Scottish Writers' Centre In Process Masterclass with Janet Paisley

Writer, poet, and playwright Janet Paisley writes for stage, television, radio, and screen. In this event, Paisley will share her diverse and extensive body of work in plays, poetry and stories about dealing with the truths of human behaviour, especially between men and women. She brings an unflinching eye, as well as an ability to move convincingly between pathos, satire, invective and even humour when looking at relationships as well as the darker subjects of sexual violence and abuse. In the outspoken nature and language of her work she stands alongside her Scottish contemporaries, Liz Lochhead, James Kelman, A.L. Kennedy, and Kathleen Jamie.

Janet Paisley was a member of the Working Party for a Scottish National Theatre, the SAC (Scots Language Synergy), and is the Cross Party Parliamentary Group for the Scots Language. She has held a variety of Creative Writing Fellowships, a Playwright’s Bursary, edited New Writing Scotland and co-ordinated the first Scottish PEN Women Writers Committee.

Paisley is a performer of her own work and appeared at Glasgow’s Mayfest in Bread & Circuses, The Killing of Women, Stick, Back to Basics and For Want of a Nail. Her first poetry collection, Pegasus in Flight, was published in 1989. Her play Refuge won the Peggy Ramsay Award (1996). Other plays include, Winding String, Deep Rising, straightjackets and her radio plays include, Curds and Cream, Diary of a Goth, and Silver Bullet. Paisley has also co-written plays with Graham McKenzie, Sooans Nict and the Radio comedy play, Bill and Koo.