Join us at 17:15 – 18:15pm at the Spark Theatre for our Ghosts, Nanas and the Apocalypse event!
We’re excited to be returning to the Edinburgh International Book Festival for another year!
How do our favourite authors connect with the stories of ancestors?
This year we’ll be showcasing live readings and performance from Rachelle Atalla, Lorraine Wilson, Nadine Aisha Jassat, and Tendai Huchu as they share what reaching out to ancestors and descendants looks like and let us in on some of the secrets of calling upon the past to inspire future stories. Courtney Stoddart will be chairing.
Tickets are Pay What You Can from £0+ and are available from the EIBF website here. We can’t wait to see you there!
We also have a limited number of travel, child/care and data bursaries – request a bursary.
Read on below to learn more about our performers.
Readers/Performers
Rachelle Atalla is an award-winning Scottish-Egyptian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter based in Glasgow. Her debut novel The Pharmacist was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2022 to critical acclaim and was shortlisted for Best Fiction at the Scottish National Book Awards. In March, she published her climate-focused second novel Thirsty Animals. Her short stories have been published widely, she has written for BBC Radio 4, and she is the recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. In screenwriting, her first short film Trifle was commissioned by the Scottish Film & Talent Network, her first feature was developed with BBC Film, and she is now developing a film adaption of The Pharmacist with Compact Pictures.
Lorraine Wilson is a conservation scientist and third culture Scot, Lorraine lives by the sea writing stories influenced by folklore and the wilderness. She has a PhD from the University of St. Andrews and has won awards for both her long and short fiction. Her recently released third book, Mother Sea is an exploration of motherhood, climate change and belonging. Lorraine has been stalked by wolves and befriended pythons, she also runs the Rewriting The Margins mentorship scheme for marginalised writers. You can find Lorraine on out her website and on social media.
Nadine Aisha Jassat is an award-winning writer and author of poetry collection Let Me Tell You This, shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Her writing has featured in numerous prose and poetry anthologies, and she has taught and performed across the UK and internationally, from appearing on BBC’s The Big Scottish Book Club to South Africa’s Cape Talk Radio. The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them) is her debut novel for children, described by Sophie Anderson (The House With Chicken Legs) as ‘one of those books that truly makes the world a better place.’
Instagram | Twitter
Tendai Huchu’s work has appeared in ‘Lightspeed’, ‘Interzone’, ‘Analog Science Fiction & Fact’, ‘The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021’, ‘Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’, ‘Mystery Weekly’, ‘The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016’, and elsewhere. He is the winner of an Alex Award (2022), the Children’s Africana Book Award (2021), a Nommo Award for African SFF (2022, 2017), and was a nominee for the Huston/Wright Legacy Award (2023), as well as being shortlisted for the Caine Prize (2014) and the Grand prix de l’Imaginaire (2019). “The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle”, the third instalment in his Edinburgh Nights fantasy series, came out in summer 2023. Find him @TendaiHuchu
Chair
Courtney Stoddart an acclaimed Scottish-Caribbean writer and performer, with publishing across multiple anthologies, and has performed on both national and international stages within the last 4 years. Her meteoric rise began with her reaching the finals of BBC Words First competition in 2019 and highlights include featuring in Hannah Lavery’s Lament for Sheku Bayoh and a recent commission alongside Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.
Book tickets for Ghosts, Nanas and the Apocalypse with SBWN
We also have a limited number of travel, child/care and data bursaries – request a bursary.
