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Alan Bissett | |
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 Bissett atAuthors' Reading Month, 2014 | |
| Born | (1975-11-17)17 November 1975 (age 50) |
| Occupation | Novelist,playwright |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | University of Stirling |
| Notable works | Boyracers The Incredible Adam Spark Death of a Ladies' Man |
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| www | |
Alan Bissett (born 17 November 1975) is a Scottish author and playwright. He became known for his alternate take onScots dialect writing with the publication of his first two novels;Boyracers andThe Incredible Adam Spark, developing a style specific to his hometown of Falkirk while incorporating popular culture references andsocialist politics.
Bissett formerly lectured increative writing atBretton Hall College, now part of theUniversity of Leeds, and tutored the creative writing MLitt at theUniversity of Glasgow alongsideJanice Galloway andTom Leonard. He also applied to be rector of theUniversity of Glasgow in 2014. He became a full-time writer in December 2007. In March 2012, he became a "Cultural Ambassador" forNational Collective, a creative organisation which supportsScottish independence.[1]
Bissett was born in 1975. He attendedFalkirk High School and then theUniversity of Stirling, where he gained a First-Class Honours degree in English literature and education. After a short spell as a secondary-school teacher atElgin Academy, Bissett was awarded a master's degree in English from theUniversity of Stirling, during which time he edited a collection of Scottish Gothic stories,Damage Land (2001), and wrote his first novel,Boyracers. His stories were either short- or longlisted for the national Macallan Short-Story Competition four times between 1999 and 2002. His third novel,Death of a Ladies' Man, was published by Hachette Scotland in July 2009. In 2009 Bissett moved into playwriting: his first play,The Ching Room, was performed atOran Mor andTraverse Theatre in March 2009, starring Andy Clarke andColin McCredie. It was followed byTimes When I Bite, orThe Moira Monologues a "one-woman show" that Bissett has performed himself (at Glasgow literary festivalAye Write! in March 2009, at theKikinda Short Story Festival in Serbia in June 2009, and at theTraverse Theatre in November 2009. In an interview with theSunday Times, Bissett described the inspiration for the character of Moira Bell.
"The voice comes from the women in my family, my three aunties and my sister, who are great storytellers and hard as f***,” he says. "If they were to go on stage and talk about their lives in their own voices, it would be acclaimed as a virtuoso performance."[2]
Bissett was also a regular performer at and co-organiser of Glasgow spoken word night Discombobulate[1].
Bissett also collaborated with musicianMalcolm Middleton for the song "The Rebel on His Own Tonight", writing the lyrics and performing a spoken word section, for theBallads of the Book project, bringing together Scottish writers with Scottish musicians, spearheaded byRoddy Woomble andEdwin Morgan.
Inspired by this experience, Bissett approached bandsZoey Van Goey andY'all is Fantasy Island suggesting they perform together. In May 2007, all three performed together in a short tour ofCentral Scotland. The tour, calledSuper Puny Humans played inEdinburgh on 2 May,Glasgow on the third,Stirling on the fourth and finallyFalkirk on the fifth. Since then, Bissett has regularly performed his writing at concerts in support slots for various bands, including the first-ever comeback gig ofThe Vaselines, and the "Music Like A Vitamin" night atABC Glasgow, run by Rod Jones fromIdlewild in support ofMental Health Week. He also performed spoken word sets at theConnect Music Festival in 2007 and 2008, and atCrossing Border Festival in 2007.
In 2009,The Shutdown[2], a short documentary Bissett wrote (and narrated) about the experience of growing up in the shadow of theGrangemouth Oil Refinery, with particular mention of his father's injury in the refinery flare line incident of 13 March 1987[3][permanent dead link] premiered in competition atEdinburgh International Film Festival,IDFA andSilverdocs, was shortlisted for the Scottish Short Documentary Award and won both the Jury and Audience Awards for Scottish Short Film at theJim Poole Scottish Short Film Awards[4].The Shutdown was directed byAdam Stafford, and later picked up for distribution byAccidental Media.
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