Edinburgh Writers' Forum July Meeting

For our final meeting before we take a well-earned break in August, we're happy to welcome Man Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Graeme Macrae Burnet, along with editing experts Gale Winskill and Helen Bleck.

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock and now lives in Glasgow. He is the author of four novels, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, His Bloody Project, The Accident on the A35 and Case Study.

His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize and won the Saltire Prize for Fiction and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year. It has been variously described as “astonishing”, “fiendishly readable” and “spellbinding” and has been published in twenty languages.

Case Study was published in October 2021 to wide critical acclaim. Hannah Kent called it “a novel a mind-bending brilliance.” The Bookseller described it as “a thrilling investigation into the nature of sanity and identity.” Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events all over the world.

Graeme will be talking about starting out and finding success as an un-agented writer, and also how the Man Booker shortlisting then affected his subsequent writing career.

Helen Bleck is a former managing editor of Canongate Books, and has worked in publishing for … well, an astonishingly long time! Freelance since 2008, she has also worked as digital resource creator for museums, and delighted in doing the MLitt in Fantasy at Glasgow (2015–17).

Gale Winskill specialises in fiction and has been providing a wide range of in-house and freelance editorial services, to both indie authors and traditional publishing houses, since 1993. Related vicariously to Shakespeare by accident of birth rather than literary endeavour, she also teaches the fiction stream of the HarperCollins’ Author Academy.

Gale and Helen will discuss key aspects of publishing and editing. Prepare for debunking of myths about editing, some practical examples of what good editing offers and useful tips to help you when self-editing. Bring them your editing questions and they’ll try to help!

As usual, we'll be meeting at the Rose Theatre Cafe - where you'll discover great food and drinks. There will be plenty of time for networking with other writers, and we'll include the usual features of Bragging Rights and Mid-time Mingling.

We look forward to seeing you.