Book Festival: Rodge Glass introducs some friends

A collection of short stories from new, previously unpublished writers, The Year of Open Doors seeks to exhibit some of Scotland’s untapped literary talent. With 11 young writers getting a chance to flaunt their skills, the book’s editor Rodge Glass, Writer in Residence at Strathclyde University, hopes it will provide a snapshot of life in Scotland in 2010.

One of the contributors, amiable first-time writer Doug Johnstone explained that the diversity of the strories was what brought them together. “It’s not just White, middle class guys” that contribute to the book, he said, but people from a wide variety of different backgrounds.

The small crowd meant that few got to hear the three readings which preceded the Q&A. Starting off, Johnstone read an engaging extract from his short story Playground Rules. It follows a guilty, haunted father as he takes his son through a playground for his first day of school. It slowly emerges that only months ago his pregnant wife was killed in a car accident. Johnstone’s naturalistic use of language echoes much of contemporary Scottish literature, and stands up well in relation to it.

Next up was Micaela Maftei, whose story Where Things Are Happening depicted the alienation and melancholy of a North American student studying in Britain. She manages to get the attitudes of many who “treat Glasgow as a personality trait” just right.

Coming in with a cumbersome title, Kevin MacNeil’s When A Snake Drinks Water It Makes Poison, When A Cow Drinks Water It Makes Milk provided a eye-witness view of the Asian tsunami, along with a heavy dose of philosophical musings on the meaning of life and death. In a slightly meandering introduction, he also described the collection of stories as being the first to sum up his generation of writers.

While The Year of Open Doors is certainly far from being as polished as other book festival offerings, it provides a much needed outlet for up-and-coming Scottish writers.