter Richard James,
formerly of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and
a very special guest…
Sat 17 Aug
Alan Bissett/80s
The 80s: hard times and guilty
pleasures, cassette tapes and hair gel,
picket lines and protest, and the birth
of the Edinburgh International Book
Festival. It was the decade that shaped
a generation, and it did so in dubious
fashions. Led by Alan Bissett’s radical
feminist and anti-porn campaigner,
Andrea Dworkin, this Jura Unbound
evening takes a look back at that era,
its wonders and horrors.
Sun 18 Aug
Out There Gutter, the country’s leading magazine
of new writing, hosts a night of
queerness to mark the official
announcement of Out There, a new
state of the nation book of LGBT
writing planned for 2014. Out There
editor Zoë Strachan is joined by
Damian Barr, author of the acclaimed
and controversial Maggie and Me, and
emerging writers Kirsty Logan and
Allan Radcliffe, for stories, music and
more. Mon 19 Aug
Reel Iraq: The Golden Hour
Revel in a special evening of
contemporary Iraqi culture, to mark
ten years since the invasion of Iraq,
with poetry, theatre and music.
Featuring acclaimed Iraqi poets
Sabreen Kadhim (coming direct from
Baghdad) and Ghareeb Iskander,
accompanied by new translations
from renowned Scotland-based
poets Krystelle Bamford, John
Glenday, Jen Hadfield and William
Letford; compelling theatre from Dina
Moussawi and Iraqi Choobi dance
music. This event is supported in part
by Creative Scotland and LIFT Festival.
Tue 20 Aug
Back To The Future With The
Bookshop Band
The Bookshop Band, fresh from touring
Paris, Ireland and the UK bring their
unique musical take on contemporary
fiction to Jura Unbound. The band
have been writing songs inspired by
the books of the authors coming to
their local bookshop, Mr Bs Emporium
of Reading Delights in Bath. Songs are
picked from their vast repertoire and
themed around the Book Festival’s 30
year anniversary.
8
jura UNbound
Wed 21 Aug
Five Dials Unwind To The 90s
Join a secret selection of writers and
musicians (we’ve lured in Colm Tóibín
and Ross Raisin in the past) as we look
back at the 90s and launch the latest
issue of the world’s favourite literary
magazine, Five Dials, which will be sent
out to subscribers around the world
from the stage. A very special guest
will press the send button. It could
even be someone from the 90s, though
we guarantee Courtney Love will not be
in attendance.
Thu 22 Aug
This Is The Modern World Join Faber Social for an evening of
stories, music and performance with a
heady and decadent collection of acts
including Booker Prize-winning DBC
Pierre reading his new work Petit Mal;
filmmaker, author and Culture Show
presenter Michael Smith premiering
his new book Unreal City accompanied
by an exclusive soundtrack by
legendary producer and DJ Andrew
Weatherall; plus Luke Wright will hop
over from the Fringe to put the world
to rights as only he can. @fabersocial
Fri 23 Aug
Literary Death Match
Literary Death Match are back but
this time with speech bubbles and
extra Kappow! to present an extra
special comic cartoon caper. The live
show brings together four authors
to read their most electric writing
for seven minutes or less before a
panel of three all-star judges. The
two finalists then compete in a
vaguely literary competition (think
‘Pin the Moustache on Hemingway’)
to determine who takes home
the Literary Death Match crown.
Sat 24 Aug
Illicit Ink and Graphic Scotland:
Tales from the Strip
Graphic Scotland and Illicit Ink
combine stories on the page with
illustrators on the stage – while our
writers read, our guest cartoonists
and graphic novelists draw what they
hear. Performers include Stephen
Collins, author of The Gigantic Beard
That Was Evil and comic artist Emma
Vieceli whose work includes Manga
Shakespeare and Vampire Academy. Art
materials are provided but feel free to
bring your own.
Sun 25 Aug
Songs in the Key of Fife
Vic Galloway, BBC broadcaster,
journalist and champion of the
Scottish music scene, has written
Songs in the Key of Fife, which
documents the amazing story of the
Fence Collective. In recent years the
music industry has been defined by
its much publicised decline, with
creativity consumed by the mass
market, but for the past two decades,
in a little place across the water, a
group of musicians have been building
and battling against this. Join Vic and
some special guests for a memorable
night of music to celebrate the book’s
publication.
Mon 26 Aug
Robots Dream of Electric Tales
Electric Tales is a cabaret of comedy
storytelling, usually based at the Stand
Comedy Club, but braving it down
the road to the Book Festival for one
night only. Tonight they imagine the
future like we thought it would be,
when robots were proper robots with
square heads and beeping and moon
boots. Hosted by Sian Bevan.
THE SKINNY