13 November 2024
Prolific writer, Rodge Glass, will discuss his prize-winning biography Alasdair Gray; A Secretary’s Biography, and his recent work on the Alasdair Gray Archive. The talk will include mention of the Hollywood film of Gray’s novel, Poor Things, recently nominated for 11 Oscars. He will contrast writing this with writing his latest book Joshua in the Sky: A Blood Memoir (2024), a biography of his nephew who lived for one day in 2017, and with whom he shared a rare blood condition.
Rodge Glass: biography
Rodge Glass is an experienced editor, novelist, short story writer, biographer and academic, currently working at Strathclyde University, where he is the Convenor of the MLitt degree in Creative Writing.
His first novel No Fireworks (2005) was nominated for 4 major prizes including the Authors’ Club First Novel Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. This was followed by the tragic comedy Hope for Newborns in 2008 and soon after by Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography which won further widespread critical acclaim and a prestigious Somerset Maugham Award in 2009.
He co-authored a graphic novel A Soldier’s Story, and his most recent novel is Bring me the Head of Ryan Giggs.
Rodge has written collections of short stories, contributed to other publications, and in 2023, he was named the winner of the Anne Brown Essay Prize celebrating the best literary essay by a Scottish writer at the Wigtown Book Festival. Rodge’s detailed biography of writer Michel Faber: the Writer and His Work, also published in 2023, received warm endorsements from other writers, academics, and critics alike.
His next book, the memoir Joshua in the Sky was published in September 2024.
Rodge has written extensively for multiple publications, appeared on TV and radio, including Open Book, The One Show, and BBC2’s Edinburgh Nights, and appeared at numerous literary festivals in Scotland as well as international venues.
