A Writer’s Tale

James Kelman was born in Glasgow, June 1946, and left school in 1961, began work in the printing trade. He then emigrated to USA, returned a year later. He moved around, working in various jobs in various places. Kelman was living in England when he started writing: ramblings, musings, sundry phantasmagoria, stories; whatever, he committed to it and kept at it. In 1969 Kelman met and married Marie Connors from South Wales. They settled in Glasgow. Since then Kelman has existed as a writer, father and grandfather, supported by the same lady. They still live in Glasgow, not far from their kids and grandkids; and he still plugs away at the ramblings, musings, politicking and so on. Sláinte. Follow him on Twitter here.

Anita Nair is the author of the novels The Better Man, Ladies Coupé, Mistress, Lessons in Forgetting, Idris: Keeper of the Light, Alphabet Soup for Lovers and Eating Wasps. She has also authored a crime series featuring Inspector Gowda.

Nair’s other books include a collection of poems titled Malabar Mind, a collection of essays titled Goodnight & God Bless and six books for children. She has translated into English T.S.Pillai’s Malayalam cult classic Chemmeen. She has also edited a book of writings on Kerala titled Where the Rain is Born.

Nair has also written two plays and the screenplay for the movie adaptation of her novel Lessons in Forgetting which was part of the Indian Panorama at IFFI 2012 and won the National Film Award in 2013. Among other awards, she was also given the Central Sahitya Akademi award and the Crossword Prize. Her books have been translated into over thirty two languages around the world.

She is the founder of the creative writing mentorship program Anita’s Attic. She is also a High Profile Supporter of the UNHCR.