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Ken MacLeod

All of the information on this page has been provided by the author. If you need an author to have specialist skills, experience or knowledge please ask for more information about this ahead of booking them for an event. Please note that Scottish Book Trust cannot carry out Disclosure checks on Live Literature authors for most events. It is the responsibility of the person organising the event to carry out the appropriate Disclosure checks.
Contact: [email protected]
Local authority: Inverclyde
Languages: English
Ken MacLeod's headshot

Ken MacLeod is the author of seventeen science fiction novels, four novellas, over thirty short stories, and a few poems. His work has been widely translated and ranges from near-future dystopia to far-flung space opera, drawing on his first-hand knowledge of biological science, information technology, and political activism. An experienced speaker, event chair and organiser, he has given talks, workshops and readings at public events, libraries, universities and schools.

He has written for The Guardian, Sunday Herald, Morning Star, Aeon, New Scientist, BBC Focus Magazine, The Bottle Imp, Foundation, Overland and other print and online publications. He edited and introduced the Scottish Poetry Library's Best Scottish Poetry 2015. In 2014 he edited and introduced a collection of poetry by Iain Banks.

He was Writer in Residence on the MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier University, and has taught science fiction writing at Moniack Mhor in Scotland, Arvon in England and Clarion West in the US.

He has been a featured author, speaker or event chair at book festivals including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Wigtown Book Festival, Booked, the Cheltenham Literary Festival, and AyeWrite! In 2017 he curated the science fiction strand at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

(Photo credit: David Bishop)

Local authorities will visit

Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; Edinburgh City; Falkirk; Fife; Glasgow City; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian

Events will deliver

Mentoring; Panel event; Reading; Residency; Talk; Workshop; Chairing events

Topics of work

Activism & protest; Class & society; Fantasy; Politics; Science; Science fiction

Age groups published for

Teens; Adults

Age groups will work with

12-14; 15-18; 18+

Audience size

0-10; 11-30; 31-100; 100-500; 500+