Reposted by Universities Committee for Scottish Literature
Excellent afternoon with @christophersmith.bsky.social engaging on AHRC policy, strategy and outlook in the context of @ukri.org & UK government strategy- hosted by
@sahavoice.bsky.social and @royalsoced.bsky.social
Colleagues from across the sector in Scotland really enjoyed themselves !
![2026 sees Glaswegian writer James Kelman reach his 80th year. In a career lasting over fifty years, Kelman has pioneered a highly distinctive literary practice across genres including the novel, the short story, the essay, and drama. But it is as a writer of fiction that Kelman’s influence looms largest. Kelman’s work in fiction is distinguished for its uncompromising formal stances and for the writer’s insistence on the directly political significance of those stances. As Kelman put it in an early interview, ‘Getting rid of [the] standard third party narrative voice is getting rid of a whole value system. You have to start examining every term’. His work has been hugely influential on generations of artists, and his reception has often been controversial. But his artistic commitments remain determinedly in place, and he continues to write and publish unique work.
This international conference sets out to consider the living legacy of Kelman’s writing, especially in the genres of the novel and the short story, and examines and reassesses his ongoing significance in the cultural and political worlds of the twenty-first century. We invite paper proposals on the innovations of Kelman’s fiction and its political significance, focusing on any period or aspect of Kelman’s work. The conference will be held at the University of Glasgow, in the spring of 2027 (exact date to be confirmed). More information to follow.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c77ybxzktpxifuormkevuuzl/bafkreibvw6ljvnurgxhlmdlzajgwtxugm7hcr6jjiwzhe2ljft35r27xpi)
![Joanna Martin: ‘He in alle thing wele temperite was’: The Emotional Language of The Buik of King Alexander The Conquerour
Ian Cameron Robertson: Green Blades Among the Rubble – Posterity’s Judgement on The Minstrel?
Angus Sutherland: Hogg and the Ettrick Clearances
Annalisa Nicholson: Octonaries upon the Vanitie and Inconstancie of the World, by Esther Inglis; an essay, by Jamie Reid Baxter (review)
Trish Reid: Plays in Scots, Volume 1 and Volume 2, by Michel Tremblay (review)
Honor Rieley: The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 1: Beginnings and Consolidation, 1640–1800, edited by Nicholas Brownlees (review)
Désha Osborne: Robert Wedderburn, Abolition, and the Commons: Romanticism’s Black Geographies, by Katey Castellano (review)
Adam Kozaczka: Law, Equity and Romantic Writing: Seeking Justice in the Age of Revolutions, edited by Michael Demson and Regina Hewitt (review)
Zsuzsanna Varga: A modern skót irodalom a 19. század végétől napjainkig [Modern Scottish Literature from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day], by Attila Dósa (review)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vmd2oqboco524fhpqdu7pnbn/bafkreic6jkewat3o6orxceacfngef5kw7q2iyduhtmotbhakcz65m2e4ci)
