Byres Road Book Festival at Hillhead Library – Damain Barr & Michael Pederson On Maggie, Men & All Things Mooshy

Award winning writers, Damian Barr and Michael Pedersen talk masculinity and the male tenderness that punctuates their writing (and the writing they love). Together the pair will take a deep-dive into Damian’s memoir Maggie & Me, and the journey of adapting it for stage with National Theatre of Scotland. As well as reflecting on Pedersen’s own memoir, Boy Friends, they’ll discuss Damian’s journey into writing and what the future holds for them both.

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Damian Barr is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. His memoir, Maggie & Me, won Stonewall Writer of the Year and Sunday Times Memoir of the Year. It is a Scottish classic. His debut novel, You Will Be Safe Here, was a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and Book of the Year in the Observer, Guardian and Mail. He’s written columns for The Times and Big Issue and hosted series for Radio 4 including Guide Books and Whose Truth Is It Anyway? He has written several plays for radio. In 2019, Damian brought books back to television with the BBC’s Big Scottish Book Club, now in its fifth series. His legendary Literary Salon ran from 2008-2023, widening the cultural conversation. Damian holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a trustee of Gladstone’s Library and a campaigner for libraries. He was born in Bellshill.

Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, and the Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University. His poetic prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022 to rave reviews — it was a Sunday Times Critics Choice and shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction at Scotland's National Book Awards. The Cat Prince & Other Poems (Corsair/Little Brown), his third collection, won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry 2023. Pedersen has also been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has been praised by the likes of Stephen Fry, Sara Pascoe, Nicola Sturgeon, Irvine Welsh, Jackie Kay, Alan Cumming & many other fine minds.