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asls.org.uk
Association for Scottish Literature
@asls.org.uk
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Educational charity promoting the reading, writing, teaching & study of Scotland's literature & languages, past & present.

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asls.org.uk
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · Aug 27
A CHAOS OF LIGHT
New Writing Scotland 43
Ed. Kirstin Innes, Chris Powici & Niall O’Gallagher

“writing that unsettles and challenges, that questions assumptions…A rich, boisterous, tender, charming, angry, sorrowful, gleeful mix”

Available now from all good bookshops!
💙📚
asls.org.uk/publications...
New Writing Scotland 43
Edited by Kirstin Innes, Chris Powici & Niall O’Gallagher Published in: Paperback, 184 pages By: Association for Scottish Literature, Glasgow, August 2025 Price: £9.95 ISBN: 9781906841669 Cover image…
asls.org.uk
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
scottishbooktrust.bsky.social
Every child deserves the magic of books. ✨📚 But for too many families this winter, books will feel like a luxury they can't afford.

Donate to our Christmas Appeal today to give the magic of books to children and families accessing food banks this festive season. 🎄
Scottish Book Trust
We are a national charity bringing the benefits of reading and writing to everyone in Scotland.
www.scottishbooktrust.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
pictcon.bsky.social
We are a mere 8 members away from our target of 50 by Monday (when I pay the deposit). PictCon2: A Scottish sf & fantasy convention about sf and fantasy in Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 17th October 2026, Perth, with Guest of honour, editor & writer, Neil Williamson. Tickets at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pictcon2-t...
PictCon2
A Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention for everyone who reads, writes and watches.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
asls.org.uk
Norman MacCaig (1910–1996) was born #OTD, 14 November. A self-described “Zen Calvinist”, when asked how long it took him to write a poem he would reply “one cigarette – or two for a long one”

A 🎂🧵

“Toad”
THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
#poem #poetry
1/12
birlinn.co.uk/product/the-...
Toad by Norman MacCaig Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse squeeze under the rickety door and sit, full of satisfaction, in a man’s house? You clamber towards me on your four corners – right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot. I love you for being a toad, for crawling like a Japanese wrestler, and for not being frightened. I put you in my purse hand, not shutting it, and set you down outside directly under every star. A jewel in your head? Toad, you’ve put one in mine, a tiny radiance in a dark place.
November 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
thebooktrail.bsky.social
I am currently in the whirlpool of emotions that is the Hidden Books Game. If I do not resurface in a few days, could someone rescue me please?
nationalbooktokens.bsky.social National Book Tokens @nationalbooktokens.bsky.social · 1d
Booklovers, your favourite game is back! 📚🔎

Guess all 20 books in the #HiddenBooksGame and you could win a £500/€500 National Book Token to spend in your local bookshop (the best gift ever, in our opinion).

Play now: buff.ly/460M0aR
An illustration of this year's game. Text says: "Hidden Books Game is BACK! Play at nationalbooktokens.com" and "Win £500 to spend on books".
November 14, 2025 at 12:23 PM
asls.org.uk
Some say that we wan, and some say that they wan,
And some say that nane wan at a’, man
But of ae thing I’m sure, that on Sheriff-muir
A battle there was that I saw, man.

—The battle was re-enacted earlier today using chickens & police, with the same result
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 13, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
jennscott1485.bsky.social
OTD in 1715 the battle of Sheriffmuir was fought between the government army led by Argyll against the Jacobites led by the somewhat ineffectual Mar. Both sides claimed victory.
The first question on your lips is but what were they wearing?
I can help with that - www.helion.co.uk/military-his...
Covers of I am Minded to Rise by Jenn Scott which covers the clothes and weapons of the Jacobites at Sheriffmuir Buy here https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/i-am-minded-to-rise-the-clothing-weapons-and-accoutrements-of-the-jacobites-in-scotland-1689-to-1719.php
November 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
asls.org.uk
Strange Tales
Three eerie stories of witches, warlocks, & demonic pacts, by Robert Louis Stevenson – available as a free ebook

📙“Thrawn Janet”
📘“The Tale of Tod Lapraik”
📕“The Bottle Imp”

#RLSDay #gothic #horror 💙📚
asls.org.uk/publications...
Strange Tales
Introduction by Jeremy Hodges Scots glossaries by Pauline Cairns Speitel Published in: PDF, ePUB and mobipocket To mark Robert Louis Stevenson Day 2013, the Association for Scottish Literary Studies…
asls.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
asls.org.uk
“It is an RLS hallmark, the quicksilver evolution of thought and the fabular turn, the victory of original perception”

