donal mclaughlin
on & off the pageScotland: the edge is everywhere
SAMPARK (India) – The Scottish Issue
Donal’s Special Scottish Issue of the Indian journal SAMPARK appeared in India in September 2008. Entitled Scotland: the edge is everywhere, the 266-page issue consists of both Essays (one third) and Fiction & Poetry (two thirds).
Essays on various aspects of Scotland – politics, society, education, publishing, Scottish literature in translation & history – are provided by Neal Ascherson, Carol Craig, Jane Denholm, Lorraine Fannin, Tom Hubbard, Andrew Hunter and Tom Nairn.
There are short stories by Gavin Bowd, Des Dillon, Chris Dolan, Anne Donovan, Janice Galloway, James Kelman, Ciara MacLaverty, Donal McLaughlin, Duncan McLean, Dilys Rose, Suhayl Saadi, Ali Smith and Louise Welsh; and extracts from novels by Joan Lingard, Alasdair Gray, and Bernard Mac Laverty.
The poets included are: Gavin Bowd, Ken Cockburn, Robert Crawford, Matthew Fitt, Janice Galloway, Rody Gorman, Andrew Greig, David Kinloch, Tom Leonard, Anne Macleod, Kevin Macneil, Brian McCabe, James McGonigal, Gerry McGrath, Edwin Morgan, Donny O’Rourke, Tessa Ransford, Alan Spence, and Hamish Whyte.
The fiction & poetry is arranged thematically in sections headed:
Scotland, recalled
intimate expanses
the artist’s hand
disputed regions
Scotlands, plural
&
love in a changing environment.
The painter James Hawkins, whose studio is in Rhue, by Ullapool, provided the image for the cover. A photo essay is also included – based on a selection of images found when a search was conducted on www.scottishviewpoint.com, using the keyword COAST.
Donal’s introduction to the volume is entitled ‘On Writers and Writing I Wouldn’t Be Without’ – which, he trusts, is a recommendation!
Scotland – the edge is everywhere, SAMPARK, Vol. 10, Special Scottish Issue, guest edited by Donal McLaughlin (New Delhi / Calcutta 2008), 266pp.
ISSN 0974 5327
