Upcoming and past events for Rodge’s work and the works of others…
As well as taking part in events about his own books, Rodge is a regular Chair for events at book festivals in Scotland and beyond, as well as a facilitator of workshops and discussions. The events here start at the bottom, in February 2023. Scroll down for history. Upcoming events at the top.
2023 Events
September 22nd – Glasgow launch for Rodge’s new book Michel Faber (LUP, 2023), details tbc
September 14th – St. Duthac’s Book and Arts Festival: Event for Rodge’s book MICHEL FABER @ 19.30
Blurb: ‘Michel Faber lived in Ross-shire for twenty-five years, where he wrote many of his finest works. Perhaps the most celebrated of these is the Scottish contemporary classic Under the Skin (Canongate, 2000), whose landscape can be mapped closely onto that of Tain and Portmahomack, where Faber and his wife Eva lived at Tarrel Farm as he wrote this debut novel. Rodge Glass, award-winning author of Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography, comes to St. Duthac Book and Arts Festival to discuss Faber’s work and his connection to the landscape of this area. Including short readings from Faber’s work and discussion of Faber’s approach to compassionate storytelling, Glass will also explore how he developed a detailed, ongoing correspondence with Faber over several years of writing, while Faber shared unpublished work, photos from his personal archives and reflected on what unites his radically different stories.’
Tickets available from the St Duthac Book & Arts Festival here.
August 21st – Edinburgh International Book Festival: A Close Read – Rodge leads a workshop doing a deep dive into Michel Faber’s debut collection Some Rain Must Fall (details tbc)
August 20th – Launch of Rodge’s new book, MICHEL FABER: THE WRITER & HIS WORK at the EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL (12.30) – On stage with Michel Faber (one-off). Tickets available from 29th June 2023 here.
June 8th – Rodge in discussion at the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons (18.00-21.00), discussing Michel Faber’s book Undying: A Love Story, details tbc
prescription medical humanities writing group workshop at the College on 8th June
May 25th – WRITING REAL LIFE: Nonfiction workshop at Glasgow’s AYE WRITE! Book Festival in Glasgow, 10.00, Mitchell Library. Tickets available HERE
Blurb: ‘From autobiography to biography, history books to essay writing, nonfiction is more popular than ever and it holds so many possibilities for new writers. Drawing on examples from writers writing real life happening right here in Glasgow, this session will explore how we write the world around us using the fiction writer’s tools: characterization, narrative, structure.
Rodge Glass, Senior Lecturer the University of Strathclyde, also the award-winning biographer of Alasdair Gray and Michel Faber, runs this informal workshop which will support attendees to start writing about the real world.’
May 23rd – Rodge Chairs discussion of EVERYDAY HATE by DAVE RICH @ AYE WRITE! Book Festival in Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall, 18.00. Tickets HERE
Review of EVERYDAY HATE at The Guardian here.
Blurb: ‘Antisemitism is supposed to have disappeared long ago, but despite our abhorrence of racism and oppression in all its forms, this ancient prejudice continues to thrive. At a time of economic, political, and social turmoil, fuelled by conspiracy theories on your smartphone or conflict in the Middle East, antisemitism is back, and we need to know why. Blending personal anecdotes, contemporary examples and historical insights, Dave Rich’s Everyday Hate takes you on a journey through the contentious and often confusing subject of Antisemitism. Spanning Shakespeare to South Park, Israel to Covid-19 and ancient stereotypes to internet memes, it reveals surprising truths about how antisemitism continues to thrive in the interactions, assumptions, and views of decent people around the world – and how we can change this for the better.’
May 14th – SALLY MAGNUSSON: Rodge Chairs the broadcaster, journalist and novelist Sally Magnusson at the BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL. Tickets here.
‘This is my third novel, and it feels quite personal – not least because it was inspired in part by my own family history’
Blurb for MUSIC IN THE DARK:
‘Jamesina Ross, the heroine of Music in the Dark is a fictional character, but her subsequent life is based on that of Sally’s own great-grandmother, who was herself evicted from the Isle of Mull and had to make a life for herself in poverty in Glasgow and the neighbouring town of Rutherglen. Like her, Jamesina takes a lodger into her room-and-kitchen to make ends meet…..whereupon new, undreamed of possibilities begin to open up. As the night progresses, the couple discover that they are linked by a shared past; the eviction of Greenyards, Strathcarron in 1854 during the Highland Clearances.’ Sally Magnusson, best-selling author, journalist and broadcaster puts her focus on the lives of women who have historically been invisible, examining love in older age with searing honesty.
February 23rd – GRAY DAY 203. Rodge reads from and discusses the Alasdair Gray novel POOR THINGS. Alongside Chitra Ramaswamy, Muchael Pedersen, Bernard MacLaverty and Sorcha Dallas. Event curated by the Alasdair Gray Archive, with Canongate Books. SOLD OUT.
Rodge Glass 