—Amdrew O’Hagan stays overnight in Robert Louis Stevenson’s childhood home, 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh – via @lrb.co.uk
#RLSDay 💙📚
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan · Diary: Stevenson in Edinburgh
Time passes more intensely in dreams. It is a Robert Louis Stevenson hallmark, the quicksilver evolution of thought...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
asls.org.uk
“In crime, as in all life, nothing is fixed or certain. Put another way, it is part of the mystery of being, which has its origin in religious faith, & Stevenson’s stories abound in mysteries”

🗡️ “A Lodging for the Night”
🪞 “Markheim”
💀 “The Body-Snatcher”

#RLSDay 💙📚
1/4
asls.org.uk/publications...
Sins and Follies
Available in: PDF or ePub “In crime, as in all life, nothing is fixed or certain. Put another way, it is part of the mystery of being, which has its origin in religious faith, and Stevenson’s stories…
asls.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
angryalgonquin.bsky.social
A great prompt from @asls.org.uk to tell you that if you haven't seen "The Body Snatcher (1945)" with Boris Karloff and Henry Daniell, then you've missed two of the greatest performances in film grave-robbing history. www.imdb.com/title/tt0037...
November 13, 2025 at 4:05 PM
asls.org.uk
Up the close an doon the stair
Ben the hoose wi Burke an Hare
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief
Knox the boy who buys the beef

—cheery wee 19th-century Edinburgh children’s skipping rhyme, about bodysnatching & murder
#FolkloreThursday #C19th
bodiesandacademia.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/t...
The afterlives of anatomical bodies: what museum collections can teach us about our past
‘Up the close and doon the stair,/ Ben the hoose wi’ Burke and Hare/ Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief,/ Knox the boy who buys the beef.’ This Scottish children’s rhyme has br…
bodiesandacademia.wordpress.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
edinburghbookshop.bsky.social
"There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps..."

Happy birthday to local lad, & one of our favourite storytellers, Robert Louis Stevenson (portrait by Nerli, in the National Galleries of Scotland collection)

#books #livres #RobertLouisStevenson #Edinburgh #Edimbourg
Nerli's 1892 portrait painting of Robert Louis Stevenson, relaxed, in open necked shirt, gazing at the viewer
November 13, 2025 at 3:47 PM
asls.org.uk
“Among the writers I have always read and, willy-nilly, have taken as a model is R. L. Stevenson”
—Italo Calvino

The Only Art is to Omit
Robert Louis Stevenson special issue (2012)
#RLSDay
1/6
www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2012/11/edit...
The Only Art is to Omit - The Bottle Imp
In this issue of The Bottle Imp, we celebrate the work—the art—of Robert Louis Stevenson. Why such focus on a single writer? Of course, we owe our very name to one of Stevenson’s South Sea stories, so...
www.thebottleimp.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
meghanclare.bsky.social
I really enjoyed the recent LRB Close Readings on RLS’s Kidnapped. Did not know Henry James was a big fan, as was Borges

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Novel Approaches: ‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Podcast Episode · Close Readings · 11/03/2025 · 1h 28m
podcasts.apple.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
gutenberg.org
#OTD in 1850 writer Robert Louis Stevenson was born.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Art of Living (and Dying)

"Trenton B. Olsen Explores How the Author Navigated a Lifetime of Chronic Illness"

lithub.com/robert-louis...

Stevenson at PG:

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...
Wood carving of Robert Louis Stevenson by Henry Wolf
November 13, 2025 at 1:48 PM
asls.org.uk
Robert Louis Stevenson’s FABLES – 20 short, flash, & microfiction masterpieces, including one where Long John Silver & Captain Smollett slip out between chapters for a smoke – are witty, graceful, sometimes eerie, & always beautiful. All can be downloaded free👇
#RLSDay 💙📚
asls.org.uk/publications...
Fables
Introduction by William Gray Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy with a frontispiece by Gwen Adair Published in: PDF, ePUB and mobipocket: “After the 32nd chapter of Treasure Island…
asls.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
asls.org.uk
“The sickness that once detached him from life had now made him greedy for experience… he accumulated several lifetimes worth of adventures”

