Latest news with #MichaelPedersen
Scotsman
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Michael Pedersen and Gemma Cairney to host The List Festival Awards 2025
Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen and broadcaster and producer Gemma Cairney will host The List Festival Awards 2025, following a highly successful inaugural ceremony in 2024. The art and culture publication's second annual Festival Awards will return to the stunning Johnnie Walker Princes Street's Label Studio to shine a light on the rich array of art, book, film, fringe and international festivals taking place in the city every summer. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Designed to cover the breadth of cultural offerings during the most exciting festival month of the arts calendar, The List will pay tribute to the artists who make this very special programme an actuality. The awards ceremony is in partnership with Johnnie Walker Princes Street. No stranger to awards ceremonies, prize-winning poet Michael Pedersen is the Writer In Residence at The University Of Edinburgh and was named the new Edinburgh Makar in 2024. His 2022 debut prose Boy Friends was a Sunday Times Critics' Choice and was shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction Book at Scotland's National Book Awards. Pedersen is also a recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and is the co-founder of the literary production house Neu! Reekie!. Broadcaster and writer Gemma Cairney is best known for her work with BBC Radio 6 Music, where she interviewed cultural icons like Tracey Emin, Kelley Deal, and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Currently based in Scotland, Cairney is on the board of the Jupiter Arland Foundation and has been the chair of Edinburgh Art Festival since 2022. Following the publication of her first book in 2017, Cairney is currently working on her second novel The Immortal Sisterhood which is due to be published next year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The List Festival Awards aim to support both Scottish and international arts and talent across all festivals, with each of the 12 winners to receive a cash award of at least £500. Two of these winners will head to the SoHo Playhouse in New York to perform their show. The awards are hosted in partnership with Johnnie Walker Princes Street and additional award supporters include Set! Productions, Edinburgh Marriott Hotel, LNER, Ghost Light Theatre, Pure Life Plus, The Pitt, Data Thistle, Adelaide Fringe, SoHo Playhouse, and Sit Up Awards. Michael Pedersen The publication's 40th anniversary year will see the inclusion of four new awards to further spotlight the range of talent the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has to offer. The categories for The List Festival Awards 2025 are: ART - Best rising Scottish artist BOOKS - Best rising Scottish author FILM - Best Scottish film FRINGE – Dance FRINGE – Comedy FRINGE - Kids FRINGE - LGBTQIA+ FRINGE - International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize FRINGE - Sit-Up Award for best production with a social impact FRINGE - Best show from Adelaide FRINGE - Spirit Of The Fringe Award INTERNATIONAL - Best show With a year-round monthly magazine (weekly during the festival) and an extensive digital platform, The List publishes and distributes information on events and entertainment and is a must-read for finding out what's on. The List reviews approximately 400 shows across the summer festivals offering some of the most engaging and extensive content for audiences. Gemma Cairney Brian Donaldson, Editor of The List, comments, We struck gold last year with Zara Janjua and Mark Nelson as our inaugural awards-hosting double act, and the challenge was in trying to follow that. We feel very fortunate to have secured another dream team in Gemma Cairney and Michael Pedersen, both erudite, enthusiastic, informed and witty commentators and practitioners in their own fields and beyond. Getting the perfect hosts is half the battle in producing a successful awards ceremony and we can't wait to see Gemma and Michael helping us celebrate all our winners and nominees.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- BBC News
HMP Northumberland prisoner stabbed in 'power balance' attack
An inmate was stabbed in a prison gang attack involving a shiv, tin in a sock and pool balls, a court has victim and his cellmate were set upon by a large group in HMP Northumberland in November 2022, Newcastle Crown Court five minute-long attack was part of a "power balance" struggle amid allegations of bullying, the court was of those involved have been sentenced after admitting violent disorder. A group of inmates stormed the cell of the victim and another man on 20 November 2022, prosecutor Daniel Ingham actually happened in the cell is unknown as there were no CCTV cameras and the victims had made no statements, the court heard, but it is understood both men were attacked as prison officers ran to the scene. 'Shiv in toilet' The victim managed to get out into the corridor, throwing pool balls at his attackers to make them back off before he was tackled to the ground and set upon, the court incident ended after the man managed to break free and hurl more pool balls at his attackers, the court victim received multiple stab wounds to his back and a cut above his eye, Mr Ingham said, but it was not known who inflicted the injuries.A shiv, which the court heard was prison slang for a "handmade sharp-bladed article", was found in the victim's toilets but no forensic evidence could be retrieved from Harrington, 32, Michael Pedersen, 33, Ryan O'Connor, 34 and Carl Burton, 23, all admitted being was seen holding an item in a sock, later said to be a tin, on the prison cameras, the court heard. Harrington, of Hollington Close in Newcastle, also admitted wounding a man outside a pub in North Shields, North Tyneside, on 19 court heard he repeatedly punched the victim and posted a gloating video of himself throttling the blood-covered victim on social was in HMP Northumberland in 2022 having been jailed for 10 years in 2015 for breaking into a man's house and stabbing him in the stomach, the court who is still a serving prisoner, was doing a 20-week jail term for assaulting an emergency worker and racially aggravated harassment, while O'Connor had been jailed for 16 years in 2021 for drug offences, the court of Manners Gardens in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, was on prison recall at the time having been jailed for 30 months for assaulting an emergency worker, assault and criminal damage in 2020. 