Barry Graham

I am a fiction-writer, poet, essayist and Zen Buddhist monk, the author of more than a dozen books, most of which have been translated into French. My novel The Book of Man was chosen as a best book of the year by the American Library Association. In 2021, I was awarded the Prix Marianne for the French translation of my 1991 novel The Champion's New Clothes. 

I lead writing workshops in schools and prisons, and give performances in which I recite sections of my novels from memory. I also teach the practice of Kado (The Way of Poetry), with writing as a method of Zen meditation. I have a PVG.

I lived for 22 years in the USA, where I witnessed two executions, at the invitation of the men who were to be killed, an experience described in my book Why I Watch People Die. I returned home to Scotland in response to the election of Donald Trump, and now live in Maryhill, Glasgow, where I was born and grew up.

Barry Graham is a pen name.

(Photo credit: daishin stephenson)