—Trent B. Olsen on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Art of Living (& Dying), via @literaryhub.bsky.social
#RLSDay #C19th
lithub.com/robert-louis...
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Art of Living (and Dying)
On summer break from his university studies, a young Robert Louis Stevenson worked late into the night. He apprenticed in his family’s lighthouse engineering business but had no interest in the tra…
lithub.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
asls.org.uk
“Stevenson… could write his name on ice as readily as on paper, and could execute the most difficult figures with perfect grace and ease”

A loss to #FigureSkating was a gain to #Literature … Robert Louis Stevenson on ice at Saranac Lake
#RLSDay
www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/opinion/colu...
RLS on ice
“Walking over the fields, with a stick in his hand and his skates thrown over his shoulders, he looked and seemed his happiest.” — Bertha Baker, Saranac Lake Behind glass in Robert Louis Stevenson’s f...
www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
seeshespeak.bsky.social
It me, I’m the live bagpipe music at the Robert Louis Stevenson birthday celebration happening in Saranac Lake, NY next week.
Screenshot of article from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that reads, “most lively Stevenson Society event since the 1920s,” said Trenton Olsen, Society president and Stevenson scholar. New York Times bestselling author Tim Rowland will give a presentation titled “Treasure Island: The Unexpected Riches of the Stevenson Cottage and the Family who Saved Them.” The event will also feature a dramatic reading from Pendragon Theatre, live bagpipe music to honor the Scottish author, and toasts by Olsen, Historic Saranac Lake, and the Adirondack Center for Writing. Stevenson-themed refreshments will be served, including birthday cake, and RiverTrail Beerworks will provide Treasure Island Ale.”
November 7, 2025 at 12:24 AM
asls.org.uk
Am I really home? A Journey Through the Literary Voices of Italian Scottish Women
25 Nov, Edinburgh – free, ticketed

Four widely published Italian Scottish women writers will describe their diverse journeys of navigating, rooting, & belonging
iicedimburgo.esteri.it/en/gli_event...
Am I really home? A Journey Through the Literary Voices of Italian Scottish Women
Through storytelling poetry and prose, four widely published Italian Scottish women writers will describe their diverse journeys of navigating, rooting and belonging. This performance is inspired by t...
iicedimburgo.esteri.it
November 13, 2025 at 1:58 PM
asls.org.uk
“While I knew they developed a friendship, I didn’t realise just how much the friendship with Stevenson meant to Barrie”

—Michael Shaw brings together correspondence between two famous Scottish writers – via @booksfromscotland.bsky.social
#BookologyThursday 💙📚
booksfromscotland.com/2020/11/a-fr...
A Friendship in Letters - Books from Scotland
'I was struck by just how fun, playful and jesting Barrie was. And while I knew they developed a friendship, I didn’t realise just how much the friendship with Stevenson meant to Barrie.'
booksfromscotland.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Association for Scottish Literature
michaelpedersen.bsky.social
It’s Robert Louis Stevenson Day (this being his birthday). Here’s a wee snippet of the sublime Jack Lowden voicing the ghost of RLS in my novel Muckle Flugga. RLS serves as a life coach & confidant to the lighthouse keeper’s otherworldly son, Ouse.

MF by JL audiobook available everywhere 🎧 📚💛💜
November 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
asls.org.uk
Andrew O’Hagan & @moonjets.bsky.social on Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, & Bournemouth in this @lrb.co.uk podcast. When James first came to Skerryvore – RLS’s home, named for a Hebridean lighthouse – the maid mistook him for a carpet-fitter…
#RLSDay #C19
💙📚
www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
Podcast: Andrew O’Hagan and Thomas Jones · Semi-Recumbent in Bournemouth
www.lrb.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
asls.org.uk
“Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life”

Andrew O’Hagan’s 2020 novel MAYFLIES is a deeply touching story of male friendship & male fragility. O’Hagan discusses the book in this video from the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk
#BookologyThursday 💙📚
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESfi...
Andrew O’Hagan and Edmund Gordon: 'Mayflies'
YouTube video by London Review Bookshop
www.youtube.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:20 PM
asls.org.uk
Push the Boat Out 2025
20–23 Nov, Edinburgh

This year’s @ptbopoetry.bsky.social festival sets sail from 20–23 November with a bold mix of poetry, performance, music & art in a sparkling celebration of words in all their forms, with over 120 artists on board!
pushtheboatout.org/programme/
Programme - 2025 Push The Boat Out Festival
pushtheboatout.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:52 PM