3 days ago
Former Stirling student tipped to be next big thing in crime fiction
A Stirling University graduate is among five authors shortlisted for a prize at the city's Bloody Scotland crime writing festival later this year.
Stirling alumnus Natalie Jayne Clark, Foday Mannah, Claire Wilson, Richard Strachan and David Goodman will compete for the festival's Debut Prize, which honours new talent, in September.
Guest curator and Scottish crime writing legend Sir Ian Rankin told The Courier: 'The nice thing about Bloody Scotland is it welcomes new authors and emerging authors.
'All the writers who come here are fans – they all like other people's books. So, we all come along here as equals.'
Kathy Reichs, Jo Nesbo and The Reverend Richard Coles are among the big names on the bill for the autumn festival.
Now based in Perth, former University of Stirling English student Natalie joked: 'I've finally put my degree to good use.'
She was living in Stirling when Bloody Scotland first started and went along to some of its earliest events.
It was years later when she took part in the festival's Pitch Perfect competition, where writers pitch their crime novel idea to a roomful of agents and publishers, and her book was snapped up.
'I got a pre-emptive book deal and I got an agent within a week of pitching, which is crazy,' she said.
Last year, Edinburgh writer David benefitted from another Bloody Scotland initiative designed to boost new authors: Crime in the Spotlight.
'And I actually finished the first draft of this book at Bloody Scotland, before I handed it in to my editor, sitting in the cafe at the Albert Halls,' he revealed.
David remembers thinking it would be nice if his novel was stocked on the shelves at the Stirling arts venue one day. A year later, it was.
Brought up in Sierra Leone in Africa, Foday now works as a high school teacher in West Lothian.
He took part in the Pitch Perfect competition in 2022 but was unsuccessful. However, he stuck by his idea and later won the Mo Siewcharran Prize.
Foday told The Courier: 'You rarely see crime novels get the recognition they deserve.
'Bloody Scotland stands out in the sense that it provides a platform and it creates a situation where there's a spotlight on crime fiction.'
The Edinburgh-based author who was born in Stirling says he feels like 'a bit of an interloper' at the crime writing festival.
'My book has a mystery element, but the mystery is more something that comes out of legends and landscape and folklore,' he explained.
'But I guess part of what Bloody Scotland is doing is trying to expand the parameters of what counts as crime.'
Claire from Stirlingshire has been involved in both the Pitch Perfect and Crime in the Spotlight arms of Bloody Scotland in the past.
First and foremost, though, she considers herself a fan.
'I've come to Bloody Scotland for over 10 years,' she said.
'It's my favourite weekend of the year and right on my doorstep.
'People don't think of places outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
'I mean, we've got Linwood Barclay in Stirling today – that's amazing.'