'Frightening attack' In mitigation, lawyers for the men said there had been a spate of bullying incidents carried out by the victim and his Wilberforce, representing Burton, said the attack was "essentially a backlash" to "redress the power balance" on the Hedworth, for O'Connor, said he was surprised to be prosecuted for the attack, having believed he had already been punished by being put in segregation for 28 days and had various privileges revoked. Judge Edward Bindloss said it was a "frightening" incident for other prisoners and officers to have to deal and O'Connor were both jailed for 23 months to run alongside their existing serving was jailed for the same period, which was suspended for two years and he must carry out 200 hours' unpaid who the judge said posed a "high risk" to others, was jailed for a total of four years and eight other men will be sentenced on future dates for their involvement. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Scotsman
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Michael Pedersen and Gemma Cairney to host The List Festival Awards 2025
Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen and broadcaster and producer Gemma Cairney will host The List Festival Awards 2025, following a highly successful inaugural ceremony in 2024. The art and culture publication's second annual Festival Awards will return to the stunning Johnnie Walker Princes Street's Label Studio to shine a light on the rich array of art, book, film, fringe and international festivals taking place in the city every summer. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Designed to cover the breadth of cultural offerings during the most exciting festival month of the arts calendar, The List will pay tribute to the artists who make this very special programme an actuality. The awards ceremony is in partnership with Johnnie Walker Princes Street. No stranger to awards ceremonies, prize-winning poet Michael Pedersen is the Writer In Residence at The University Of Edinburgh and was named the new Edinburgh Makar in 2024. His 2022 debut prose Boy Friends was a Sunday Times Critics' Choice and was shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction Book at Scotland's National Book Awards. Pedersen is also a recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and is the co-founder of the literary production house Neu! Reekie!. Broadcaster and writer Gemma Cairney is best known for her work with BBC Radio 6 Music, where she interviewed cultural icons like Tracey Emin, Kelley Deal, and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Currently based in Scotland, Cairney is on the board of the Jupiter Arland Foundation and has been the chair of Edinburgh Art Festival since 2022. Following the publication of her first book in 2017, Cairney is currently working on her second novel The Immortal Sisterhood which is due to be published next year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The List Festival Awards aim to support both Scottish and international arts and talent across all festivals, with each of the 12 winners to receive a cash award of at least £500. Two of these winners will head to the SoHo Playhouse in New York to perform their show. The awards are hosted in partnership with Johnnie Walker Princes Street and additional award supporters include Set! Productions, Edinburgh Marriott Hotel, LNER, Ghost Light Theatre, Pure Life Plus, The Pitt, Data Thistle, Adelaide Fringe, SoHo Playhouse, and Sit Up Awards. Gemma Cairney The publication's 40th anniversary year will see the inclusion of four new awards to further spotlight the range of talent the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has to offer. The categories for The List Festival Awards 2025 are: ART - Best rising Scottish artist BOOKS - Best rising Scottish author FILM - Best Scottish film FRINGE – Dance FRINGE – Comedy FRINGE - Kids FRINGE - LGBTQIA+ FRINGE - International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize FRINGE - Sit-Up Award for best production with a social impact FRINGE - Best show from Adelaide FRINGE - Spirit Of The Fringe Award INTERNATIONAL - Best show With a year-round monthly magazine (weekly during the festival) and an extensive digital platform, The List publishes and distributes information on events and entertainment and is a must-read for finding out what's on. The List reviews approximately 400 shows across the summer festivals offering some of the most engaging and extensive content for audiences. Michael Pedersen
Irish Times
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen: Island life in a mythical world
Muckle Flugga Author : Michael Pedersen ISBN-13 : 978-0571387724 Publisher : Faber & Faber Guideline Price : £16.99 This debut novel by award-winning poet Michael Pedersen tells the story of a lighthouse keeper and his son on the island of Muckle Flugga, the northernmost inhabited point of these islands. Although a real island, the novel offers mythic versions of both Muckle Flugga and the Edinburgh of our other protagonist, Firth. In the world of Muckle Flugga, people are writers and lighthouse keepers and candlemakers, and although the real world provides a framework, it's easy to forget once immersed in the novel's lush landscapes. Pedersen's linguistic register encompasses both high drama and whimsy, and he excels at immersing us in the vivid seascapes of the island and its surroundings. The plot tracks the redemptive connection that blossoms between Ouse, the solitary but inspired lighthouse keeper's son, and Firth, the despairing and morally compromised writer who visits the island to fulfil a childhood dream before a planned suicide. The lighthouse keeper, known only as The Father, casts a