I love visiting Aberdeen, the Granite city in the north east of Scotland has so much to offer year-round, both nature and culture plus a vibrant food scene. Like many cities, it is at its very best during festival times in my opinion. I have long wanted to make it to Granite Noir, Aberdeen’s Crime Writing Festival, taking place from 20 to 25 February 2024, and have finally managed to fit it into my schedule. Its bumper programme includes something for everyone, from writing and creative workshops for children and adults to crime-themed food and drink events as well as visits by high-profile authors from the UK and further afield.
With great train and bus connections from Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh to Aberdeen, the festival makes for the perfect destination for a short midwinter trip. To those in the know, listening to crime writers is anything but dull or dark. In fact, they are some of the most humorous, creative and entertaining authors around. So grab a ticket for any of the Granite Noir events and join this friendly community of people, who are already fans of crime fiction.
To give you an idea of the fantastic line-up at this year’s festival, I interviewed a few of the festival authors plus a UK publisher and hope you’ll enjoy getting an insight into their writing practice and motivations as well as learn other fun facts about their lives as authors.
Life is a Festival: Your biography is so impressive and you worked very hard to achieve your goals throughout your life. Especially your positivity is really inspiring, how have your personal experiences influenced your writing?
Jean Kwok: My work has always been inspired by my real life. In my most recent novel, The Leftover Woman, for example, I tell the story of a young woman named Jasmine in China who discovers that her daughter had not died at birth, as she’d been told, but placed for adoption to a wealthy American couple by her own husband — another casualty of China’s controversial One-Child policy. When the novel opens, Jasmine has followed her daughter to New York City to try to get her back. The book is told by both the birth mother, Jasmine, and by the adoptive mother, Rebecca, who has a high-powered career as a publishing executive, a beautiful home and handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores.
Although this is of course a work of fiction, both Jasmine and Rebecca are very much inspired by my own experiences. I was the youngest of seven children in a very traditional Chinese family where male children were clearly considered superior. I wasn’t allowed to look my brothers or father in the eye, let alone voice a dissenting opinion. So that feeling of being powerless and seen as inferior was the inspiration for Jasmine but I also went to Harvard and understand what it means for Rebecca to be an ambitious woman trying to juggle career, her relationship and motherhood.
LF: What are you most looking forward to about appearing at Granite Noir in Aberdeen? Do you have any special connection to Scotland?
JK: I was recently in Edinburgh for a lightning visit and completely enchanted by the landscape and people. I’m thrilled to be allowed to return and see a bit more. I especially want to try a full Scottish breakfast complete with black pudding and scones.
LF: Is there a question you’ve always wanted to be asked or a topic you’re particularly passionate about? If so, would love to hear about it.
Well, all of my books are in development for film and television and I find that process to be quite fascinating. It’s remarkable how the story needs to change to fit another artistic medium. Also, I was one of 12 contemporary writers asked to write an authorized Miss Marple story by the Agatha Christie estate last year so that has also been a tremendous honor and a great deal of fun as well.
Jean Kwok will be appearing at Granite Noir on Sunday, 25 February 2024 at the Lemon Tree, tickets here.
Life is a Festival: You must have been over the moon to have been awarded the prestigious McIllvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year at Bloody Scotland 2023 for your debut novel Squeaky Clean. What difference has the win made to your career and writing life?
Callum McSorley: I was absolutely amazed, it was like a dream. Bloody Scotland’s festival director Bob McDevitt sent me a candid pic the festival photographer had snapped of me hearing the news and my jaw is touching my toes. It’s such an honour, and a bit of a confidence boost, to say the least! Practically, it meant more books were printed and sold, more buzz to hopefully get myself onto festival panels, do press interviews, take part in events, etc. (all the fun, glam stuff of the public-facing part of being an author that you imagine when you’re working towards publishing). Personally, it’s been a sign to keep on going with the writing, to do Willy Mc proud.
LF: At Granite Noir you’ll be joined by fellow award-winning authors, what are you most looking forward to about your appearance in Aberdeen?
CM: In 2020 I appeared at Granite Noir as a ‘Local in the Limelight’ (I lived in Aberdeenshire then) where I got to read a short story out to the audience at the beginning of an event – a panel discussion with brilliant authors Sarah Lotz and CM Ewan. It was my first experience of a big book festival, the biggest audience I’d read to by far, and it was fantastic. (Not sure if the audience felt the same, the particular story I read involved me singing a bit of Neil Diamond.) To be returning to it as an author on a panel is a wonderful feeling. So I’m really looking forward to seeing the 2024 locals perform!
LF: People might assume being a debut author means instant success when in reality most writers work very hard for many years in order to get published. Could you share what kept you going and what keeps motivating you to write?
CM: This is very true. I wrote three books before Squeaky Clean, none of which got published. Each time I washed out with subs/queries, etc. I was very disappointed, I despaired and thought of giving up. But then another idea came along which I found exciting and had to get to work on. I think that’s what makes you a ‘writer’. You just keep going back to it in the end, even if it hurts you sometimes. You have to have a streak of masochism, be a little bit delusional, and love the act of storytelling itself. That’ll keep you ploughing on.
Callum McSorley will be appearing at Granite Noir on Sunday 25 February 2024 at The Lemon Tree, tickets here.
Life is a Festival: You are a fairly new UK-based indie publisher focusing on crime fiction in translation. How did your publishing company come about and what are your plans for the future?
Marina Sofia: Back in 2018/19, there were three of us crime fiction fans who kept meeting at crime fiction festivals and having long conversations, comparing crime fiction from different countries. No wonder really, because we were living in three different countries at the time, and we each had very different backgrounds: academic, author and translator, and reviewer. We were getting frustrated because we felt that the English-speaking world was missing out on some real gems of crime fiction, particularly from lesser-known regions and less-translated languages. So we decided we would remedy that by starting our own publishing house, initially just featuring the two languages we had ‘in-house’ (Romanian and Icelandic), but now expanding to France, Spain, Argentina and beyond.
LF: Translated fiction still makes up a much smaller share of the publishing market in the UK compared to some European countries. I feel translated books can greatly enrich the Scottish and UK literary scene and spark better cultural understanding. What do you think?
We couldn’t agree more – that was the driving force behind our setting up Corylus Books. We focus particularly on crime fiction with a social edge, because crime novels are a great way to discover a particular society, off the beaten tourist track. Who doesn’t like to travel to an unfamiliar location (while still safe and warm in our armchairs) and discover new sights, smells, sounds, festivals, cultural beliefs, definitions of crimes and ways of dealing with criminals?
LF: Two of your Icelandic authors, Solveig Palsdottir and Óskar Guðmundsson, will be on a panel at this year’s event. What role do festivals, such as Granite Noir, play for authors in terms of getting more widely known, interaction with their readers etc.?
Literary festivals are so vital for introducing us to new authors, particularly authors who come from abroad and are less likely to appear at a local library or bookshop near you. Solveig and Oskar had been invited to Granite Noir and to Newcastle Noir before Covid and before they were translated into English, and the audience who heard them speak then were their first fans, very eager to read their books when they finally came out. Based on my own experience, as soon as I find a very interesting and likable author on a panel at a literary festival, I end up buying their books and looking up everything else that they’ve written.
Corylus Books authors Solveig Palsdottir and Óskar Guðmundsson will be appearing on the Icelandic Noir panel on Saturday 24 February 2024 at The Lemon Tree, tickets here.
Life Is A Festival! 