Mark Fleming

I’ve organised events across Scotland, from community groups and schools to prisons. I was writer-in-residence at Kirkcaldy High School from 2018-19, where I discovered young writers with far more creative ideas than I had at their age.

I've chaired writing workshops at COMAS in Edinburgh (individuals with experience of substance abuse and other issues), the Simon Community in Glasgow and the Bethany Trust in Aberdeen (homeless groups). I’ve also organised events at Leith Community Centre under the banner 'Wordsmiths'. 

My short stories have been published in The Big Issue in Scotland, Cutting Teeth (Castlemilk Writers Workshop), football fanzines, The Leither, pulp.net, LauraHird.com, Flamingo Scottish Short Stories (HarperCollins 1995), The Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction (Picador 1997), Shorts: the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Collection (Polygon 1998) and 404 Ink: Space (2019).

My first novel, BrainBomb was a semi-autobiographical account of bipolar disorder, set against Edinburgh’s post-punk scene. After being sectioned twice in my 20s, creative writing was important to my rehabilitation. I’ve written for the Scottish Association for Mental Health and performed extracts from my work at at the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe.