Scottish Books International will continue its Scottish Books Showcase event programme in June 2025, following its successful pilot in 2023. The event will see four Scottish writers and two Scottish publishers travel to Munich, Germany, to present and promote their work at a curated showcase/networking event.
Mairi Kidd, David Farrier, Ewan Morrison, and Elspeth Wilson will present and promote their work during a live reading and discussion event at the Literaturhaus in Munich on 3 June 2025, with the audience comprising German publishing professionals, agents, translators, and press. They will be joined by two Scottish publishers with a view to networking, selling rights, and promoting the work of their companies and writers: Helena Gonda of Canongate and Jean Findlay of Scotland Street Press.
The programme aims to develop connections between Scottish writers and publishers and international publishers, festivals, and organisations; showcase the excellent talent currently working in Scotland; and create opportunities for Scottish writers and publishers to attend promotional and exchange events overseas.
The Scottish Books Showcase is supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland as part of its funding package with Publishing Scotland, which also consists of the Author International Travel Fund, which has so far supported over 70 Scottish writers to promote their work at international events. The programme fits into Publishing Scotland’s broader internationalisation strategy that sees the success of their International Fellowship Programme and the Translation Fund as vital in their efforts to facilitate international opportunities for the sector.
The programme is being organised in conjunction with the Scottish Government Office in Berlin, Germany.
Marion Sinclair, Chief Executive of Publishing Scotland, said: "The Scottish Books Showcase programme responds to the appetite within the literature sector for a strategic and co-ordinated approach to showcasing and championing Scotland’s writers, publishers, and festivals overseas. Munich is one of Germany’s preeminent publishing hubs, so it is fitting for us to host a showcase of the brilliant range of Scottish writing and publishing activity event there."
Alan Bett, Head of Literature and Publishing at Creative Scotland, said: “Germany is a key market for Scottish writers and publishers, with a strong appreciation for our literature and a keen interest in translating literary works of all genres for German readers. It is encouraging to see these existing links strengthened as a result of this showcase, through which Scottish Books International will build the industry connections that lead to publishing rights deals and translations, enabling our literature to reach new readers across the world.”
Background
Scottish Books International works on behalf of the literature sector in Scotland and is dedicated to the international promotion of books, publishers, writers, festivals, and organisations. The service identifies and progresses opportunities to increase the visibility of writers, publishers, festivals, and organisations, and builds relationships with key partners in Scotland and overseas. Website: scottishbooksinternational.org.
Publishing Scotland is the network, trade and development body for the book publishing sector in Scotland. It represents a wide range of publishers and suppliers – both print and digital. Publishing Scotland acts as the voice and network for publishing, to develop and promote the work of Scotland’s publishers both nationally and internationally, to provide support and advice, and to co-ordinate joint initiatives to develop and strengthen the publishing sector in Scotland. Website: www.publishingscotland.org
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports culture and creativity across all parts of Scotland, distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery, which, now in its 30th year, has supported over 14,600 projects with more than £501.9 million in funding through Creative Scotland and its predecessor, the Scottish Arts Council. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot.
Scottish Books Showcase 2025 writers:
David Farrier's latest book, Nature's Genius: Evolution's Lessons for a Changing Planet (Canongate), explores what we can learn from species about adapting to life on a human planet. His last book, Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils (Fourth Estate), explored humanity's deep time traces, from plastic and nuclear waste to space junk and mega cities. Footprints was a 2020 Book of the Year in The Times and Telegraph. He writing has been translated into ten languages and has appeared in Emergence Magazine, Orion, Guardian, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post. He is Professor of Literature and the Environment at the University of Edinburgh.
Mairi Kidd is a writer, publisher and all-round book person. She has an abiding interest in history and especially unheard voices and historical injustice. Her debut novel The Specimens explores the experiences of the women in the lives of notorious serial anatomy murderers Burke and Hare. Her non-fiction explores women's stories in history and includes We Are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty, Fiery and Fierce. Mairi has been Head of Literature for Creative Scotland, CEO of Seven Stories the National Centre for Children's Books, and MD of award-winning publishing house Barrington Stoke. She is currently Director of The Saltire Society where she has the privilege of directing Scotland's National Book Awards. Mairi is a fluent Gaelic speaker with a First in Celtic Studies from Edinburgh University, and is a regular contributor on BBC Alba, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Radio Scotland. She also writes in Gaelic, and for children.
Ewan Morrison is the author of nine books including the award-winning Nina X (Fleet) and Close Your Eyes (Jonathan Cape). His latest novel, For Emma (Leamington Books) , is a troubling but utterly human dive headfirst into Silicon Valley and the big issues of our age. Described as the ‘most fluent and intelligent Scottish writer of his generation’ by Booker Prize judge Stuart Kelly, Morrison’s writing has been praised by renowned authors Lionel Shriver, Ian Rankin, Fay Weldon, Douglas Coupland, James Frey, Irvine Welsh, James Robertson, Luke Rhinehart and Hanif Kureishi among others.
Elspeth Wilson is a Scottish writer and poet with an interest in how we live in our bodies and how we make them homes. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, is published by Written Off Publishing and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s 2023 Poetry Book of the Year. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster in July 2025. Her work has been supported by Creative Scotland and the Royal Society of Literature.
Since 1973, Canongate Books have worked to unearth and amplify the most vital, exciting voices they can find, wherever they come from, and have published all kinds of books – thoughtful, upsetting, gripping, beatific, vulgar, chaste, unrepentant, life-changing…
Along the way there have been landmarks of fiction – including Alasdair Gray’s masterpiece Lanark, and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the best-ever-selling Booker winner – and non-fiction too – from Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father to Samin Nosrat’s new cookery classic Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. They have campaigned for causes they believe in and fought court cases to get their authors heard. Twice they’ve won Publisher of the Year. Canongate Books are fiercely independent, and as committed to unorthodox and innovative publishing as ever.
Scotland Street Press was founded in 2014 and is now an established Edinburgh publishing house. Set up with the proceeds from the biography of the translator of Proust, it has gone on to publish sixty titles in biography, poetry, fiction and memoir as well as works in translation, winning three PEN Awards. Many of their titles have been nominated for prizes including Somewhere Else, longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2025, and The Queen's Lender, listed for the Historical Writer's Association Debut Crown Award 2022, and now translated into Czech and Slovakian. Two of their titles have made the Republic of Consiousness Prize shortlist, notably The Zekameron by Maxim Znak (2024), published in Germany by Suhrkamp.
Event details: Munich, 3 June, 13:00-16:30 – Literaturhaus, Munich, Salvatorplatz 1, 80333 München, Germany.
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