shadow over proceedings. He is a convincingly-drawn tyrant and although twisted by grief, we come to understand the man he once was. The island itself proves a magnetic character, infecting the dreamscapes of the characters in a manner reminiscent at times of The Magus by John Fowles . Here, the natural world is transcendently beautiful but charged with agency: 'The same stars that reflect dreamily in Muckle Flugga's windowpanes are those that send ships spinning in circles until the sea's ready to claim them…' READ MORE As a debut, there are quirks in the writing that can prove frustrating – it takes a number of chapters before the dialogue between the characters begins to flow, with the omniscient narrator often telling us things we might enjoy discovering through real-time interaction between the characters. The italicisation of the dialogue has a similarly distancing effect. Although the descriptions are lyrical, there are times when a sentence such as 'What's outside hits him like a flying hug from a fond face in a faraway place' suggests a preference for profusion over precision. However, this is a singular and ambitious debut, and those who enjoy a serving of fantasy with their literary fiction will find this an absorbing and immersive read.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen review – anything can happen on this remote Scottish island
Often thought of as the northernmost point of the British Isles, the Scottish island Muckle Flugga lies on the outer reaches of the Shetland archipelago. Norse legend has it that this craggy and almost uninhabitable place was created by two warring giants, obsessed with the same mermaid. While throwing boulders at each other, one of the rivalrous giants' missiles accidentally plopped into the sea: and so the island was born. A version of this mythic tussle is central to Michael Pedersen's debut novel. When the narrative opens, delivered in a lively present tense sprinkled with Scots, The Father and his 19-year-old son Ouse are the only residents on the island. The Father mans Muckle's lighthouse, and is as volatile as the waves he illuminates. A gossip from a neighbouring island describes him as irascible, with 'a viper in his throat and … a broken soldier's thirst for whisky'. Ouse, meanwhile, is 'a queer sort' 'who sounds as if he's been sooking helium out of party balloons … always staring off into the distance'. He's famed in the area for being an 'artiste', a dab hand at needlework with a reputation for producing beautiful handmade textiles. What unites father and son is that they take their stewardship of the island seriously. They are devoted to the extraordinarily various wildlife – puffins, gannets, sea otters, peacock butterflies – and hypnotised by the thrillingly chimeric weather. Unspoken grief for The Mother, who drowned two years before the story begins, also binds the two together. The Father assumes his only heir will eventually take over the family business. Enter Firth, a foppish twentysomething failed writer from Edinburgh with griefs of his own. Racked with self-loathing, he has vowed to kill himself after fulfilling a promise: to visit the enchanted isle of Muckle Flugga, much loved by his late grandfather. Almost as soon as he arrives, Firth is entranced by Ouse's mercurial demeanour, as he parses landscapes and seascapes alien to Firth's urban eyes. Firth is struck, too, by the blazing potential of Ouse's artistic talent. He wants to whisk him away to the mainland and make him a star. Thus begins the tug of war for Ouse's allegiance: The Father, familiarity and tradition yank one way, but Firth, possibility and the seductive unknown pull just as hard. This perhaps presents the plot as neat and fairly recognisable: a narrative of masculine archetypes vying for one-upmanship, with notes of The Tempest. But Pedersen introduces wild cards – spooky visions of religious zealots, a pumpkin-punching contest – that emphasise the strangeness of this remote place, so far away from the norms of the mainland that anything might be possible. Significant among these zany additions is the ghost of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson – who came from a family of lighthouse engineers – acts as imaginary friend and confidant to Ouse. He counsels Ouse for his maternal loss and guides him through the decision about where his future might lie. Pedersen threads the apparition's dialogue with aphorisms from the real Stevenson's work and correspondence. The novel's most memorable feature, and perhaps most potentially divisive one, is its loudness. The characterisation of the villainous but vulnerable father, of the hapless city type and of the ethereal innocent is bold and broad – sometimes cartoonish. The setting, rich with images of the aurora borealis and storm-lashed shores, is almost psychedelic. But the narrative voice is loudest of all: constantly baroque, with the linguistic and emotional dials turned up high. Firth receives an unexpected letter, and the missive is 'a Pandora's box, a bete noire, a curse, a lifeline, an arch nemesis, a fairy godmother … a gift from the gods'. A flurry of snow after an exchange between the protagonists is 'a divine offering, the impetus for reconciliation under the auspices of a natural phenomenon'. Pedersen is known as a poet, and his wonder at the magic of language is evident in this self-consciously high style. In places, the linguistic busyness occludes the plot's more interesting undertones: the queer desire between Ouse and Firth, considerations about our place in and responsibilities to the natural world. But there is, ultimately, something immensely charming about this novel. It is weird, rambunctious and repeatedly demands the reader surrender to its particular wildness. Its generosity of spirit, its unrestrained warmth and humour – the brilliantly kinetic description of a surprise ceilidh is a case in point – steadily worked away at my scepticism. Like Ouse's flamboyant designs, inspired by the spectacular landscape around him, it is 'garishly alive'. Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen is published by Faber (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
