Don't. Even. Ask. Too. Hot.

New Writing Scotland #42

by Kirstin Innes (Editor), Chris Powici (Editor), Niall O'Gallagher (Editor)

New Writing Scotland is the principal forum for poetry and short fiction in Scotland today. Every year it publishes the very best from both emerging and established writers, and lists many of the leading literary lights of Scotland among its past (and present) contributors.

Don’t. Even. Ask. Too. Hot: New Writing Scotland 42 is the latest collection of excellent contemporary literature, drawn from a wide cross-section of Scottish culture and society, and includes new work from forty-nine authors – some internationally renowned, and some just beginning their careers.

Contents

Shasta Hanif Ali . . . . . How to get eggs off your windows (following a racist incident)
Henry Bell . . . . . An Obvious Secret
C. D. Boyland . . . . . Saint Sebastian
Colin Bramwell . . . . . Devotional Music
Eve Brandon . . . . . Bog Body, Again
Nathan Breakenridge . . . . . Frank
Nathaniel Cairney . . . . . In which two magpies realise they are not alone
E. E. Chandler . . . . . Things You Left Me
Rachel Clive . . . . . I met your sister today
Claire Deans . . . . . Getting Rid of Gabriella
Lara Delmage . . . . . Crush / I don’t cry
Johana Egermayer . . . . . Àite nan Iomadh Loch
Graham Fulton . . . . . Do You Feel
Niamh Gordon . . . . . Food
Zoë Green . . . . . Leven Street
Lydia Harris . . . . . Robert Dick
Benjamin K. Herrington . . . . . Yo’ Momma
Michael Hopcroft . . . . . Echoes from Calder Glen
Ellis Jamieson . . . . . Stolon
Ioulia Kolovou . . . . . [A Bilingual Dictionary of Loss & Mourning Weaved with Fragments from a Journal]
Ruby Lawrence . . . . . Moulting
Hannah Ledlie . . . . . Sleeper / The Embroidery
Kate McAllan . . . . . Gerry
Donnchadh MacCàba . . . . . Còig Mionaidean
Hayli McClain . . . . . In All its Moving Parts
Jennifer McCormack . . . . . Always, Something is Lost
Rowan MacDonald . . . . . 23 Club
Crìsdean MacIlleBhàin . . . . . Litrichean nan Leughadair
Carol McKay . . . . . Watching Orion While You Sleep / Pawn
Gordon Mackie . . . . . We Waste Away Like Something Rotten
Jane McKie . . . . . When we stay by the sea we drink only White Star
Iain MacRath . . . . . Dheigheadh sinn a dh’iasgach
Luke Mackle . . . . . Carluke
Emily Munro . . . . . Frog vs. Prince / To start a fire
Donald S. Murray . . . . . Tales of a Cosmic-Crofter
Sindhu Rajasekaran . . . . . unreal love/r(s)
Martin Raymond . . . . . The Path
Aimee Elizabeth Skelton . . . . . Across the Inner Sound
George Smith . . . . . Wild Flowers
Morag Smith . . . . . Renaissance Bat
Caitlin Stobie . . . . . Deep Dive
Tia Thomson . . . . . Thus’ air mo chuimhne
John Tinneny . . . . . 923 / A Riddle
Jacques Tsiantar . . . . . Fruits of the Sea
Claire Urquhart . . . . . Dipper / Exchange
Lynn Valentine . . . . . Midnight, Midsummer, Croft na Creich / St Kilda Crossing
Lorna J. Waite . . . . . Wee Mercury
Catherine Wilson Garry . . . . . Besom
Ania Zolkiewska . . . . . Shrapnel from Kharkiv

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2024

About the author

Kirstin Innes is an award-winning journalist and arts worker who lives in the west of Scotland. Fishnet, her debut novel, was published in April 2015 by Freight, and won The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. Her short stories have been published in a number of anthologies and recorded for BBC Radio 4, and she's had short plays performed at Tron Theatre and The Arches in Glasgow. Her journalism has been published in The Independent, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and The Herald, and she was assistant editor of The List magazine between 2006-2010. Kirstin won the Allen Wright Award for Excellence in Arts Journalism in 2007 and 2011.
She's currently working on her second novel, Scabby Queen, and her first full-length play, Take Your Partners.

Reviews

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good collection of Scottish writing. I enjoyed all the different forms and all the poetry; read over two days while visiting Chicago. Excellent poetry and shot form writing for travel or for the coffee table at home.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, and there were a couple of short stories that were fantastic, but on the whole most didn't capture me.